Intelligent oven appliance

• US 20030080113A1
• Filed: 11/01/2001
• Published: 05/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Salton Incorporated (Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Salton Incorporated (Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Williamson, Charles G.
• Application Number:
  US10/003,734
• Publication Number:
  US 20030080113A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 219/506
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 6/688 for thawing

Abstract

The invention may be broadly conceptualized as an approach in which an oven (122) receives a plurality of program recipes from a network that are executed by scanning with a scanner (1216) a symbol and associating the scanned symbol with one of the plurality of program recipes while keeping a real-time clock (1224) synchronized and correctly set by receiving period time synchronization messages.

Claims

1. A oven apparatus, comprising:

a housing;

a heat generator disposed in association with the housing;

a code input device;

a controller that stores a plurality of recipe programs upon receipt of the plurality of programs at the network interface and operates the heat generator in accordance with a recipe program selected from the plurality of recipe programs in view of a code input by the code input device; and

a network interface that request a recipe program from an operably connected, but external device and receives the requested recipe program.

2. The oven apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a clock in communication with the controller, the clock being set upon receipt of a time synchronization message at the network interface.

3. The oven apparatus of claim 1, wherein a recipe program request message is formatted upon the controller failing to associate the input code from the code input device with one recipe program from the plurality of recipe programs.

4. The oven apparatus of claim 3, wherein the network interface is in receipt of a new recipe program associated with the input code in response to the recipe program request message being sent to the operably connected, but external device.

5. A method, comprising:

receiving in an oven a plurality of recipe programs at a network interface from an operably connected, but external device; and

storing the plurality of recipe programs in a memory by a controller that are each selectable with a digital signal from a code input device; and

configuring the oven in response to the digital signal being associated with one recipe program in the plurality of recipe programs.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

formatting a recipe program request message in response to the controller failing to select a recipe program from the plurality of recipe programs that is associated with the digital signal; and

receiving a requested recipe program at the network interface from an operably connected, but external device in response to the recipe program request message.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving a time synchronization message at the network interface; and

setting a clock in the oven by the controller upon receipt of the time synchronization message.

12. The machine-readable signal-bearing medium of claim 5, further comprising:

formatting a recipe program request message in response to the controller failing to select a recipe program from the plurality of recipe programs that is associated with the digital signal; and

receiving a requested recipe program at the network interface from an operably connected, but external device in response to the recipe program request message.

13. The machine-readable signal-bearing medium of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving a time synchronization message at the network interface; and

setting a clock in the oven by the controller upon receipt of the time synchronization message.

8. A apparatus, comprising:

means for receiving in an oven a plurality of recipe programs at a network interface from an operably connected, but external device; and

means for storing the plurality of recipe programs in a memory by a controller that are each selectable with a digital signal from a code input device; and

means for configuring the oven in response to the digital signal being associated with one recipe program in the plurality of recipe programs.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

means for formatting a recipe program request message in response to the controller failing to select a recipe program from the plurality of recipe programs that is associated with the digital signal; and

means for receiving a requested recipe program at the network interface from an operably connected, but external device in response to the recipe program request message.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

means for receiving a time synchronization message at the network interface; and

means for setting a clock in the oven by the controller upon receipt of the time synchronization message.

11. A machine-readable signal-bearing medium containing instructions that cause a system to perform a method for operating an oven, the method comprising:

receiving at the oven a plurality of recipe programs at a network interface from an operably connected, but external device; and

storing the plurality of recipe programs in a memory by a controller that are each selectable with a digital signal from a code input device; and

configuring the oven in response to the digital signal being associated with one recipe program in the plurality of recipe programs.