Adaptive Stove Safety Timer for Multi-Burner Fire Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing stove top timer devices are inadequate in addressing the fire risk from unattended cooking, as they rely on user-set fixed times, are not coordinated across multiple burners, and lack effective alerts for elderly or distracted users, with no automatic shutdown mechanism to prevent fires.
Innovation Solution
A safety timer device with electronic dials that wirelessly communicate with a wall-mounted timer and alarm unit, automatically setting and resetting cooking times based on heat settings, providing coordinated alerts and shutting off the stove if unattended, ensuring user safety.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a fixed time timer is used regardless of heat output, then the device complexity is reduced, but the safety effectiveness deteriorates because inappropriate times are set for different cooking conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The timer automatically adjusts its duration based on the detected heat setting of the burner. When a high heat setting is detected, the timer sets a shorter duration; when low heat is detected, it sets a longer duration. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction by making the timer both simple in mechanism and reliable in safety effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the existing heat controller settings to automatically determine the appropriate timer duration without requiring user input. The timer dial itself detects the heat setting and self-configures the timing parameters, eliminating the need for complex user programming while ensuring appropriate safety intervals for different cooking conditions.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple independent timer dials are used for each burner, then each burner can be monitored individually, but the device complexity increases and user annoyance increases due to multiple independent alarms
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple timer dials are merged into a single coordinated system where all dials communicate with a central control unit. The system combines the timing functions of multiple burners into one unified alarm mechanism, resolving the contradiction by maintaining multi-burner monitoring capability while eliminating the complexity and annoyance of multiple independent alarms through centralized coordination.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback coordination where the central control unit receives status information from multiple timer dials and provides coordinated alarm signals. When any timer expires, the system manages the alarm sequence to avoid bombarding the user with simultaneous alerts, instead providing coordinated, manageable notifications that maintain versatility while reducing complexity.
3Ease of operation
If mechanical buttons are used for setting and resetting the timer, then the ease of operation is improved, but the reliability deteriorates due to corrosion and clogging from steam and oil vapour
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical buttons with a touch-sensitive interface that has no moving parts. The reset function is activated by simply touching the timer dial face, eliminating mechanical components that could corrode or clog from steam and oil vapour. This substitution maintains ease of operation while dramatically improving reliability in the harsh cooking environment.
4Device complexity
If the alarm is located within the timer dial on the stove panel, then the device complexity is reduced, but the alarm effectiveness deteriorates due to limited space and masking noise from other rooms
Solution Approach 1:
The alarm function is relocated from the two-dimensional stove panel surface to the three-dimensional space above or near the stove area. By positioning the alarm unit in a different spatial dimension and location, the system overcomes the limitations of panel space while ensuring the alarm is positioned where it can be heard effectively without being masked by noise from other rooms, thus improving alarm effectiveness without significantly increasing device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A safety timer device, for a cooking appliance connected to an energy source, the cooking appliance having a heat generating component in communication with a heat controller. A timer communicates with the heat controller configured to count down a predetermined cooking time. An alarm unit, in communication with the timer, is configured to communicate an alarm signal for a predetermined alarm time after the cooking time expires.