Household appliance and method for operating such a household appliance
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Cooking appliances with hobs often require manual resetting of settings after incorrect operation, leading to user inconvenience and potential safety risks due to continuous actuation detection thresholds that are not effectively differentiated from regular use.
Innovation Solution
A household appliance with a sensor button for setting parameters that automatically resets to the previous state upon detecting continuous actuation exceeding a threshold, providing user-friendly operation by maintaining or reactivating settings without manual intervention and incorporating safety shutdowns for prolonged inactivity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If continuous activation detection is implemented to prevent incorrect operation, then operational safety is improved, but user convenience deteriorates due to manual resetting requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The control element automatically resets itself after detecting incorrect operation (continuous activation beyond threshold), eliminating the need for manual resetting by the user. The system serves itself by autonomously recovering from the incorrect state, thereby maintaining safety while restoring convenience.
Solution Approach 2:
The system monitors the activation duration of the control element and provides feedback when incorrect operation is detected. Based on this feedback, the system automatically initiates a reset sequence, creating a closed-loop control mechanism that prevents incorrect operation while maintaining user convenience through automatic recovery.
2Ease of operation
If automatic reset is implemented after incorrect operation, then user convenience is improved, but reliability may worsen due to potential premature reset before safety confirmation
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection of incorrect operation by monitoring activation duration against a threshold before initiating reset. This preliminary action ensures that only genuinely incorrect operations (exceeding the threshold) trigger automatic reset, preventing premature reset while maintaining convenience.
3Measurement precision
If threshold-based detection is used to distinguish incorrect operation, then detection accuracy is improved, but false positives increase due to prolonged regular use
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses parameter changes (activation duration threshold) to distinguish between regular and incorrect operation. By setting the threshold higher than typical regular use duration but lower than incorrect continuous activation, the system achieves accurate detection while minimizing false positives.
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 ensures that settings are restored without user intervention after incorrect actuation is corrected, enhancing user-friendliness and operational safety by distinguishing regular from incorrect actuations and providing alerts for continuous operation, while ensuring safety shutdowns for prolonged inactivity.
Implementation Method 1
spills or overflows of electrically conductive liquid (e.g., soup, sauce, pasta water, etc.) across capacitively switching sensor buttons
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
AI summary
A domestic appliance (1) is equipped with at least one operator control element (5a-e), in particular a sensor button, for setting at least one setting parameter of the domestic appliance (1), wherein the domestic appliance (1) is designed to identify (S3) incorrect operation of the operator control element (5a-e), and wherein the domestic appliance (1) is designed to automatically reset (S5) at least one setting parameter (KS), which is associated with the incorrectly operated operator control element (5a-e), to a value which was valid immediately before the incorrect operation. A method serves to operate a domestic appliance (1), in which method incorrect operation of the operator control element (5a-e) is identified (S3), wherein at least one setting parameter which is associated with the incorrectly operated operator control element (5a-e) is automatically reset (S5) to a value which was valid immediately before the incorrect operation.