Cooking appliance with a transparent display
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional cooking appliances have limited display and control areas, making it difficult for users to easily access and recognize cooking information, especially in busy kitchen environments where unskilled workers may confuse insertion levels, leading to operational disruptions.
Innovation Solution
A cooking appliance with a transparent display that covers the viewing opening, allowing for a larger information display area visible from a distance, and featuring a touch-sensitive input field that can adjust transparency, enabling clear assignment of information to specific cooking levels and reducing the need for side frame controls.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If a conventional display and control panel are used in the side frame, then the device structure is simple, but the display area is limited and information cannot be recognized from a distance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent moves the display from the traditional side frame (2D plane) to the cooking chamber door (front surface), utilizing the third dimension of the appliance structure. This allows the display to occupy a much larger surface area while maintaining structural simplicity, as the door is already a prominent front-facing component.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooking chamber door serves dual functions: it acts as both the access door for the cooking chamber and as the mounting surface for the display and control interface. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate dedicated display structures, maintaining device simplicity while maximizing display area.
2Area of stationary object
If a larger display area is created on the front surface, then information visibility from distance is improved, but the front surface area available for other controls is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the display function and control interface function into a single integrated unit on the cooking chamber door. The control elements are positioned adjacent to or overlapping with the display area, allowing users to view information and operate controls within the same visual field, eliminating the need for separate control panels.
Solution Approach 2:
The display and control elements are asymmetrically arranged on the cooking chamber door, with the larger display area occupying the central or dominant position while control elements are positioned in accessible zones. This asymmetric layout optimizes both visibility from distance and ease of operation by placing controls in ergonomically favorable positions.
3Illumination intensity
If the viewing opening is made transparent to allow viewing of the cooking chamber, then visibility of food is improved, but the display of information on the same surface becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a transparent display technology that allows the display surface to dynamically switch between transparent and opaque states. When information needs to be displayed, the surface becomes opaque to ensure visibility; when viewing the cooking chamber is needed, the surface returns to transparent state. This dynamic property resolves the contradiction between transparency for viewing and opacity for information display.
Solution Approach 2:
The transparent display utilizes optical property changes (transparency/opacity transitions) similar to color changes. The display material can change its optical characteristics based on the operational state, allowing it to be transparent when not displaying information and opaque when information needs to be communicated, thus maintaining both viewing capability and information visibility.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
Figure 4a
AI summary
The present invention relates to a cooking appliance (1) having a housing (2), a cooking-appliance or cooking-chamber door (3) or a cooking-appliance or cooking-chamber cover for opening and closing a cooking chamber (4) of the cooking appliance (1), and at least one viewing opening (9) in the cooking-chamber door (3) or the cooking-chamber cover, wherein at least a portion of the viewing opening is able to assume the states transparent and opaque, said cooking appliance being distinguished in that the at least one portion of the viewing opening (9) has a transparent display (11) which is able to display information.