Cooktop appliance and method for detecting cookware removal
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cooktop appliances face inefficiencies and safety hazards due to the inability to accurately detect the presence or absence of cookware, leading to wasted energy and potential safety risks, especially with radiant heating elements that lack effective monitoring capabilities.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and cooktop appliance design that detect a temperature drop threshold, followed by a waiting period and rolling difference calculation, determine whether cookware is removed by comparing temperature differences, allowing for precise detection of cookware presence or absence and adjusting energy input accordingly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If additional sensors or imaging devices are used to detect cookware presence, then detection accuracy improves, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The heating element serves dual purposes: it both heats the cookware and acts as the sensing element by monitoring its own electrical properties (current, voltage, resistance). This self-service approach eliminates the need for separate sensing components, resolving the contradiction between detection accuracy and device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The heating element is designed to perform multiple functions simultaneously: thermal heating and presence detection. By making the heating element universal for both purposes, the patent avoids adding extra sensors while maintaining accurate cookware detection capability
2Reliability
If temperature monitoring is continuous and immediate, then safety response time improves, but false detections increase due to normal temperature fluctuations
Solution Approach 1:
The system establishes a baseline temperature and monitors deviations from this baseline over a predetermined time period. By preparing the reference temperature in advance and comparing against it systematically, the patent reduces false detections while maintaining reliable safety responses
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic temperature monitoring that adapts to normal cooking fluctuations by using rolling difference calculations and threshold-based detection over time windows. This dynamic approach distinguishes between normal temperature variations and actual cookware removal events, improving both reliability and precision
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution effectively reduces energy wastage and enhances safety by accurately determining cookware removal, mitigating false positives and negatives, and ensuring timely termination of energy input to prevent accidents.
Implementation Method 1
Certain cooktop appliances include heating elements for heating cookware... For radiant heating elements particularly, the resistive properties of the heating element may not allow for monitoring the presence of cookware
Implementation Method 2
detecting a temperature drop of a threshold magnitude during an observation period... obtain a temperature signal during a third period of time
Data Source
AI summary
A controller and cooktop appliance configured to execute steps of a method for operating the cooktop appliance are provided. The method includes detecting a temperature drop of a threshold magnitude during an observation period; allowing for temperature decrease during a waiting period; obtaining a rolling difference in temperature during a calculation period; and determining, from the rolling difference in temperature, whether cookware is removed based on a comparison of a quantity of differences above a temperature magnitude to a quantity of differences below the temperature magnitude.