Multi-Ingredient Cooking Temperature Control Using Cold-Point Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional cooking apparatuses struggle to cook multiple ingredients simultaneously with optimal taste due to lack of real-time temperature control and customized heating settings, leading to inefficient and cumbersome cooking processes.
Innovation Solution
A temperature control method and system that adjusts heating based on ingredient type and position, using a heating device to achieve targeted heating by identifying region and ingredient cold/hot points, and adjusting temperatures through multiple stages to ensure simultaneous cooking of ingredients with optimal taste.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If conventional microwave heating is used, then heating efficiency is high, but temperature distribution is uneven and cannot achieve targeted heating of individual ingredients
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements different heating strategies for different regions of the food. The temperature control system divides the food into multiple regions and applies localized heating control to each region based on its specific thermal characteristics and cooking requirements, achieving uniform temperature distribution across the entire food while maintaining simple overall system architecture
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs temperature sensing elements that continuously monitor temperature distribution within the food and feed this information back to the control system. This feedback mechanism enables real-time adjustment of heating power and duration to maintain uniform temperature distribution without requiring complex predictive models
2Ease of operation
If multiple ingredients are cooked simultaneously with fixed heating parameters, then cooking process is simple, but cannot achieve optimal cooking taste for different ingredients
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the cooking process into distinct stages (defrosting, cooking, reheating) and assigns different heating parameters to each stage. For each ingredient, the system divides cooking parameters into multiple segments corresponding to different thermal zones and cooking requirements, enabling precise control while maintaining simple user interaction through automated program selection
Solution Approach 2:
The patent automatically adjusts heating parameters (power level, duration, interval) based on the detected ingredient types and their respective cooking characteristics. The control system modifies parameters dynamically during the cooking process to achieve optimal cooking results for multiple ingredients simultaneously, keeping the user interface simple while implementing complex parameter management
3Measurement precision
If real-time temperature monitoring is implemented, then cooking precision is improved, but system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements temperature monitoring at strategic locations where temperature changes most significantly occur during cooking. The system uses the natural thermal gradients and self-heating characteristics of different food regions to infer overall temperature distribution, reducing the need for extensive sensor arrays while maintaining adequate measurement precision
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex mechanical temperature sensing systems with simpler electronic or optical sensing methods. The control system uses minimal sensing elements combined with thermal modeling algorithms to achieve accurate temperature measurement and control, substituting physical complexity with computational simplicity
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
Enables even heating of the entire food region and targeted heating of individual ingredients, achieving simultaneous readiness with optimal cooking taste by real-time monitoring and precise temperature control.
Implementation Method 1
The magnetron is excited by the power supply and continuously generates microwaves, which are coupled into the cooking cavity by a waveguide system
Implementation Method 2
The microwaves are refracted in different directions by the rotatable stirrer to allow microwave energy to be evenly distributed in the cooking cavity, thereby enabling heating of the food
Data Source
AI summary
Provided are a cooking apparatus, a temperature control method and system for a cooking apparatus. The method includes: controlling, based on a quantity and a type of an ingredient in a food region of the cooking apparatus, a heating device of the cooking apparatus to adjust an average temperature of the food region to a first temperature; determining, at a first sampling frequency, a position of the region cold point on a temperature map at each sampling time point, and controlling the heating device to heat the position of the region cold point, to adjust the average temperature of the food region from the first temperature to a second temperature; and collecting a cooking parameter of each ingredient, and controlling, based on the cooking parameter, the heating device to adjust an average temperature of the ingredient from the second temperature to a target temperature.