Electrically operated food processor
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing food processors lack safe and intuitive handling and operation, often leading to accidental triggering of critical functions due to unintentional user interactions.
Innovation Solution
Incorporation of an optical system for recognizing the user's presence and speech recognition technology, allowing for voice-controlled operation with confirmation mechanisms, and integration of a camera for lip-reading to enhance recognition accuracy, ensuring that voice commands are only executed when intended and reducing background noise interference.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If speech recognition is used to control the food processor, then ease of operation is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to accidental triggering of critical functions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an optical recognition system as an intermediary between the user and the speech recognition system. The camera detects whether a user is present and facing the device, and only enables speech recognition when these conditions are met. This intermediary layer prevents accidental triggering by ensuring that speech commands are only processed when the user is intentionally interacting with the device.
2Ease of operation
If speech recognition is always active, then ease of operation is improved, but loss of information increases due to background noise and unintended commands
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the speech recognition system dynamic by enabling it only when the camera detects a user in the correct position. The system transitions between active and inactive states based on real-time optical detection, rather than remaining constantly active. This dynamic behavior reduces processing of unintended commands and improves signal-to-noise ratio by only activating when a user is present.
3Reliability
If optical recognition is added to verify user presence, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a camera that serves multiple functions: it detects user presence, verifies user orientation, and potentially supports other visual recognition tasks. By making the optical system multi-functional, the patent reduces the need for separate dedicated sensors for each function, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity while achieving improved reliability through user verification.
Data Source
AI summary
An electrically operated food processor with a mixing bowl and a mixer in the mixing bowl is provided with an acoustic transducer and with stored speech recognition software, it being possible to use speech recognition to cause the food processor to carry out a routine task. The speech recognition may be activated by turning on the food processor.