Method for digitizing a cooking process, kitchen appliance and system for digitizing a cooking process

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing kitchen appliances lack an efficient method for users to digitize and share personal cooking recipes, requiring manual entry of ingredients and lacking reliability in recognizing ingredients during the cooking process.

Innovation Solution

A kitchen appliance with a sensor device that detects and interprets operating parameters, such as weight, temperature, and visual appearance, combined with manual user interactions, to automatically recognize ingredients and integrate them into digital recipe data, using a reference database for identification and validation.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If manual entry of ingredients is used for digitizing recipes, then users can input recipe data, but the process becomes time-consuming and error-prone

Engineering Contradiction:
Improverecipe digitization speedVSAvoidingredient recognition accuracy
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The kitchen appliance automatically identifies ingredients by monitoring operating parameters during cooking processes, eliminating the need for manual ingredient entry. The system serves itself by using its own operational data to recognize what ingredients are being processed, making the digitization process both faster and more reliable.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system continuously monitors operating parameters (temperature, power consumption, stirring speed) and uses this feedback to infer ingredient identity. By analyzing how the appliance responds to different ingredients during cooking, the system automatically updates the recipe database without user intervention.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

2Measurement precision

If multiple sensors are used to detect operating parameters, then ingredient recognition accuracy improves, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveingredient identification accuracyVSAvoidsensor system complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

Existing sensors in the kitchen appliance (temperature sensors, power monitors, stirring mechanism sensors) are repurposed to detect ingredient characteristics. Rather than adding dedicated ingredient detection sensors, the system uses the multi-functionality of existing components to gather data for ingredient recognition.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The system combines data from multiple existing sensors (temperature, power, mechanical operation) into a unified ingredient identification process. By merging these operational parameters, the system achieves accurate ingredient recognition without the complexity of a separate detection system.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Data Source

PatentEP3590393B1Method for digitizing a cooking process, kitchen appliance and system for digitizing a cooking process
Publication Date: 2024.02.14 VORWERK & CO INTERHOLDING GMBH
  • EP3590393B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3590393B1 patent drawingFigure 2~3b
  • EP3590393B1 patent drawingFigure 4~5

AI summary

The invention relates to a method (100) for digitizing a cooking process (200) in a kitchen appliance (10) comprising the following steps: - Acquiring (103) at least one operating parameter (210) of the kitchen appliance (10) during manual user interaction (201) for processing an ingredient (2) received in the kitchen appliance (10). Furthermore, the invention relates to a kitchen appliance (10) for carrying out a cooking process (200) and a system (1) for digitizing a cooking process.