Induction heating cooker, induction heating cooking method, induction heating cooking program, resonance sound detection device, resonance sound detection method, and resonance sound detection program

• US 8,791,399 B2
• Filed: 05/01/2007
• Issued: 07/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Nagamitsu, Sachio, Noda, Makiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Ross, Dana
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dang, Ket D
• Application Number:
  US12/299,962
• Publication Number:
  US 20090173731A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,646 Days
• Field of Search: 219/622, 219/621, 219/620, 219/624, 219/635, 219/649, 219/656, 219/668, 219/600, 219626-628, 219/647, 219660-667, 219671-672, 993/28, 993/29.R, 993/30, 99333-334, 993/74, 363/96, 363/95, 363/19, 363/37, 363/79, 363/86, 363/80, 363/97, 363/135, 73 101- 103, 73/101.5, 73/14.6, 73/14.8, 73/16.6, 73/17.3, 73 182- 183, 73/18.6, 735/70, 735/79, 735/84, 736/46, 736/48, 736/49, 736/62
• US Class Current: 219/622
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 6/062 for cooking plates or the like

Abstract

An object of the invention is to accurately detect a state of an object to be heated in a cooking vessel and effectively avoid cooking failure. An induction heating section (13) inductively heats a cooking vessel (11). A vibration detecting section (14) detects a vibration of the cooking vessel (11) via a top plate (12). A vibration waveform extracting section (15) extracts a vibration waveform of a frequency component having a frequency equal to a predetermined multiplication product of an induction heating frequency, from a waveform of the vibration detected by the vibration detecting section (14). A determining section (16) determines a state of an object to be heated, based on the vibration waveform extracted by the vibration waveform extracting section (15).

Claims

1. An induction heating cooker, comprising:

a plurality of induction heating sections for respectively inductively heating a plurality of cooking vessels for containing an object to be heated;

a plurality of vibration detecting sections for respectively detecting vibrations of the plurality of cooking vessels;

a first vibration waveform extracting section for utilizing a time lag in a vibration waveform to be transmitted from the plurality of cooking vessels to the plurality of vibration detecting sections to cancel a vibration waveform in a vibration detection section corresponding to a cooking vessel, of the plurality of cooking vessels, to be subjected to boiling determination out of the plurality of vibration detection section, the vibration waveform to be cancelled being transmitted from cooking vessels, of the plurality of cooking vessels, other than the cooking vessel subjected to the boiling determination, so as to extract solely the vibration waveform from the vibration detection section corresponding to the cooking vessel subjected to the boiling determination;

a second vibration waveform extracting section for extracting a vibration waveform of a frequency component having a frequency of about twice as large as an induction heating frequency, the vibration waveform extracted by the second vibration waveform extracting section being extracted from the vibration waveform extracted by the first vibration waveform extracting section;

a waveform change pattern storing section for preliminarily storing a waveform change pattern on a vibration waveform of the cooking vessel subjected to the boiling detection in correlation to at least one of a kind of the cooking vessel, a kind of the object to be heated, and a quantity of the object to be heated;

a predetermined value storing section for preliminarily storing a predetermined value to be used for determining a boiling state in correlation to at least one of the kind of the cooking vessel, the kind of the object to be heated, and the quantity of the object to be heated;

a waveform change pattern specifying section for comparing a waveform change pattern of the vibration wave form extracted by the second vibration waveform extracting section with the waveform change pattern stored in the waveform change pattern storing section to specify at least one of the kind of the cooking vessel, the kind of the object to be heated, and the quantity of the object to be heated; and

a determining section including;

a reading section for reading, from the predetermined value storing section, the predetermined value in correlation to the at least one of the kind of the cooking vessel, the kind of the object to be heated, and the quantity of the object to be heated that has been specified by the waveform change pattern specifying section;

a predetermined value determining section for determining whether a maximum value of an amplitude extracted by the second vibration waveform extracting section at a predetermined sampling time interval has reached the predetermined value read from the predetermined value storing section; and

a boiling determining section for determining, when the predetermined value determining section determines that the maximum value has reached the predetermined value, that the object to be heated is in the boiling state.

2. The induction heating cooker according to claim 1, wherein the second vibration waveform extracting section extracts the amplitude of the frequency component having the frequency of about twice as large as the induction heating frequency by subjecting the vibration waveform detected by the first vibration waveform extracting section to a fast Fourier transformation.

3. The induction heating cooker according to claim 1, wherein the second vibration waveform extracting section calculates an absolute value of a difference between a peak value and a bottom value of the vibration waveform extracted by the first vibration waveform extracting section, so as to extract the calculated absolute value, as the amplitude of the frequency component having the frequency of about twice as large as the induction heating frequency.

4. The induction heating cooker according to claim 1, wherein the determining section determines that another object to be heated is put in the cooking vessel, based on the vibration waveform extracted by the second vibration waveform extracting section.

5. The induction heating cooker according to claim 1, further comprising a heating controlling section for controlling the plurality of induction heating sections depending on the determination of whether the object to be heated is in the boiling state.

6. The induction heating cooker according to claim 1, further comprising:

a heating controlling section for controlling the plurality of induction heating sections depending on the determination of whether the object to be heated is in the boiling state; and

a changing section for changing at least one of a predetermined value, and the waveform change pattern stored in the waveform change pattern storing section, depending on at least one of the determination of whether the object to be heated is in the boiling state, and a controlled state of the plurality of induction heating sections to be controlled by the heating controlling section.

7. The induction heating cooker according to claim 1, wherein the determining section determines whether the object to be heated is in the boiling state, exclusively based on a waveform change pattern of a vibration waveform of the cooking vessel.

8. The induction heating cooker according to claim 1, wherein

the induction heating cooker further includes:

a plurality of temperature detecting sections for detecting temperatures of the cooking vessels, respectively; and

a heating controlling section for lowering an induction heating output of one of the induction heating sections, based on the temperature of each of the cooking vessels detected by the temperature detecting sections, and

the determining section determines whether the state of the object to be heated is in the boiling state with respect to each of the induction heating sections by detecting a change in the second vibration waveform extracted by the vibration waveform extracting section.

9. The induction heating cooker according to claim 1, wherein

each of the plurality of vibration detecting sections respectively detects the vibration of one of the cooking vessels in an ultrasonic frequency band, and respectively detects the vibration of one of the cooking vessels in an audible frequency band,

the second vibration waveform extracting section extracts a first vibration waveform of the frequency component having the frequency of about twice as large as the induction heating frequency, from a waveform of the vibration in the ultrasonic frequency band extracted by the first vibration waveform extracting section, and extracts a second vibration waveform of the vibration in the audible frequency band extracted by the first vibration waveform extracting section, and

the determining section determines whether the object to be heated is in the boiling state, based on the first vibration waveform extracted by the second vibration waveform extracting section to compensate for the determination as to the boiling state, based on a change in the second vibration waveform extracted by the second vibration waveform extracting section.