Touchscreen Hob Heating Array for Flexible Zone Combining
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Solution Overview
Problem
Kitchen hobs lack flexibility in adapting to various pot sizes and maintaining precise temperature profiles, and their user interfaces are not intuitive enough to efficiently manage multiple heating zones.
Innovation Solution
A hob with a combination of heating elements, a pot detector, and touchscreen control that allows users to combine and separate heating zones through intuitive touch inputs, enabling efficient control and display of heating parameters, reducing the number of input commands required.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If multiple heating zones are controlled individually through traditional interfaces, then each zone can be precisely controlled, but the user interface becomes complex and difficult to operate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple heating zone controls into a single graphical representation on the touchscreen. Users can select and control multiple zones simultaneously through one interface element, reducing the number of separate controls needed and simplifying the overall interface complexity while maintaining individual zone control capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The user interface dynamically adapts its complexity based on the number of active heating zones. When multiple zones are active, the system presents a consolidated control view; when fewer zones are active, the interface simplifies accordingly. This dynamic adjustment optimizes ease of operation without requiring a fixed complex interface structure.
2Speed
If pot detection is performed continuously, then smooth response to pot movement is achieved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The pot detection system operates periodically at optimized intervals rather than continuously. The controller performs detection at specific time points that are sufficient to detect pot placement and removal while allowing energy-saving modes between detections. This periodic operation maintains adequate response speed for cooking operations while significantly reducing energy consumption compared to continuous detection.
3Loss of information
If all heating parameters are displayed on the screen, then complete information is provided, but visibility of important information decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and highlights the most important heating parameters and cooking information to the forefront of the display. Less critical information is either omitted from the main view or placed in secondary display areas. This extraction approach ensures that important information maintains high visibility while still providing access to complete parameter information when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The display dynamically prioritizes information based on the current cooking context and active heating zones. Important parameters such as temperature and timing for actively heating zones are displayed prominently, while parameters for inactive zones are minimized or hidden. This dynamic information management maintains visibility of critical data while preserving information completeness.
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
Facilitates flexible operation of multiple heating zones, improves user interface visibility, and reduces energy consumption by adapting pot detection to practical cooking environments, enhancing the overall cooking experience.
Implementation Method 1
a hob (100) with a combination of heating elements (115)
Implementation Method 2
a pot detector (120) for detecting a pot (105, 110) placed on the heating array (115)
Data Source
Figure 1~3
Figure 4~5
AI summary
The invention discloses a hob (100) with free configurable heating array (115) and touchscreen control (130). A user may combine graphic representations (145) and (150) of a first and a second pot in order to combine a control operation of a first and a second heating zone (107, 112) associated to the respective pots. In this manner, plural heating zones can be combined by a single input, and visibility on the touchscreen control is improved by uniting both representations of the pots on the touchscreen control display. Combining/separating heating zones can be effected by the synchronous movement of two fingers uniting the two graphic representations of the pots on the touchscreen respectively diverging the two graphic representations of the pots on the touchscreen (130). A computer program product (500) allows to easily and freely configure the hob (100) and to perform maintenance and mass production.