Cooking appliance and method for operating a cooking appliance

Abstract

Cooking appliance with a touchscreen, wherein a device for gesture recognition is provided and, upon detection of a gesture, the user is shown that the cooking appliance is in gesture mode, while at the same time being shown how the gesture mode can be exited.

Description

[0001] The invention relates to a cooking appliance and a method for operating a cooking appliance.

[0002] Cooking appliances, especially commercial cooking appliances, are increasingly being equipped with touchscreens. Touchscreens are particularly advantageous in combi steamers, primarily due to their wide range of functions.

[0003] The devices are used in a wide variety of areas of gastronomy and commercial food preparation.

[0004] In all areas, the goal is to ensure that as few trained personnel as possible can operate the device. Operation itself should be as simple and quick as possible.

[0005] Therefore, devices with touchscreens are in use, where - similar to the menu navigation on ATMs - individual commands can be selected by tapping the screen.

[0006] DE 10 2005 004 337 A1 discloses a method for operating a control device of a large household appliance, as well as a control device for implementing the method. The control device can have a basic touch sensor and additional additional touch sensors distributed around it in a circle at a distance of a few centimeters. To trigger an operating function, the basic touch sensor must be touched first, followed by one of the additional touch sensors within a certain period of time. This can be achieved, for example, by touching a control surface located above the touch sensors with a finger in a dragging or swiping motion.

[0007] DE 10 2004 044 355 A1 describes a method for optically marking a touch switch and such a touch switch. The elongated touch switch with multiple partial contact surfaces has associated lamps to indicate the actuation state and, advantageously, also the actuation location to an operator, thereby increasing operating safety. It is particularly advantageous if the lamps are directly assigned to individual partial contact surfaces or can indicate the movement progress for operating the touch switch by placing a finger on a contact surface and dragging it along it with approximately the correct position. Furthermore, incorrect actuations can be indicated.

[0008] The invention is based on the object of improving existing cooking appliances.

[0009] This invention is achieved with a cooking appliance according to one of claims 1 to 11 and / or with a method according to one of claims 12 to 16.

[0010] A key idea of ​​the invention is that the cooking appliance has the technical means to enable gesture recognition.

[0011] A gesture recognition can, for example, recognize a swipe movement performed on the touchscreen (for example from bottom left to top right, from top left to bottom right, from bottom left to top left, from top left to bottom left, from top left to top right, from top right to top left, or similar) or a check mark, as well as a plus sign, a circle, an arrow or similar movements on the touchscreen.

[0012] A gesture is a touch of the touchscreen that goes beyond a simple tap to select a displayed button. Unlike such a simple touch, a gesture has an additional spatial and / or temporal component.

[0013] To evaluate a user's touch, for example, a calculation can be performed from the recorded touch data or a selection can be made from the touch data. For example, different touch locations or touch regions on the touchscreen can be recorded in chronological order. The same applies to different touch durations, speeds, and / or directions of the touch.

[0014] The characteristic gesture data are stored in the gesture memory and can be retrieved.

[0015] The characteristic gesture data stored in the gesture memory are preferably changeable and can be assigned to certain selectable functions or sequences of functions.

[0016] Gesture data may already be present in the gesture memory when the device is delivered.

[0017] Alternatively and cumulatively, it is conceivable that a learning function is activated to fill the gesture memory. During the learning process, the gesture to be recognized is performed once or multiple times. The touch data that the user leaves on the touchscreen is recorded and evaluated.

[0018] An alternative is to store the complete touch data recorded during the learning function or at the factory in the gesture memory. While this initially requires more memory, with appropriate computational analysis via a microprocessor, the recognition rate during subsequent operation of the cooking appliance will be higher.

[0019] For security reasons, it may be necessary to obtain user confirmation before executing the control command.

[0020] It is understood that this can be done either by using the touchscreen in the conventional way, for example by using a dedicated button for “Yes” and a dedicated button for “No”.

[0021] Alternatively, the control command can also be confirmed using a gesture, so that gesture recognition can even be used to request different authorizations, for example if certain control commands that are only accessible to selected users can only be confirmed using a gesture known to the closed group of users.

[0022] According to the invention, when a gesture is detected, the user is shown or otherwise signaled that the cooking appliance is in gesture mode. This can prevent unintentional operating errors.

[0023] Operation is made even easier if the display shows how to exit gesture mode.

[0024] Independently of all the aforementioned aspects of the invention, it is also conceivable that gesture recognition could be used to recognize an individually defined gesture to identify a user. This could, for example, allow authorization for certain rights on the device. This advantageously allows access to otherwise unavailable operating options only if the user identifies themselves with their individual gesture, previously taught to the device.

[0025] Specifically, a cooking appliance can advantageously be designed in such a way that buttons for activating the service level or a programming mode are displayed after such authorization, whereas previously they were either not displayed at all, could not be operated and / or were graphically marked as inactive.

Claims

[1] Cooking appliance with a touchscreen, wherein a device for gesture recognition is provided and, when a gesture is detected, the user is shown that the cooking appliance is in gesture mode, and at the same time how the gesture mode can be exited. [2] Cooking appliance according to claim 1, characterized by that a learning function is provided which can be activated to capture gesture data of a user and store it in a gesture memory for retrieval. [3] Cooking appliance according to claim 2, characterized by that gesture data has a direction of movement or a sequence of directions of movement. [4] Cooking appliance according to one of claims 2 or 3, characterized by that gesture data show a plurality of temporally different touch locations. [5] Cooking appliance according to one of claims 2 to 4, characterized by that gesture data has a touch duration. [6] Cooking appliance according to one of claims 2 to 5, characterized by that gesture data has a movement speed. [7] Cooking appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by that an evaluation unit is provided which evaluates a user's touch data and determines gesture data from this. [8] Cooking appliance according to claim 7, characterized by that the evaluation unit determines the gesture data via a calculation from the touch data. [9] Cooking appliance according to claim 7 or 8, characterized by that the evaluation unit determines the gesture data via a selection from the touch data. [10] Cooking appliance according to one of claims 7 to 9 in conjunction with one of claims 2 to 6, characterized by that the evaluation unit is set in such a way that it displays a control command on the touchscreen only after authorization by means of a learned gesture. [11] Cooking appliance according to one of claims 7 to 10, characterized bythat a gesture memory and the evaluation unit are provided to capture touch data of a user's gesture on the touchscreen and to recognize it as control commands based on gesture data from the gesture memory. [12] Method for operating a cooking appliance with a touchscreen via a gesture, wherein touches detected on the touchscreen are compared with stored gesture data and, upon detection of a gesture, a control command associated with the gesture is executed, wherein, upon detection of a gesture, the user is shown that the cooking appliance is in gesture mode, and at the same time how the gesture mode can be exited. [13] Method according to claim 12, characterized by that the gesture is first recorded and evaluated using a learning function, after which characteristic gesture data is stored in a gesture memory. [14] Method according to one of claims 12 or 13, characterized bythat user confirmation is obtained before the control command is executed. [15] Method according to one of claims 12 to 14, characterized by that before executing the control command, it is displayed that the device is in gesture mode. [16] Method according to claim 13, or according to one of claims 14 or 15, each in conjunction with claim 13, characterized by that a control command can only be selected on the touchscreen after prior authorization using a learned gesture.