System and method for controlling a multi-function cooking device

Abstract

A control system, method and computer program product for controlling a multi-function cooking device master and at least one multi-function cooking device slave for jointly processing one or more food products. The control system has a recipe program interface to receive at least one recipe program for preparing one or more food products, wherein the at least one recipe program includes machine-readable recipe program instructions configured to control functions of the cooking device according to the at least one recipe program for performing food processing steps, and for each food processing step, the recipe program provides information about the process performance required for performing the food processing step. A program analyzer module identifies, for a specific food processing step, at least one specific slave device that provides a reduced range of functions, whose process performance is sufficient to perform the specific food processing step, and extracts a partition including a subset of program instructions associated with the specific food processing step from the at least one recipe program.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates generally to cooking appliances and, more particularly, to operating a plurality of cooking appliances having different functional ranges based on a master recipe program. Background Art

[0002] Cooking devices (cooking apparatuses) have become increasingly intelligent in the recent past by integrating multiple functions into the cooking apparatus. For example, modern cooking apparatuses integrate functions such as heating, mixing, boiling, pureeing, etc. in a single multifunctional cooking apparatus. Cooking apparatuses generally must be operated with appropriate technical parameter settings (e.g., temperature settings, rotation speed settings, etc.) to ensure proper operation. Proper operation of a cooking apparatus as used hereinafter refers to correct, safe, and / or secure operation for producing reproducible cooking results by the cooking apparatus with respect to a particular food product.

[0003] Typically, the functions of such multifunctional cooking devices are controlled by one or more recipe programs having instructions to be executed in sequence to achieve the prepared food or menu. Typically, a recipe program is loaded into the cooking device for preparing a certain dish of the menu, and the dish is prepared by processing a separate recipe program in a corresponding sequence. However, a recipe program may also include program instructions related to food processing steps for two or more dishes (or a whole menu). Food produced from such complex food processing steps is referred to herein as complex food.

[0004] Typically, a multifunctional cooking device has an interface for receiving cooking utensils, which is equipped with at least one of a temperature control element and a torque and rotation transmission element. In the torque and rotation transmission element, the torque and the rotation speed can be changed independently. For example, when stirring soup, a low rotation speed and a low torque are required. However, when kneading dough, a low rotation speed but a high torque is required. Sometimes, the torque and rotation transmission element is implemented by a so-called heating and stirring element. Sometimes, multiple utensils are used in the case of preparing meals, wherein of course, only one utensil can be installed to the cooking device at a time. That is, even in the case where multiple utensils (bowls) are available, only sequential processing of recipe instructions is possible. However, using more than one utensil with a cooking device according to a predefined recipe program can lead to a less efficient food processing method, with interruptions caused by the exchange of utensils. Therefore, there is a desire to improve the efficiency of food processing involving multifunctional cooking devices. Summary of the invention

[0005] Additional cooking devices can be used to parallelize the execution of certain food processing steps. However, multifunctional cooking devices are typically complex devices that provide many high-performance cooking functions, but they also require a large number of safety features to ensure the safety of the cooking user when operating the device. On the other hand, many food processing steps do not use the high-performance cooking functions of the cooking device at all. Users typically resist operating multiple multifunctional high-performance cooking devices in parallel and accept the resulting food processing inefficiencies that occur, especially when preparing complex foods. Complex foods typically include multiple food components that need to be prepared separately because at least one food component includes ingredients that are incompatible with at least one other food component, and / or because the recipe program instructions are related to food processing steps with control parameter settings that are not compatible with the control parameter settings of the food processing steps of at least one other food component. In order to prepare such complex foods, multiple utensils are typically used.

[0006] Therefore, it is a problem to improve the efficiency of food processing for recipe programs that are advantageous for use with multiple vessels.

[0007] In one embodiment, a control system for controlling at least two cooking devices is provided. One of the cooking devices (typically, a high-performance multifunctional cooking device) acts as a master device, and at least another cooking device acts as a slave device. The master device is the dominant cooking device in food processing and is designed to support the cooking steps listed in the (master) recipe program, and in the case where the control system is integrated in the master device, some steps of the recipe program are also delegated to the available slave devices. The slave device is a device with a reduced functional range that is sufficient to perform at least a subset of the cooking steps in the recipe program. This subset of recipe steps can be specialized or customized for a specific slave device. That is, compared to the master device, the slave device only supports a reduced functional range, but can perform specialized steps, which can be performed by the master device only at a lower quality, or may not be performed by the master device at all. For example, the slave device can be designed to perform a frying step in a pan, which has an interface that cooperates with the slave device, but may not be compatible with the interface of the master device. The master device can only perform the frying step in its standard master vessel. However, performing the frying step in a pan may result in an improved quality of the food. The reduced functional range may affect any of the following process properties of the slave device: the maximum temperature achievable by the temperature control element inside the vessel, the temperature accuracy achievable by the temperature control element inside the vessel, the maximum rotation speed achievable by the torque and rotation transmission element, the rotation direction of the torque and rotation transmission stirring element, and the torque of the torque and rotation transmission element. In other words, the reduced functional range of the slave device may be limited by a limited range of cooking parameters (such as temperature, speed, torque, etc.). It may also be limited that certain functions (e.g., chopping) are not supported by the slave device at all. Thus, there may only be a functional range for a specific process property for supporting the cooking function (e.g., only a lower temperature range, or only a lower speed range), while other process properties may even have an expanded range. For example, when a specific slave device provides a reduced speed range or even does not support the torque and rotation transmission element at all, there is already a reduced functional range, but the slave device allows a higher maximum temperature than the master device.

[0008] In case the reduced functional range of the slave device is related to such functions, where the corresponding high performance functions of the master device require specific safety measures for the master device, the slave device may be operable without such safety measures. For example, if the reduced functional range affects at least one cooking function of the slave device in that the process performance of the slave device is limited to a low risk parameter range of parameters that does not include a high risk parameter range that is being supported by the master device and requires appropriate safety measures for the corresponding cooking device, then the slave device does not need to be equipped with such safety measures. This allows to use a very basic cooking device as a slave device that only provides some basic cooking functions but does not provide any advanced functions (such as chopping, high temperature baking, etc.), which require the implementation of corresponding safety measures.

[0009] The cooking devices are controlled in such a way that they collectively process one or more food items. For example, the control system, the master device, and the slave device may be communicatively coupled via a communication network such as a local area network, a wireless network, or a mobile network. The control system may also be an integral component of the master device.

[0010] The master and slave devices have a mechanical interface and an associated electrical interface for receiving food processing vessels. Thus, each main specific vessel has an interface that cooperates with the slave device. That is, each slave device can continue the food processing in the vessel previously used by the master device. There may also be slave specific vessels (e.g., pans) that can be operated by the slave device, but they may not necessarily cooperate with the cooking device master device. Each vessel has at least one of a temperature control element and a torque and rotation transmission element. In the case of the same interface on the master and slave devices, each vessel can be easily inserted into each cooking device and can then be operated by any of the cooking devices used.

[0011] In one embodiment, the electrical interface of the slave device may be configurable to predefine the interaction with the corresponding electrical interface of the vessel. For example, the pins of the electrical interface for controlling the rotation direction of the torque and rotation transmission element may be switched in the slave device to inhibit the rotation that would put the slave device in the cutting or chopping mode. Conversely, for the slave device, by switching the pins, only the rotation in the safe mode is possible.

[0012] The control system has a recipe program interface to receive at least one recipe program for preparing one or more food products. The at least one recipe program comprises machine-readable recipe program instructions configured to control functions of a cooking device for performing a food processing step according to the at least one recipe program. The program instructions may be related to control functions of the main device, but they may also include external instructions to control external appliances, such as an oven or a microwave oven. For each food processing step, the recipe program provides information about the process performance required for performing the food processing step. For example, the program may specify a minimum speed or a minimum temperature that must be provided by the cooking device performing this step.

[0013] In addition, the control system has a program analyzer module to identify at least one specific slave device with a reduced functional scope for a specific food processing step, which slave device still provides process performance sufficient to perform the specific food processing step. This identification is achieved by matching the performance of the available slave devices with the technical requirements of the corresponding recipe program steps. For example, the available slave devices can be registered in a slave device registry, wherein for each slave device, the process performance is stored in a digital format that can be interpreted by the program analyzer. Based on this matching result, the program analyzer extracts a partition including a subset of program instructions associated with the specific food processing step from at least one recipe program. The segmentation is based on segmentation rules that can be an integral part of the program analyzer or can be accessed by the program analyzer through a corresponding interface. Such segmentation rules can analyze the recipe program for certain trigger instructions, which indicate that certain steps of the recipe program can be moved to the slave device. The segmentation rules can also be defined to increase the efficiency of the food processing method by parallelizing the cooking steps (which is suitable for reducing the processing time and / or energy consumption of the process). Example types of segmentation rules (in addition to the matching of the performance of the available slave devices with the technical requirements) may include:

[0014] - The bowl must be cleaned,

[0015] - the contents of the vessel must be filled into different containers for keeping warm, storage or further processing,

[0016] - A step takes a long time, or the volume of the vessel is not large enough (for example, in the case of recipes that require weighable amounts of ingredients).

[0017] The segmentation module can be considered as a checklist of whether or not it leads to outsourcing at least one step (i.e., deploying the corresponding recipe instructions to a slave device). Any segmentation rule that supports reducing the total preparation time of complex foods or reducing the necessary cleaning steps for cleaning cooking utensils may be appropriate. For example, if a cooking step exceeds a predefined cooking time interval (e.g., 10 minutes), it may always be advantageous to outsource the step to a slave device because during the predefined cooking time interval, the master device can be used for more demanding tasks. If the step is shorter than the predefined cooking time interval, the segmentation module checks whether the additional following steps can also be performed on the slave device. If so, and if the total preparation time of such cooking steps adds up to at least the duration of the predefined cooking time interval, the entire group of steps can be outsourced to a slave device. If a step or a set of steps includes the last step before concluding a specific dish in a multi-course menu, then this (type of) step can always be outsourced, even if its total duration is shorter than the predefined time interval.

[0018] In addition, the control system has a recipe deployment module to deploy the extracted partition to at least one specific slave device for execution. Thus, the remaining program partitions of the recipe program (including program instructions not deployed to the slave device) are deployed to the master device.

[0019] The disclosed control system can be used to analyze recipe programs regarding their potential for parallel execution on multiple cooking devices having a master device and one or more slave devices. As demonstrated by the examples in the detailed description, this allows efficiency gains in the execution of food processing steps to be achieved and the overall processing time to be shortened - in some cases, by eliminating steps from the original recipe program that are no longer necessary in a decentralized cooking scenario controlled by a recipe program partition deployed to the corresponding cooking devices. In some cases, the overall energy consumption caused by the execution of the recipe program can be reduced.

[0020] In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method for controlling a multifunctional cooking device master and at least one multifunctional cooking device slave is provided. Each cooking device provides a mechanical interface and an associated electrical interface for receiving food processing cooking utensils. Thus, each main specific vessel cooperates with the interface of the slave device. The vessel has at least one of a temperature control element and a torque and rotation transmission element for processing one or more foods together. Compared with the master device, the slave device provides a reduced functional range with respect to at least one cooking function. The method begins by receiving at least one recipe program for preparing one or more foods. The at least one recipe program includes machine-readable recipe program instructions, which are configured to control the functions of the cooking device for performing food processing steps according to the at least one recipe program. For each food processing step, the recipe program provides information about the process performance required for performing the food processing step. Thus, some program instructions can be executed by the master device and the slave device because the master device and the slave device provide the required performance.

[0021] However, for a specific food processing step, at least one specific slave device providing a reduced range of functionality is identified, which has process capabilities sufficient to execute the specific food processing step. A program partition comprising a subset of program instructions associated with the specific food processing step is extracted from at least one recipe program. The extracted partition is then deployed to the at least one specific slave device for execution, and the remaining program partitions of the recipe program are deployed to the master device.

[0022] In one example, the extracted partition may include recipe instructions for making a specific vessel available for use by the slave device to continue a food processing step previously performed by the master device in the (same) specific vessel by combining the subset of program instructions of the extracted partition. In another example, the extracted partition may include making a specific vessel available for use by the slave device to perform the food processing step in combination with the subset of program instructions of the extracted partition, continuing the food processing step that was subsequently performed by the master device in combination with program instructions deployed to the remaining partitions of the master device.

[0023] In one example, the extracted partitions may be deployed to multiple slaves to perform the partitions in parallel for two or more cooking devices. This option may be advantageous if a larger quantity of a particular food component needs to be prepared, but a single vessel would be too small for that purpose. By using multiple slaves to parallelize food component preparation, preparation time is reduced and energy may be saved because there is no need to keep portions of the food component warm because they have already been prepared previously. In contrast, using the parallel version, all parallel food component processes end at substantially the same point in time (assuming the parallel processes also start at substantially the same point in time).

[0024] In one embodiment using multiple slave devices, for another food processing step, another slave device providing a reduced range of functionality with process capabilities sufficient to execute the another food processing step may be identified. Then, another partition is extracted from the recipe program having a subset of program instructions associated with the another food processing step. The extracted another partition is then deployed to another slave device for execution while the program instructions of the remaining partitions of the recipe program are deployed to the master device.

[0025] In one embodiment, a computer program product for controlling a multi-function cooking device master and at least one multi-function cooking device slave is provided. The computer program product has computer-readable instructions that, when loaded into a memory of a computing device and executed by at least one processor of the computing device, cause the computing device to perform the method disclosed herein. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] Figure 1 An example of a cooking device master and slave devices controlled by a control system according to an embodiment is illustrated;

[0027] Figure 2 An example of a multi-function cooking device as various embodiments of a master cooking device and a slave cooking device is shown;

[0028] Figure 3 is a simplified flow chart of a computer-implemented method performed by a control system according to an embodiment;

[0029] Figure 4A Illustrated example recipe procedures for preparing complex foods;

[0030] Figure 4B illustrates a segmented recipe program generated based on an example recipe program according to an embodiment;

[0031] Figures 5A to 5C illustrates the efficiency gains achieved through deployment of master and slave partitions of a partitioned recipe program;

[0032] Fig. 6A , 6B illustrates examples of safety mechanisms using different clutch geometries for the master and slave devices; and

[0033] Figure 7 is a diagram showing examples of a general computer device and a general mobile computer device that can be used in embodiments of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] Figure 1 The control system 100 is illustrated as being communicatively coupled to a multi-function cooking device master 200 and to a multi-function cooking device slave 300 . Figure 3is a simplified flow chart of a computer-implemented method 1000 that may be performed by the control system 100. Figure 3 To describe the situation Figure 1 Therefore, the following description refers to Figure 1 and Figure 3 Reference number.

[0035] The control system 100 provides the partitions 601m, 601s of the recipe program 601 to the multifunctional cooking device main device 200 and the multifunctional cooking device slave device 300, respectively. Each cooking device may have a recipe program storage unit 230, 330 to store the received partitions 601m, 601s. In addition, each cooking device has a recipe execution engine 220, 320 to execute the stored partitions. When the partition is executed, the corresponding cooking function 240, 340 is called in the corresponding multifunctional cooking device main device 200 and the multifunctional cooking device slave device 300. For example, the speed of the motor and the power of the heating element are controlled to adjust the cooking function according to the technical control instructions included in the program instructions of the corresponding partition. Typically, the cooking device also has an input / output (I / O) component 210, 310, thereby allowing a human user to interact with the cooking device.

[0036] Each cooking device has a vessel interface 250, 350, which is suitable for providing a corresponding vessel 260, 360 for storage. The vessel interface has a mechanical and electrical part. For some vessels, the mechanical part can be designed in a way that each of the vessels 260, 360 is matched with each of the vessel interfaces 250, 350. In this case, the vessel 260 can also be inserted into the slave device interface 350, and the vessel 360 can also be inserted into the master device interface. The vessel that matches the master device also matches any one of the slave device interfaces. However, not every slave specific vessel necessarily needs to match the master device interface. The electrical part is designed in a way that the control signal for various cooking functions can be propagated to the corresponding vessel assembly. For example, the vessel typically includes a temperature control element (e.g., a heating element with a corresponding temperature sensor) and / or a torque and rotation transmission element (e.g., a rotatable stirring or cutting element). Such vessel assemblies are controlled by the electrical part of the vessel interface.

[0037] For example, the vessel 260 of the master device may include a chopping / cutting element. The master device has the performance of supporting the chopping / cutting function by rotating the chopping / cutting element in the cutting direction at a sufficiently high torque and at a sufficiently high speed. When the vessel 260 is inserted into the vessel interface 350 of the multifunctional cooking device slave device 300, the slave device does not have the process performance (e.g., insufficient maximum speed / torque) to support the chopping / cutting function. Only stirring is supported. For that reason, the slave device does not have any safety features implemented for operating the chopping / cutting mode (e.g., the slave device does not provide a cover that can be locked during the chopping / cutting mode so that the user does not accidentally reach into the pot). However, there is now a risk that the user may be seriously injured when her hand reaches into the pot when the chopping / cutting element of the vessel 260 is operated in the stirring mode but in the cutting direction. For this purpose, the slave device may include a switch that can automatically switch the output pin that controls the stirring direction when the slave device detects that the vessel is inserted through the chopping / cutting element. The vessel may have a tag that characterizes the vessel as a chopping / cutting vessel. The tag may be read by a corresponding reader of the slave device to thereby identify the vessel. Other identification methods known to the skilled person may be used (e.g., a certain pin in the electrical interface may be used for identification of such vessel components). When the switch automatically provides a control signal to change the direction of rotation, the chopping / cutting element is rotating in the non-cutting direction to ensure the safety of the food processing step for performing the stirring function of the multifunctional cooking device slave device 300.

[0038] In one embodiment, the control system 100 may be run on a separate computer that can communicate with the multi-function cooking device master device 200 and the multi-function cooking device slave device 300. Alternatively, the control system 100 may be an integral component of the multi-function cooking device master device 200. In the described case, the program instructions deployed to the corresponding recipe program partition of the master device may be sent through the internal bus of the multi-function cooking device master device 200. The program instructions deployed to the client are sent through a communication network (e.g., a wireless network available in the cooking environment, or even a wired local area network).

[0039] Once a recipe for the preparation of a particular complex food product is selected (e.g., by a user via the I / O component 210 of the multi-function cooking device main device 200), the main device may send instructions (not shown) to the control system 100 to obtain the corresponding recipe program 601 from the data storage unit 600 (recipe database). The data storage unit 600 may be any device having a memory for storing data in an electronic format (e.g., a memory stick / card, a storage disk on a remote server, etc.). In some embodiments, the data storage device may be physically connected to the cooking device (e.g., via USB plug-in). In other embodiments, the data storage device may be connected via an appropriate network connection (e.g., a LAN, WAN, or WLAN connection). The data storage device may have a database or file system to store recipe programs that are desired to be executed by the cooking device. Examples of possible structures for separate recipe program instances are disclosed in Figure 4A A recipe program is a digital recipe that includes a plurality of control instructions (referred to herein as recipe program instructions or program instructions) with technical parameter settings to control food processing steps performed by functions of a cooking device when the recipe program is executed by a recipe execution component of the cooking device.

[0040] The recipe program 601 is designed to be executed by the multifunctional cooking device main device 200. That is, the program is designed based on the following assumption: all program instructions of the recipe program are executed by the recipe execution engine 220 of the multifunctional cooking device main device 200 to call the corresponding cooking function 240. In other words, the recipe program stored in the data storage unit 600 is typically based on the following assumption: all cooking steps are executed by a single multifunctional cooking device. The control system receives 1100 the recipe program 601 through its interface 120 and analyzes the recipe program through its program analyzer 130 to evaluate whether the obtained recipe can be optimized for more efficient execution in view of the available cooking equipment. For each program step of the recipe program 601, the process performance required to execute the corresponding step is decoded in the recipe program. The decoding can be explicit or implicit. For example, the rotation speed level or the target temperature value can be explicitly decoded in the program instruction. The torque level can sometimes be implicitly derived from the cooking function. For example, the chopping mode provided as a program instruction parameter can be associated with a torque level higher than 4.

[0041] The program analyzer 130 has a performance matching module 132 and a segmentation module 131. The performance matching module knows which cooking devices other than the multifunctional cooking device master device 200 can be used to perform food processing steps according to the recipe program 601. For example, the performance matching module 132 may include hard-coded information about the availability of the multifunctional cooking device slave device 300 and its process performance. Optionally, a slave device registry 160 accessible by the program analyzer 130 can be used. The slave device registry can be an internal component of the control system 100, or it can run on a remote system. The slave device registry allows each slave device to register with the corresponding process performance supported by the slave device. For example, a multifunctional cooking device slave device 300 with cooking functions stirring and heating and process performances of maximum speed level 2, maximum torque level 2 and a maximum achievable temperature of 120 degrees Celsius can be registered in the registry 160. Additional slave devices (not shown) can be registered. For example, one slave device may only support stirring, another slave device may only support low temperature heating, and yet another slave device may support baking, but with a maximum achievable temperature of 280 degrees Celsius, but without any stirring, cutting, or chopping functions. Each of such slave devices may be registered with the corresponding capabilities in the registry 160, and the information may be retrieved by the program analyzer 130 to be provided to its modules.

[0042] The performance matching module 132 can now analyze the program instructions in 601 and compare the process performance requirements of each program step with the performance of the available (or registered) slave devices to identify 1200 at least one specific slave device that has a process performance sufficient to perform the specific food processing step for the specific food processing step (i.e., for one or more program instructions associated with the specific food processing step). The output of the performance matching module is a mapping between the recipe program instructions and the possible master / slave appliances that can perform the corresponding program steps. Of course, each step can be performed by the multi-function cooking device master device 200, because the program is designed to be performed by the master device. However, some steps in the program can also be performed by one or more of the available slave devices. The mapping is provided to the segmentation module 131. Of course, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that different modules can also be implemented by a single computer program. The term module is introduced to distinguish between different functions performed by the control system regardless of any specific implementation. In the example, at least some of the cooking steps according to the recipe program only need to have a reduced functional range of process performance provided by the multi-function cooking device slave device 300. As a result of the capability matching, the multi-function cooking devices from the apparatus 300 are assigned to some of the recipe program instructions as potential candidates to perform the corresponding food processing steps.

[0043] The segmentation module 131 evaluates the recipe program in the case of the slave mapping to determine whether the segmentation of the recipe program 601 into partitions 601s with instructions to be executed by the multifunctional cooking device slave device 300 and into partitions 601m with instructions to be executed by the multifunctional cooking device master device 200 can lead to any efficiency gains in food processing for complex foods. For this purpose, the segmentation module 131 uses a set of segmentation rules 150, which can be an integral part of the segmentation module itself, or it can be accessed by the segmentation module at a remote storage location. Such segmentation rules are designed to identify whether parallelization of recipe program steps is possible when the mapped cooking devices are used to process food together by separating the preparation of different food components on different cooking devices. In addition, segmentation is applied in the case where efficiency gains can be achieved with respect to total food processing time and / or efficiency gains can be achieved in energy consumption for food processing. If executing the recipe program on the master and slave devices consumes less energy than executing it on the master alone, then a gain in energy consumption can be achieved. For example, a cooking step involving heating and stirring consumes less energy when executed on a slave device having an energy-saving low-power motor (which is still sufficient to perform the task) than when executed by a high-power motor of a master device. Once the segmentation module has determined that a meaningful segmentation of the recipe program 601 is possible so that a subset of the program instructions can be executed by the identified slave device, the segmentation module extracts 1300 partitions 601s from the recipe program 601, wherein the partitions 601s include subsets of program instructions associated with specific food processing steps to be executed by the multi-function cooking apparatus slave device 300.

[0044] In the example, the segmentation module has concluded that the efficiency of the overall food processing is improved when some recipe program steps are executed by the slave device rather than the master device. Therefore, the segmentation module has extracted 1300 the slave partition 601s having the recipe instructions to be executed by the recipe execution engine 320 of the slave device. The partition 601s is then deployed 1400 to the multi-function cooking device slave device 300. The remaining program instructions are collected in the master partition 601m and deployed to the multi-function cooking device master device 200 for execution.

[0045] Briefly go to Figure 2, the figure shows on the left a multifunctional cooking device 251m, which has a vessel 261 inserted into the cooking device 251m through its mechanical interface (indicated by the overlapping area of ​​the vessel 261 and the cooking device 251m). The electrical interface 251e includes a plurality of pins, including pins p1 and p2. Because the multifunctional cooking device 251 supports all cooking functions required for executing a recipe program as a main device, certain safety measures are taken. For example, the vessel 261 is operated by a cover 262, which can even be locked by locks 11, 12 to prevent the user from getting injured by reaching the vessel during operation, and / or to prevent hot liquid from being ejected from the vessel when the liquid begins to boil or the torque and rotation of the transmission element exceed a certain rotation speed.

[0046] On the right, Figure 2 The slave device 351 s is shown in three different application scenarios i), ii), iii) with different vessels 361 , 361 * and 461 .

[0047] In the first scenario i), it is assumed that the vessel 261 previously inserted in the master device 251m has been moved to the slave device 351s. However, because the slave device does not support functions that require special safety measures, the cover 262 is removed. For example, the vessel 361 may be equipped with heating and stirring elements. The slave device 351s may not be able to generate temperatures in the vessel that involve the risk of spraying. The vessel is referenced as the vessel 361 while being placed in the slave device. The electrical interface 351e of the slave device corresponds to the electrical interface 251e having the same pin configuration including pins p1 and p2. For example, if the stirring of a food combination at a relatively low temperature is applied for a large amount of time (e.g., 10 minutes or more), scenario i) can be applied.

[0048] In the second scenario ii), a vessel 361* similar to that in scenario ii) is inserted into the slave device 351s. However, in ii), the vessel is equipped with a torque and rotation transmission element having a blade used by the master device for chopping and cutting. In the case, the switch of the slave device can be used to change the electrical interface 351* by switching the pins p1 and p2 in the pin configuration. By applying the switch, in the case where the torque and rotation transmission element of the vessel 361* has a blade, the element is rotated in the opposite direction. By changing the direction of rotation, no safety measures are necessary anymore, because the sharp side of the blade becomes non-dangerous to the user with the changed direction of rotation. Alternatively, the switch can be implemented as a software switch, in which the pins of the vessel indicate to the slave device that the vessel includes a torque and rotation transmission element with a blade. Once the vessel is detected, the slave device generates a control signal for the motor, which causes the motor to change the direction of rotation to a non-cutting direction. In other words, the slave device first detects that a specific container includes a torque and rotation transmission element with a blade in the cutting direction of rotation. The detection of the torque and rotation transmission element type may be implemented, for example, by a pin inserted into a specific food processing vessel in the slave device or by another identification technology including an RFID tag, etc. Second, the slave device generates a control signal for the motor of the slave device to set the rotation direction to a non-cutting rotation direction. As a result, the risk of injury to the user when reaching into the vessel during operation is reduced because the blade will not hit the user's hand.

[0049] In the third scenario iii), the vessel is a pan 461, which has no torque and rotation transmission element at all. Simply, a heating element is needed, for example, for frying food components. In this case, compared with scenario i), the electrical interface 351e remains unchanged, and the pins p1 and p2 related to the rotation direction control are not used at all in this scenario.

[0050] In the case where multiple slave devices are available, when performing the processing of a complex food product (e.g., a multi-course menu) including multiple food components, all three slave device contexts can be operated in parallel. For example, the first slave device (context i) can be used to continue the cooking process of a food component that was initially prepared on the master device (e.g., by a chopping function) but can now continue to be blended at a lower speed and at a lower temperature. The corresponding recipe instructions are then extracted from the original recipe program and deployed to the slave device 351s i).

[0051] For example, the second slave device in scenario ii) can be used to prepare a soup that does not require any chopping / cutting functionality but only continuous stirring at a relatively low temperature. The corresponding recipe instructions are then extracted from the original recipe program and deployed to the slave device 351s ii).

[0052] For example, a third slave device in scenario iii) can be used to prepare a steak in a pan 461, for which no rotating transmission element is required at all. The slave device 351s iii) only needs to support the heating function for operating the pan 461. The corresponding recipe instructions are then extracted from the original recipe program and deployed to the slave device 351s iii). Executing the scenarios in parallel can allow for considerable efficiency gains in the total food processing time for complex food products.

[0053] Figure 4A A recipe program 501 for a primary cooking device is shown. The performance matching module of the control system analyzes the recipe program 501 and identifies the process capabilities that the corresponding cooking device needs to perform the corresponding program steps 1 to 12. The recipe is for preparing a complex food product that even requires cleaning the bowl in step 8 to continue the preparation of the pasta, while during that time, the previously cooked food components need to be kept warm.

[0054] Figure 5A The sequential processing of the cooking steps performed by the master device is illustrated in a simplified representation in a simplified phase diagram. The ratio of the various phases is not proportional to the diagram of the corresponding recipe instructions, but only the sequential flow of the steps to which the phases are related is illustrated in parallel. In each phase, the parameter numbers of the corresponding recipe instructions processed during the corresponding phase are used. In the recipe program 501, only the external steps 4, 10 are executed (by the corresponding ovens) in parallel with the steps performed by the master device. In addition, for step 8, a heater is required to keep the food components warm until the final need to finish the complex food.

[0055] In the example described, it is assumed that a slave cooking device is available in addition to the master cooking device. The master device has the technical capability to perform all cooking steps of the recipe, with the exception of steps 4 and 10, which are performed by the external oven. However, if a corresponding communication coupling is available, the master device can provide the corresponding external control instructions (e.g., time=15 minutes, temperature=200) directly to the external oven. Otherwise, the external instructions can be provided to the user who can manually apply the corresponding settings to the oven.

[0056] For example, the main device may have the capability to heat the bowl to 180 degrees Celsius to obtain a speed of the torque and rotation transmission element at speed levels 1 to 5 accompanied by a torque level 1 to 5. In addition, the main device may move the torque and rotation transmission element equipped with a blade in a cutting direction to perform chopping of the food component.

[0057] The slave device in the example supports only a reduced range of functions with the following properties. The bowl can be heated up to 120 degrees Celsius. The speed range covers speed levels 1 to 3, and the torque range covers torque levels 1 and 2. In addition, it is assumed that the slave device lacks certain safety features present in the master device, such as a lockable cover. For safety reasons, the slave device does not support chopping, but only allows the torque and rotation transmission element equipped with a blade to be rotated to a non-chopping direction. In other words, the slave device does not support the vessel rotating the chopping rotation transmission element in the chopping direction.

[0058] The performance matching module can now compare the performance provided by the slave device with the performance required by the various recipe program steps. In the example of recipe program 501, steps 2, 4, 5, and 10 are identified by the slave device as non-executable steps. However, it would not make sense to simply move all the remaining recipe steps to the slave device because, for example, steps 6 and 7 use different ingredients than steps 9 and 11 and require cleaning of the bowl in between. The segmentation module receives the potential steps that can be executed by the slave device from the performance matching module, and then applies the segmentation logic to the recipe program to generate meaningful program partitions that can be executed by the master device and the slave device, respectively, in a way that the overall efficiency of the food processing process is improved.

[0059] In general, the segmentation module can be seen as a checklist for whether it leads to the outsourcing of at least one cooking step. It pursues the goal of reducing the total preparation time of complex foods or reducing the necessary cleaning steps for cleaning cooking utensils. For example, in the case where a step or a series of steps exceeds a predefined timer interval threshold, the segmentation module may decide to outsource the step or the entire series of steps to a slave device. If the step or the series of steps is shorter than the threshold, the segmentation module checks whether the additional following steps can also be performed on the slave device. If so, and if the total food processing time adds up to at least the threshold, the entire group of steps can be outsourced (i.e., deployed to the corresponding slave device). If a particular step or a series of steps is the last one or more steps before finishing a dish in a multi-course menu, then this (type of) step can always be outsourced, even if it takes less food processing time than the threshold.

[0060] In the example, the segmentation module has a segmentation rule that identifies a cleaning step in a recipe program as a segmentation indicator, because a cleaning step indicates an interruption in the cooking process that is typically associated with a cooking situation where a single bowl is used by the master device. However, in the event that a slave device with sufficient performance is available, a cleaning step in a recipe program may be an ideal trigger to move the bowl currently being used by the master device to the slave device and continue processing additional cooking steps at the master device with the second bowl. This may even allow the cleaning step to be avoided.

[0061] In the example of recipe program 501, the segmentation module recognizes that cleaning step 8 essentially terminates steps 1 to 7 because the food component already at step 7 is then kept warm until it is needed for the finalization of the complex food. For the recipe execution of recipe program 501, an additional heater is required to execute step 8 (see Figure 5A phase diagram).

[0062] Figure 4B The diagram shows a segmented recipe program 502 generated based on the recipe program 501. The segmented recipe program 502 has two partitions indicated by a preceding "1." (master partition) or "2." (slave partition). The steps identified for the slave partition are steps 2.6 and 2.7, which can be easily executed by the functional scope of the slave device. In addition, the segmentation module can use a segmentation rule that takes into account the length of the corresponding cooking steps. In the example described, steps 2.6 and 2.7 add up to 30 minutes, during which the master device will be blocked from executing other cooking steps. That is, by transferring the slave partitions to the slave devices and executing the respective steps there, the cooking process can be parallelized and the total food processing time can be reduced.

[0063] The slave device also has sufficient performance to perform steps 1.9 and 1.11. However, by assigning these steps to the slave device, no additional advantage is gained, as the steps will still be performed after steps 2.6 and 2.7. Therefore, the segmentation module has rules to recognize that steps 9 and 10 of recipe program 501 can be moved to the new bowl to avoid the cleaning steps that are eliminated in the segmented recipe program 502. This also avoids the need to keep the first food component warm until its later use (via an additional heater). When a second bowl is used, such steps can now be performed by the master device (although the performance of the slave device will be sufficient) to shorten the overall processing time for complex foods. Figure 4B In the example of , the segmentation module derives from the recipe instructions that the food component prepared in step 2.7 is required for further processing in a step with external instructions 1.e10 which is executed once the water added in step 1.9 has been boiled. The timing in the recipe is selected in such a way that the remaining cooking times of steps 1e.10 and 1.11 (executed in parallel) are approximately the same so that all food components of the complex food are ready at approximately the same point in time. This is also Figure 5BAnother side effect in the recipe is that the preheating phase of oven 1e.4 is considerably lower than for recipe program 501. Of course, in recipe program 501 the preheating could have started much later. But in the example the original program was not ideally defined and the preheating over the long period would have likely consumed more energy than necessary, since once 200 degrees Celsius was reached the oven would have to keep the temperature at that level until step 10. The segmentation module is thus able to provide a remedy for the poor recipe design by parallelizing the cooking steps using masters and slaves according to the range of supported functions.

[0064] Step 1.9 may be started substantially in parallel with step 2.7, since two different bowls and two different cooking appliances are used. In addition, the segmentation module may include segmentation rules that attempt to minimize the energy consumption of the cooking appliance. In the example, the rules are used to shrink the preheating cycle of the oven and eliminate the need to keep the first food component warm during a significant time interval.

[0065] An alternative embodiment is shown in Figure 5C The partitioning module may have identified steps 9 and 11 of the recipe program 501 to be deployed to the slave device, because both steps only require performance provided by the slave device (such as steps 2.9 and 2.11 of the slave partition). The original steps 6 and 7 become part of the master partition as steps 1.6 and 1.7. The overall gain in food processing efficiency is Figure 5B The final choice of which steps to assign to the segmentation module of the master or slave device may depend on the segmentation rule set. For example, there may be a preference for certain ingredients for a particular slave device. In such cases where alternative variations may be pursued (which provide similar gains in food processing efficiency for complex foods), it may also be an option to let the user select a specific segmentation solution through a corresponding user interface.

[0066] Fig. 6A The diagram shows a schematic diagram of the coupling between a torque and rotation transmission element and a cooking device (master device, slave device). The torque and rotation transmission element has a clutch 610 that cooperates with a corresponding clutch 620 of the cooking device.

[0067] Figure 6BDifferent clutch geometries 621, 622 for master and slave and different clutch geometries 611, 612 for different torque and rotation transmission elements are used to illustrate different clutch geometries and the way in which such clutch geometries can be used to implement complete measures. In the example, geometry 611 is the clutch geometry of the cutting knife and geometry 612 is the clutch geometry of the dough hook. Geometry 621 is the clutch geometry of the master and geometry 622 is the clutch geometry of the slave. Scenarios 621-1, 621-2, 622-1 and 622-2 illustrate which of the torque and rotation transmission elements can be combined with which device clutch. The master can be connected to both elements. In 621-1, the master is connected to the cutting knife and in scenario 621-2, it is connected to the dough hook. The slave can also be connected to the dough hook, as illustrated in scenario 622-2. However, the slave cannot be connected to the cutting knife because the corresponding clutch does not show mechanical coordination, as in scenario 622-1. That is, the mechanical interface between the vessel and the cooking device can prevent dangerous situations by not allowing the cutting knife to be inserted into the slave device interface. In such a case, the risk caused by the reduced performance of the slave device that the slave device cannot lock the vessel with a cover is mitigated by completely avoiding the situation through an incompatible clutch design. For example, when the master device is connected to a bowl (vessel) featuring a cutting knife or a kneading hook, the master device may always lock the lid of the vessel during the cooking process due to the risk caused by the cutting knife (although the locked lid may not be relevant when the kneading hook is operated). The slave device may not support the locking function at all. By using different mechanical coupling mechanisms for the kneading hook and the cutting knife, the slave device can be designed in which it is only interlocked with the clutch of the kneading hook (but not with the clutch of the cutting knife), thereby invalidating the locking of the lid. Therefore, the safety mechanism does not need to be available in the slave device.

[0068] More generally, the reduced functional range of the slave device affects at least one cooking function of the slave device in that the mechanical interface of the slave device is limited by a specific configuration of the geometry of the mechanical interface, wherein the specific configuration of the geometry of the slave device prevents the accommodation of a vessel including torque and rotation transmission elements from posing a safety risk to the user.

[0069] Figure 7 900 and a general mobile computing device 950 that can be used with the techniques described herein. In an exemplary embodiment, the computing device 900 is connected to the control system 100 (see, Figure 1) is related. Computing device 950 is intended to represent various forms of mobile devices, such as personal digital assistants, cellular phones, smart phones, and other similar computing devices. Such a front end may also be implemented as an integral part of the cooking device. The master device and each slave device may include the front end for implementing the corresponding I / O components. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, computing device 950 may act as a front-end control device for control system 900. The components shown here, their connections and relationships, and their functions are intended to be exemplary only and are not intended to limit the implementation of the present invention described and / or claimed in this document.

[0070] The computing device 900 includes a processor 902, a memory 904, a storage device 906, a high-speed interface 908 connected to the memory 904 and a high-speed expansion port 910, and a low-speed interface 912 connected to a low-speed bus 914 and the storage device 906. Each of the processor 902, the memory 904, the storage device 906, the high-speed interface 908, the high-speed expansion port 910, and the low-speed interface 912 is interconnected using various buses and can be mounted on a common motherboard or otherwise appropriately mounted. The processor 902 can process instructions for execution within the computing device 900, including instructions stored in the memory 904 or on the storage device 906 to display graphical information for a GUI on an external input / output device (such as a display 916 coupled to the high-speed interface 908). In other implementations, multiple processors and / or multiple buses can be used as appropriate, along with multiple memories and memory types. Also, multiple computing devices 900 may be connected, with each device providing portions of the necessary operations (eg, as a server bank, a group of blade servers, or a multi-processor system).

[0071] The memory 904 stores information within the computing device 900. In one implementation, the memory 904 is one or more volatile memory units. In another implementation, the memory 904 is one or more non-volatile memory units. The memory 904 may also be another form of computer-readable media, such as a magnetic disk or an optical disk.

[0072] The storage device 906 can provide mass storage for the computing device 900. In one implementation, the storage device 906 can be or contain a computer-readable medium, such as a floppy disk device, a hard disk device, an optical disk device, or a tape device, a flash memory or other similar solid-state memory device, or an array device, including a device in a storage area network or other configuration. A computer program product can be tangibly embodied in an information carrier. The computer program product can also contain instructions that, when executed, perform one or more methods (such as the methods described above). The information carrier is a computer or machine-readable medium, such as the memory 904, the storage device 906, or a memory on the processor 902.

[0073] The high-speed interface 908 manages bandwidth-intensive operations for the computing device 900, while the low-speed interface 912 manages lower bandwidth-intensive operations. The allocation of functions is exemplary only. In one implementation, the high-speed interface 908 is coupled to the memory 904, the display 916 (e.g., through a graphics processor or accelerator), and to a high-speed expansion port 910 that can accept various expansion cards (not shown). In the implementation, the low-speed interface 912 is coupled to the storage device 906 and the low-speed bus 914. The low-speed expansion port, which may include various communication ports (e.g., USB, Bluetooth, ZigBee, WLAN, Ethernet, wireless Ethernet), can be coupled to one or more input / output devices, such as a keyboard, a pointing device, a scanner, or a networking device (such as a switch or router), for example, through a network adapter.

[0074] The computing device 900 can be implemented in many different forms, as shown in the figure. For example, it can be implemented as a standard server 920, or implemented multiple times in a group of such servers. It can also be implemented as part of a rack server system 924. In addition, it can be implemented in a personal computer such as a notebook computer 922. Alternatively, components from the computing device 900 can be combined with other components in a mobile device (not shown) such as a computing device 950. Each of such devices can contain one or more of the computing devices 900, 950, and the entire system can be composed of multiple computing devices 900, 950 that communicate with each other.

[0075] The computing device 950 includes a processor 952, a memory 964, an input / output device such as a display 954, a communication interface 966, and a transceiver 968, in addition to other components. The computing device 950 may also be provided with a storage device such as a micro hard drive or other device to provide additional storage. Each of the computing device 950, the processor 952, the memory 964, the display 954, the communication interface 966, and the transceiver 968 are interconnected using various buses, and several of the components may be mounted on a common motherboard or otherwise appropriately mounted.

[0076] The processor 952 can execute instructions within the computing device 950, including instructions stored in the memory 964. The processor can be implemented as a chipset including a single or multiple analog and digital processors. The processor can provide, for example, coordination of other components of the computing device 950, such as control of a user interface, applications run by the computing device 950, and wireless communications performed by the computing device 950.

[0077] The processor 952 can communicate with the user through the control interface 958 and the display interface 956 coupled to the display 954. The display 954 can be, for example, a TFT LCD (thin film transistor liquid crystal display) or an OLED (organic light emitting diode) display, or other suitable display technology. The display interface 956 may include appropriate circuits for driving the display 954 to present graphics and other information to the user. The control interface 958 can receive commands from the user and convert them for submission to the processor 952. In addition, an external interface 962 in communication with the processor 952 can be provided to enable near-area communication of the computing device 950 with other devices. The external interface 962 can provide, for example, wired communication in some implementations, or wireless communication in other implementations, and multiple interfaces can also be used.

[0078] The memory 964 stores information within the computing device 950. The memory 964 may be implemented as one or more of one or more computer-readable media, one or more volatile memory units, or one or more non-volatile memory units. An expansion memory may also be provided and connected to the computing device 950 via an expansion interface 982, which may include, for example, a SIMM (Single In-line Memory Module) card interface. The expansion memory may provide additional storage space for the computing device 950, or may also store applications or other information for the computing device 950. Specifically, the expansion memory may include instructions to perform or supplement the processes described above, and may also include security information. Thus, for example, the expansion memory may act as a security module for the computing device 950, and may be programmed with instructions that permit secure use of the computing device 950. In addition, a security application may be provided via a SIMM card, along with additional information, such as placing identification information on the SIMM card in an unhackable manner.

[0079] The memory may include, for example, flash memory and / or NVRAM memory, as discussed below. In one implementation, a computer program product is tangibly embodied in an information carrier. The computer program product contains instructions that, when executed, perform one or more methods (such as those described above). The information carrier is a computer or machine readable medium, such as memory 964, expansion memory, or memory on processor 952, which may be received, for example, via transceiver 968 or external interface 962.

[0080] The computing device 950 may communicate wirelessly via a communication interface 966, which may include digital signal processing circuitry, if necessary. The communication interface 966 may provide for communication in various modes or protocols, such as GSM voice calls, SMS, EMS or MMS messaging, CDMA, TDMA, PDC, WCDMA, CDMA2000, or GPRS, among others. Such communication may occur, for example, via a transceiver 968. In addition, short range communication may occur, such as using Bluetooth, WiFi, ZigBee, or other such transceivers (not shown). In addition, a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver module may provide additional navigation and location related wireless data to the computing device 950, which may be used appropriately by applications running on the computing device 950.

[0081] The computing device 950 may also communicate audio using an audio codec 960, which may receive spoken information from a user and convert it into usable digital information. The audio codec 960 may likewise generate audible sounds for the user, such as through a speaker, for example, in a microphone of the computing device 950. The sounds may include sounds from voice phone calls, may include recorded sounds (e.g., voice messages, music files, etc.), and may also include sounds generated by applications operating on the computing device 950.

[0082] The computing device 950 may be implemented in many different forms, as shown in the figure. For example, it may be implemented as a cellular phone 980. It may also be implemented as part of a smart phone, a personal digital assistant, or other similar mobile device.

[0083] Various implementations of the systems and techniques described herein can be realized in digital electronic circuitry, integrated circuitry, specially designed ASICs (application specific integrated circuits), computer hardware, firmware, software, and / or combinations thereof. These various implementations can include implementations in one or more computer programs that can be executed and / or interpreted on a programmable system that includes at least one programmable processor, which can be special purpose or general purpose, coupled to receive data and instructions from a storage system, at least one input device, and at least one output device, and to transmit data and instructions to the storage system, at least one input device, and at least one output device.

[0084] These computer programs (also referred to as programs, software, software applications, or code) include machine instructions for a programmable processor and may be implemented in a high-level procedural and / or object-oriented programming language and / or in assembly / machine language. As used herein, the terms "machine-readable medium," "computer-readable medium," refer to any computer program product, apparatus, and / or device (e.g., a disk, an optical disk, a memory, a programmable logic device (PLD)) used to provide machine instructions and / or data to a programmable processor, including a machine-readable medium that receives machine instructions as a machine-readable signal. The term "machine-readable signal" refers to any signal used to provide machine instructions and / or data to a programmable processor.

[0085] To provide interaction with a user, the systems and techniques described herein may be implemented on a computer having a display device (e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor) for displaying information to the user and a keyboard and pointing device (e.g., a mouse or trackball) through which the user can provide input to the computer. Other kinds of devices may also be used to provide interaction with the user; for example, the feedback provided to the user may be any form of sensory feedback (e.g., visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback); and input from the user may be received in any form, including acoustic, verbal, or tactile input.

[0086] The systems and techniques described herein may be implemented in a computing device that includes a back-end component (e.g., as a data server) or includes a middleware component (e.g., an application server) or includes a front-end component (e.g., a client computer with a graphical user interface or a web browser through which a user can interact with an implementation of the systems and techniques described herein), or any combination of such back-end, middleware, or front-end components. The components of the system may be interconnected by any form of digital data communication or digital data communication media (e.g., a communication network). Examples of communication networks include a local area network ("LAN"), a wide area network ("WAN"), and the Internet.

[0087] Computing devices may include clients and servers. Clients and servers are generally remote from each other and typically interact through a communication network. The relationship of client and server arises by virtue of computer programs running on the respective computers and having a client-server relationship to each other.

[0088] A number of embodiments have been described, however, it will be appreciated that various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

[0089] Furthermore, the logic flows depicted in the figures do not require the particular order or sequence shown to achieve the desired results. Furthermore, other steps can be provided, or steps can be eliminated from the described processes, and other components can be added to the described systems, or other components can be removed from the described systems. Therefore, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A control system (100) for controlling a multifunctional cooking device master device (200) and at least one multifunctional cooking device slave device (300) for jointly processing one or more foods, the control system comprising: a recipe program interface (120) configured to receive at least one recipe program (601) for preparing one or more food products using a food processing vessel having a vessel interface, the vessel interface being connectable to a main mechanical interface and a main electrical interface of the multifunctional cooking device main unit, thereby enabling the multifunctional cooking device main unit to use a first functional range of the food processing vessel, the at least one recipe program (601) comprising machine-readable recipe program instructions, the instructions being configured to control the multifunctional cooking device main unit (200) to perform food processing steps according to the at least one recipe program (601), and wherein, for each food processing step, the recipe program provides information on process performance required for performing the food processing step, including, for a specific food processing step, the process performance required of at least one of a temperature control element and a torque and rotation transmission element of the food processing vessel; a program analyzer module (130) configured to select at least one multi-function cooking device slave from the slave device registry, the slave device registry having one or more previously received registrations of locally available available slave devices capable of operating with the multi-function cooking device master, the slave device registry also storing process capabilities of the available slave devices, mapping the process capabilities required for the specific food processing step obtained from the recipe program with the process capabilities of the at least one multi-function cooking device slave obtained from the slave device registry, wherein the at least one multi-function cooking device slave has a slave mechanical interface and a slave electrical interface so that the multi-function cooking device slave can use a reduced functional range (340) of the food processing vessel, determining based on the mapping that the reduced functional range provides sufficient process capabilities for at least one of a temperature control element and a torque and rotation element to perform the specific food processing step, and extracting a partition (601s) including a subset of program instructions associated with the specific food processing step from the at least one recipe program (601) based on the determination; and A recipe deployment module (140) is configured to deploy the extracted partition (601s) to the at least one multi-function cooking device slave device (300) for execution, and to deploy the remaining program partitions (601m) of the recipe program to the multi-function cooking device master device (200), so that the multi-function cooking device master device executes the remaining program partitions of the recipe program, including synchronizing the execution of the remaining program partitions of the recipe program with the execution of the extracted partition by the at least one multi-function cooking device slave device.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the reduced functional range affects any one of the following process performances of the at least one multifunctional cooking device from the device: the maximum temperature that can be achieved by the temperature control element inside the food processing vessel, the maximum rotational speed that can be achieved by the torque and rotation transmission element, the rotational direction of the torque and rotation transmission element and the torque of the torque and rotation transmission element.

3. A system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the reduced functional range affects at least one cooking function of the multifunctional cooking device slave device, in that the process performance of the multifunctional cooking device slave device is limited to a low-risk parameter range that does not include parameters of a high-risk parameter range, wherein the high-risk parameter range requires appropriate safety measures (262, l1, l2).

4. A system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the extracted partitions (601s) are configured to combine with the program instruction subset of at least one partition (601s) to continue the food processing steps previously performed by the multi-function cooking device master device (200) in the specific vessel (261) by making the specific vessel (261) available to the multi-function cooking device slave device, or to combine with the program instruction subset of at least one partition to make the specific vessel available to the multi-function cooking device slave device to perform the food processing steps, and continue the food processing steps subsequently performed by the multi-function cooking device master device in combination with the remaining program partitions (601m).

5. A system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the slave electrical interface of the at least one multi-function cooking device slave device can be configured to adjust to the corresponding electrical interface of the food processing vessel through predefined interaction with the corresponding electrical interface of the food processing vessel.

6. The system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the control system (100) is a component of the multi-function cooking device master device (200), and the multi-function cooking device master device (200) and the multi-function cooking device slave device (300) are coupled for transmission of recipe program partitions via a wireless network.

7. A computer-implemented method for controlling a multi-function cooking device master (200) and at least one multi-function cooking device slave (300) for jointly processing one or more foods, the method comprising: receiving (1100) at least one recipe program (601) for preparing one or more food products using a food processing vessel having a vessel interface, the vessel interface being connectable to a main mechanical interface and a main electrical interface of the multifunctional cooking device main unit, thereby enabling the multifunctional cooking device main unit to use a first functional range of the food processing vessel, the at least one recipe program (601) comprising machine-readable recipe program instructions, the instructions being configured to control the multifunctional cooking device main unit to perform food processing steps according to the at least one recipe program, and wherein, for each food processing step, the recipe program provides information on process performance required for performing the food processing step, including, for a specific food processing step, a process performance required of at least one of a temperature control element and a torque and rotation transmission element of the food processing vessel; selecting at least one multi-function cooking device slave from a slave registry having one or more previously received registrations of locally available available slave devices capable of operating with the multi-function cooking device master, the slave registry also storing process capabilities of the available slave devices; mapping the process performance required for the specific food processing step obtained from the recipe program with the process performance of the at least one multi-function cooking device slave device obtained from the slave device registry, wherein the at least one multi-function cooking device slave device has a slave mechanical interface and a slave electrical interface, thereby enabling the multi-function cooking device slave device to use a reduced functional range of the food processing vessel; determining, based on the mapping, that the reduced functional range provides sufficient process performance for at least one of a temperature control element and a torque and rotation element to perform the particular food processing step; extracting (1300) from said at least one recipe program a partition comprising a subset of program instructions associated with said particular food processing step based on said determination; and deploying (1400) the extracted partition to the at least one multi-function cooking device slave for execution, and deploying the remaining program partitions of the recipe program to the multi-function cooking device master; and Executing the remaining program partitions of the recipe program using the multi-function cooking device master includes synchronizing the execution of the remaining program partitions of the recipe program with the execution of the extracted partition by the at least one multi-function cooking device slave.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the reduced functional range affects any one of the following process performances of the at least one multifunctional cooking device from the device: the maximum temperature achievable by the temperature control element inside the food processing vessel, the maximum temperature accuracy achievable by the temperature control element inside, the maximum rotational speed achievable by the torque and rotation transmission element, the rotational direction of the torque and rotation transmission element, and the torque of the torque and rotation transmission element.

9. A method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the reduced functional range affects at least one cooking function of the multi-function cooking device from the device, wherein the process performance of the multi-function cooking device from the device is limited to a low-risk parameter range that does not include parameters in a high-risk parameter range, wherein the high-risk parameter range requires appropriate safety measures.

10. A method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the reduced functional range affects at least one cooking function of the multi-function cooking device slave device, wherein the slave mechanical interface of the multi-function cooking device slave device is limited by a specific configuration of the geometry of the slave mechanical interface, wherein the specific configuration of the geometry of the multi-function cooking device slave device prevents the storage of vessels including torque and rotation transmission elements from posing a safety risk to the user.

11. The method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the extracted partition is deployed to a first slave device and a second slave device, the method further comprising: The extracted partitions are executed in parallel on the first slave device and the second slave device.

12. The method according to claim 7 or 8, further comprising: identifying, for another food processing step, another slave device providing a reduced range of functionality, which has process capabilities sufficient to perform the another food processing step; extracting from said at least one recipe program another partition comprising a subset of program instructions associated with said another food processing step; and The extracted another partition is deployed to the another slave device for execution, and the remaining program partitions of the recipe program are deployed to the multi-function cooking apparatus master device.

13. The method according to claim 7 or 8, further comprising: The food processing utensils previously used by the multifunctional cooking device main device to perform the previous food processing steps are received by connecting the utensils interface to the slave mechanical interface and the slave electrical interface respectively; as well as After deploying the extracted partitions, the extracted partitions are executed by the at least one multi-function cooking apparatus slave device to continue a food processing step using the received food processing vessel in conjunction with the deployed subset of program instructions for the extracted partitions.

14. The method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the at least one multi-function cooking device implements a software switch from the device, further comprising: Detecting that the food processing vessel inserted into the at least one multifunctional cooking device slave device includes a torque and rotation transmission element having a blade in a cutting rotation direction; as well as A control signal is generated for setting the rotation direction of the motor of the at least one multifunctional cooking device slave device to a non-cutting rotation direction.

15. A computer program product for controlling a multi-function cooking device master device and at least one multi-function cooking device slave device, the computer program product comprising computer-readable instructions, which, when loaded into a memory of a computing device and executed by at least one processor of the computing device, enable the computing device to execute the method according to claim 7.

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