Oven

• US 10,419,647 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2016
• Issued: 09/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Park, Sang Jun, Kim, Woo Joo, Yun, Min Ho, Jung, Yeo-Wool
• Primary Examiner(s): Alexander, Reginald
• Application Number:
  US15/200,621
• Publication Number:
  US 20170000292A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,173 Days
• Field of Search: 99325, 99331, 99332, 99333, 99341, 219393, 219411, 219506
• CPC Class Codes: A21B 3/10 Means for illuminating ovens
• CPC Class Codes: F24C 15/008 Illumination for oven cavities
• CPC Class Codes: F24C 15/04 with transparent panels
• CPC Class Codes: F24C 7/085 on baking ovens
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 15/03 Combinations of cameras with lighting apparatus; Flash units
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 29/00 Combinations of cameras, projectors or photographic printing apparatus with non-photographic non-optical apparatus, e.g. clocks or weapons; Cameras having the shape of other objects combinations with flash apparatus G03B15/03
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/51 Housings
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/57 Mechanical or electrical details of cameras or camera modules specially adapted for being embedded in other devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/66 Remote control of cameras or camera parts, e.g. by remote control devices

Abstract

Disclosed herein is an oven including a monitoring unit which monitors a cooking compartment and transmits data obtained by the monitoring to an external device through a network to allow a user to check a cooking process of the oven through the external device without directly checking the oven through a transparent portion thereof to provide convenience to the user.

Claims

1. An oven comprising:

a case;

a cooking compartment inside the case;

a door to respectively open and close the cooking compartment; and

a monitoring assembly including;

an image capturing portion having a camera, and

a housing which forms an exterior of the monitoring assembly,

wherein the monitoring assembly is disposed at a position on the door and the camera is moveable inside the housing to be at an angle at which an image of an inside of the cooking compartment is captured based on at least a height at which an object is placed inside the cooking compartment and a size of the cooking compartment.

2. The oven of claim 1, wherein the door comprises a transparent portion configured to allow the cooking compartment to be viewable from an outside of the oven, and

wherein the image capturing portion of the monitoring assembly is configured to capture the image of the inside of the cooking compartment through the transparent portion.

3. The oven of claim 2, wherein the monitoring assembly is positioned on an outer surface of the transparent portion at a location in which the camera of the image capturing portion views the inside of the cooking compartment in entirety according to the size of the cooking compartment.

4. The oven of claim 1, wherein the monitoring assembly further comprises:

a communication board which transmits information of the image captured by the camera of the image capturing portion to an external device through a network.

5. The oven of claim 1, wherein the camera of the image capturing portion is moved to the angle to be inclined with respect to an outer surface of the door.

6. The oven of claim 4,

wherein the communication board is disposed to be adjacent to an inner surface of the housing.

7. The oven of claim 6, wherein the housing comprises:

a first housing in which the image capturing portion having the camera and the communication board are mounted, and

a second housing configured to be attachable to an outer surface of the door and separable from the first housing.

8. The oven of claim 7, wherein an inner surface of the first housing comprises:

a first mounting portion on which the image capturing portion having the camera is mounted, and

a second mounting portion on which the communication board is mounted.

9. The oven of claim 1, further comprising:

a micom which controls the monitoring assembly; and

a cable which electrically connects the micom to the monitoring assembly.

10. The oven of claim 9, wherein a part of the cable is disposed inside the door and passes through the door to be connected to the monitoring assembly.

11. The oven of claim 9, wherein the cable comprises a first cable disposed inside the door and a second cable disposed inside the case, and

wherein the first cable and the second cable are separably provided.

12. The oven of claim 11, wherein the door is provided to be separable from the case, and

wherein the first cable and the second cable are provided to be separable from each other when the door is separated from the case.

13. The oven of claim 4, wherein the camera of the image capturing portion obtains the information of the image of the inside of the cooking compartment, for transmission by the communication board to the external device through the network.

14. The oven of claim 4, wherein the camera of the image capturing portion obtains a plurality of pieces of image information by capturing multiple images including the information of image of the inside of the cooking compartment at different times, and

wherein the communication board sequentially transmits the plurality of pieces of image information obtained by the camera of the image capturing portion to the external device through the network.

15. The oven of claim 4, wherein the camera of the image capturing portion obtains moving image information by capturing a moving image of the inside of the cooking compartment, and

wherein the communication board transmits the moving image information obtained by the camera of the image capturing portion to the external device through the network.

16. An oven comprising:

a case;

a cooking compartment inside the case; and

a monitoring assembly including;

a camera that is moveable, and

a housing which forms an exterior of the monitoring assembly,

wherein the monitoring assembly is disposed at a position on the case and the camera is moveable inside the housing to capture an image of an inside of the cooking compartment at an angle based on at least a height at which an object is placed inside the cooking compartment and a size of the cooking compartment, and transmits information of the image captured to an external device through a network.

17. The oven of claim 16, wherein the image of the inside of the cooking compartment is captured according to image-taking control information received by the monitoring assembly from the external device.

18. The oven of claim 17, wherein a lighting unit is provided in the cooking compartment, and

wherein the lighting unit is turned on before the camera captures the image of the inside of the cooking compartment.

19. The oven of claim 17, wherein the monitoring assembly obtains image information or moving image information of the captured image of the inside of the cooking compartment and transmits the image information or the moving image information according to the external device through the network.