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WO2016038039A1 - Commande d'un processus de cuisson de nourriture - Google Patents

Commande d'un processus de cuisson de nourriture Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2016038039A1
WO2016038039A1 PCT/EP2015/070502 EP2015070502W WO2016038039A1 WO 2016038039 A1 WO2016038039 A1 WO 2016038039A1 EP 2015070502 W EP2015070502 W EP 2015070502W WO 2016038039 A1 WO2016038039 A1 WO 2016038039A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
food
signals
radio frequency
doneness
frequency signals
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/EP2015/070502
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Wei Li
Bin Yin
Mo Li
George LUO
Original Assignee
Koninklijke Philips N.V.
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Koninklijke Philips N.V. filed Critical Koninklijke Philips N.V.
Publication of WO2016038039A1 publication Critical patent/WO2016038039A1/fr

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H05—ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • H05B—ELECTRIC HEATING; ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES, IN GENERAL
    • H05B6/00—Heating by electric, magnetic or electromagnetic fields
    • H05B6/64—Heating using microwaves
    • H05B6/70—Feed lines
    • H05B6/705—Feed lines using microwave tuning
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
    • G01N33/00—Investigating or analysing materials by specific methods not covered by groups G01N1/00 - G01N31/00
    • G01N33/02—Food
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H05—ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • H05B—ELECTRIC HEATING; ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES, IN GENERAL
    • H05B6/00—Heating by electric, magnetic or electromagnetic fields
    • H05B6/64—Heating using microwaves
    • H05B6/6447—Method of operation or details of the microwave heating apparatus related to the use of detectors or sensors
    • H05B6/6467—Method of operation or details of the microwave heating apparatus related to the use of detectors or sensors using detectors with R.F. transmitters
    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02B—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO BUILDINGS, e.g. HOUSING, HOUSE APPLIANCES OR RELATED END-USER APPLICATIONS
    • Y02B40/00—Technologies aiming at improving the efficiency of home appliances, e.g. induction cooking or efficient technologies for refrigerators, freezers or dish washers

Definitions

  • the present technology relates to the field of cooking control, particularly to a method for controlling a cooking process of food at least based on detecting the doneness level of the food.
  • the technology also relates to an apparatus, a cooking device and a computer readable storage medium for performing the method.
  • Food doneness is largely associated with its core temperature.
  • This is monitored invasively during cooking by inserting a needle shaped thermometer into the food.
  • the method of detecting food doneness is destructive and moreover only provides temperature information of a particular part of the food which can not accurately represent the overall temperature in the food.
  • the needle in the cooking machine will make the cooking machine difficult to clean. Meanwhile, in order to avoid damage the food seriously, it is often that a very thin needle is used. Such needle is so liable to broke or bend as to impact its usage. Also, the machine structure will be complicated with the added needle, which will also increase the product cost of the cooking machine.
  • a first aspect of the present disclosure is a method for controlling a cooking process of food.
  • the method comprising obtaining a protein status in the food in the course of heating the food; determining a doneness level of the food at least partially based on the protein status; and controlling the cooking process of the food at least partially based on the determined doneness level.
  • Protein is a good indicator representing the actual status of the food along a cooking process, because it is an important ingredient in the food (e.g., meat), meanwhile the protein status of the food is highly related to the food doneness during the cooking process.
  • the actual indicator for doneness level is protein denaturation, i.e. the chemical status of the protein, which can provide more direct and precise information of the status of food based on established relation between the doneness level and the protein denaturation extent.
  • the proposed method offers an automatic cooking solution in comparison with traditional methods that need user's input about target time/temperature.
  • the user is only required to set a target doneness level of the food without inputting other cooking parameters such as temperature, cooking time etc., which is not easily grasped by an average user.
  • precise cooking control is enabled due to the direct indication of protein status during cooking.
  • Temperature is a traditional indicator for cooking process. It is the cause of ingredient status change, but it is not the direct indicator of food status.
  • salt with different meat composition, with different personal preferences, and with different meat types, the temperature cannot give precise doneness information.
  • protein status is proposed as the indicator of food doneness, which facilitates to detect the food doneness more timely and accurately.
  • the method may emit a plurality of radio frequency signals into the food noninvasively and receive a plurality of reflection signals or transmission signals of the radio frequency signals from the food.
  • the reflection signals is a part of the radio frequency signals that reflect from the food
  • the transmission signals is a part of the radio frequency signals that transmit through the food. Then, the method may obtain the protein status based on the plurality of radio frequency signals and the plurality of reflection signals or transmission signals.
  • the food doneness can be determined in a non-invasive way. In this way, the integrity of the food will not be destroyed, thereby improving the visual experience when tasting the food.
  • the plurality of radio frequency signals may have the same frequency.
  • the method may emit the plurality of radio frequency signals into the food at different points of time in the course of heating the food; obtain the protein status based on dielectric properties of the food, the dielectric properties are determined based on the phases or amplitudes of the radio frequency signals and the plurality of reflection signals or transmission signals; and determine the doneness level of the food based on the dielectric properties over time.
  • the change of dielectric property in food is featured by staged drop and rise associated with food doneness levels, which makes the determination of the doneness level of the food independent of the absolute measurement value, thereby protecting the
  • the plurality of radio frequency signals may have at least two frequencies.
  • the method may emit the plurality of radio frequency signals into the food; extract parameters indicating the protein status in the food based on the plurality of radio frequency signals and the plurality of reflection signals or transmission signals; and determine the doneness level of the food based on the extracted parameters.
  • the different frequencies may also be used for obtaining a doneness level for particular respective depths, and the method then comprises combining the different doneness levels to derive an overall doneness level.
  • the extracted parameters in this case may comprise a dielectric attenuation parameter for each depth, and the method may then comprise converting the dielectric attenuation parameters into respective doneness levels using calibration information.
  • a second aspect of the present disclosure is an apparatus configured to control a cooking process of food.
  • the apparatus comprises an obtaining unit, a determining unit and a controlling unit.
  • the obtaining unit is adapted to obtain a protein status in the food in the course of heating the food;
  • the determining unit adapted to determine a doneness level of the food at least partially based on the protein status; and the controlling unit adapted to control the cooking process of the food at least partially based on the determined doneness level.
  • a third aspect of the present disclosure is a cooking device.
  • the cooking device comprises an apparatus configured to detect doneness of food as described above.
  • a fourth aspect of the present disclosure is a computer readable storage medium storing instructions. When executed on an apparatus, the instructions cause the apparatus to perform the steps of the method as described above.
  • Fig. 1 schematically illustrates a flowchart of a method for controlling a cooking process of the food in accordance with an embodiment
  • Fig. 2 schematically illustrates a flowchart of a method for controlling a cooking process of the food in accordance with an embodiment
  • Fig. 3 is an exemplary diagram schematically illustrating the temperature dependence of dielectric property of the food
  • Fig. 4 is an exemplary diagram schematically illustrating the repeatability that the dielectric property of the food has dependence on the temperature
  • Fig. 5 is an exemplary diagram schematically illustrating the determination of the food doneness with the derivative scheme
  • Fig. 6 is a block diagram of an apparatus configured to control a cooking process of food in accordance with an embodiment
  • Fig. 7 schematically illustrates a block diagram of an apparatus configured to control a cooking process of food in accordance with an embodiment
  • Fig. 8 schematically illustrates the arrangements of the array of radio frequency sensing probes in accordance with an embodiment
  • Fig. 9 schematically illustrates an example of setting weighting efficient for the array of RF sensing probes in determining the doneness level of the food
  • Fig. 10 schematically illustrates the arrangements of the RF sensing probe in the cooking device in accordance with an embodiment
  • Fig. 1 1 schematically illustrates how a food item can be characterized by a set of layers
  • Fig. 12 schematically illustrates how a reflected signal is affected by the dielectric property of multiple layers; and Fig. 13 schematically shows test results which demonstrate the relationship between depth and frequency.
  • the present technology may be embodied in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.).
  • the present technology may take the form of a computer program on a computer-usable or computer- readable storage medium having computer-usable or computer-readable program code embodied in the medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system.
  • a computer-usable or computer-readable storage medium may be any medium that may contain, store, or is adapted to communicate the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
  • the core temperature is usually used as the indicator of beef steak doneness.
  • the doneness of the beef steak is divided into a plurality of doneness levels. The individual doneness levels correspond to the respective temperature ranges.
  • the temperature is only a physical indicator of the food in cooking, and the actual indicator for doneness extent is protein denaturation, i.e. the chemical status of the protein, which can provide more direct and precise information of the status of food based on established relation between doneness level and protein denaturation extent, also referred to as the protein status.
  • Fig. 1 schematically illustrates a flowchart of a method for controlling a cooking process of the food in accordance with one embodiment.
  • the method obtains the protein status in the food in the course of heating the food.
  • the food refers to any kind of food that has protein as one of the dominant ingredients, such as beef, pork, egg, and the like.
  • the beef steak will be used to describe the embodiments herein by way of example.
  • the protein denaturation process can be detected by measuring food dielectric property change. In other words, the protein status can be indicated by the dielectric behavior in the food.
  • the method may invasively cut food samples from the food during heating the food, and put the food samples into a separate protein status analyzer, which is responsible for analyzing the protein status of the food samples.
  • the method may take the protein status of the food sample as the protein status of the food.
  • the protein status of the food can be obtained in a non-invasive way.
  • the method may emit a penetrative signal such as radio frequency (RF) signal to the food, which penetrative signal can penetrate into the food at a sufficient depth (e.g.
  • RF radio frequency
  • the protein status of the food can be obtained by measuring the RF frequency absorption indicating the dielectric behavior in the food, which will be described in detail later.
  • the method determines a doneness level of the food at least partially based on the protein status.
  • the doneness level of the food can be determined based on established relation between doneness level and the protein status.
  • the protein status can be indicated in various ways, such as by the dielectric property change pattern, the spectrum characteristics of the RF signals suggesting the dielectric property in the food, as will be discussed later.
  • the method may search the database for the doneness level corresponding to the dielectric property change pattern (e.g. a curve shape) that indicates the protein status.
  • the method may utilize the spectrum characteristics of the RF signals suggesting the dielectric property in the food to predict the doneness level of the food. The implementation of these embodiments will be discussed in detail later.
  • the method controls the cooking process of the food at least partially based on the determined doneness level. For example, if the determined doneness level is equal to the target doneness level, the method may terminate the cooking process, and audibly or visually signal the user to remove the food from the cooking device. If the determined doneness level is approaching to the target one, the method may tune the cooking parameters of the cooking device, including the heating power level, the duty cycle and the cooking time, so as to eventually reach the target doneness level without over-cooking.
  • the proposed method offers an automatic cooking solution in comparison with traditional methods that need user's input about target time/temperature.
  • the user is only required to set a target doneness level of the food without inputting other cooking parameters such as temperature, cooking time etc, which is not easily grasped by an average user.
  • precise cooking control is enabled due to the direct indication of protein status during cooking.
  • Temperature is a traditional indicator for cooking process. It is the cause of ingredient status change, but it is not the direct indicator of food status.
  • salt with different meat composition, with different personal preferences, and with different meat types, the temperature cannot give precise doneness information.
  • protein status is proposed as the indicator of food doneness, which facilitates to detect the food doneness more timely and accurately.
  • conductive food heating such as frying, baking and grilling, involves a process of the heat transferring from the food surface to inside, which results in a negative temperature gradient to the center of the food.
  • the core temperature of the food is used to indicate the food doneness.
  • the temperature probe e.g. thermocouple or thermal resistor
  • the food doneness can be determined in a non-invasive way, which is made possible by involving the penetrative signal such as radio frequency signal in obtaining the protein status of the food.
  • the protein status of the food in the course of heating the food can be indicated by the dielectric behavior in the food.
  • the food dielectric behavior is dominated by several dielectric mechanisms.
  • dipole orientation and ionic conduction are the main mechanisms.
  • ionic conduction is the main effect.
  • dipole orientation which means that a polar molecule can adjust its direction according to an external electric field, contributes more.
  • both of the two mechanisms are playing a part.
  • the frequency relevance of food dielectric property is the basis of sensing the protein status of the food by radio frequency signals.
  • the method may emit a plurality of radio frequency signals into the food noninvasively continuously or discretely during heating the food at step 101, and receive a plurality of reflection signals or transmission signals of the radio frequency signals from the food at step 105.
  • the reflection signals is a part of the radio frequency signals that reflect from inside of the food.
  • the transmission signals is a part of the radio frequency signals that transmit through the food.
  • the reflection signals can be reflected from different depths of the food.
  • the reflections signals can indicate the energy absorption of RF signals at different depth of the food, which will help obtain the protein status of the food more accurately.
  • the method may obtain the protein status based on the plurality of radio frequency signals and the plurality of reflection signals or transmission signals at step 1 10.
  • the method can be implemented in the following ways:
  • the method may emit a plurality of radio frequency signals into the food at different points of time in the course of heating the food and receive the respective reflection signals or transmission signals. These radio frequency signals have the same frequency. The reason for emitting the plurality of radio frequency signals at different points of time in the course of heating is explained as below.
  • the protein denaturation process can be detected by measuring food dielectric property change. Specifically, in the initial stage of cooking (before protein denaturation), the increase in ionic mobility with temperature increase can lead to the increase in energy absorption of radio frequency. During protein denaturation, the increasing amount of free water and released ions largely accelerate the energy absorption of RF. At the later stage of denaturation, the water evaporation decreases the amount of free water and therefore decreases the ionic mobility, which results in decrease of RF energy absorption.
  • the dielectric property change in the food can be suggested by the change of the RF energy absorption during heating the food.
  • the dielectric property of the food can be represented by the RF energy absorption, which can be quantized by scattering parameters such as Sn and S 12 , dielectric constant or loss factor.
  • the method may calculate the dielectric properties over time based on the phases and/or amplitudes of the emitted radio frequency signals and the plurality of reflection signals or transmission signals at step 1 10.
  • the dielectric property can be represented by Sn, which is calculated as the ratio of the phase and/or amplitude of the emitted RF signal and the phase and/or amplitude of the corresponding reflection RF signal.
  • the dielectric property can be represented by S 12 , which is calculated as the ratio of the phase and/or amplitude of the emitted RF signal and the phase and/or amplitude of the corresponding transmission RF signal.
  • the method may determine the doneness level of the food based on the obtained dielectric properties at step 120. For example, the method may use the obtained dielectric properties to form a curve which illustrates the change of the dielectric property over time, and then match the shape of the curve with those predetermined curves indicating the individual doneness level to obtain the doneness level indicated by the curve.
  • Fig. 3 is an exemplary diagram schematically illustrating the temperature dependence of dielectric property of the beef steak. As shown, the horizontal axis is the temperature in Celsius, the vertical axis is the amplitude of Sn in decibel. Two frequencies are selected representing of low frequency and high frequency cases. The upper curve is for 1 MHz, and the lower curve is for 0.5 GHz.
  • the change of dielectric property in the beef steak can be divided into three stages. In the stage I (18-40 °C), the drop in Sn is mainly due to the increase in ionic mobility which increases with temperature.
  • the temperature reaches the denaturation zone, and Sn largely decreases because bound water changes into free water and myosin denaturation has been accompanied by the release of calcium and magnesium ions.
  • Sn rebounds because the ionic mobility decreases due to water evaporation.
  • the shape of the curve indicating the dielectric property change has a dependency on the temperature, meanwhile the doneness levels for a beef steak corresponds to the respective temperature ranges. For example, 'medium rare' falls in 55-60 °C, 'medium' falls in 60-65 °C, and 'medium well' falls in 65-69 °C.
  • the mappings between the shape of the curve indicating the dielectric property change and the doneness level is established.
  • the shape of the curve indicating the change of dielectric property in food is featured by staged drop and rise associated with food doneness levels, which makes the determination of the doneness level of the food independent of the absolute measurement value, thereby protecting the determination of the doneness level against disturbing factors such as initial status of the food, composition variance in the food. This is an apparently advantage by comparison with measuring temperature (monotonically increasing) or moisture loss (monotonically decreasing).
  • the method may also set up a function, denoted as f(t), based on the obtained dielectric properties.
  • the f(t) is a function of the dielectric properties with respect to time.
  • a derivative is taken for the f(t), and then normalized with respect to the f(t), whereby a function g(t) is derived, which can be formulated as:
  • the method may calculate the value of g(t) at the current point of time, and then compare the calculated value with the predetermined threshold ranges indicating the individual doneness levels. In this way, the doneness level indicated by the calculated value can be determined.
  • the process to establish the predetermined threshold ranges indicating the individual doneness levels will be introduced with reference to Fig. 5.
  • a plurality of beef steak samples are used in training the threshold values. These beef steaks vary in kind, quality, size, and thickness.
  • the change of the dielectric property during the heating is recorded, whereby the corresponding f(t) and thereby the g(t) can be recorded as illustrated in Fig. 5.
  • the doneness level will be marked along the curve g(t), which doneness level can be measured by invasive method (e.g. thermocouple) or provided by a professional chef.
  • the threshold ranges indicating the individual doneness levels are identified for this sample.
  • the threshold range for doneness level i can be denoted as THi iUp per].
  • the resulting threshold range for the doneness level i can be calculated by averaging the identified threshold range for this doneness level of these samples.
  • the inventors of the present invention also recognize that the doneness level of the food can be predicted by the spectrum characteristics of the RF signals at multiple frequencies.
  • the spectrum characteristics of the RF signals at multiple frequencies obtained at a specific point of time can be used in combination to predict the doneness level of the food at the specific time point.
  • the method may emit a plurality of radio frequency signals into the food. These RF signals have at least two frequencies, which can be emitted concurrently or successively in a short time interval near the current point of time.
  • the method may receive the respective reflection signals or transmission signals and extract parameters indicating the protein status in the food based on the plurality of emitted radio frequency signals and the plurality of reflection signals or transmission signals.
  • the parameters refer to the spectrum characteristics of the RF signals, including, but not limited to, the magnitude and/or phase of the emitted radio frequency signals at different frequencies; the magnitude and/or phase of the reflection signals or transmission signals at different frequencies; the scattering parameters of the emitted radio frequency signals such as Sii and S 12 ; the derivation information of the emitted RF signals, the reflection signals or transmission signals; the morphological information of these RF signals at multiple frequencies, for example, the ratio of the magnitudes/energies of the RF signals at the high frequency and the low frequency.
  • the method may determine the doneness level of the food based on the extracted parameters. For example, the method may input the parameters as predicting variables into a doneness predictive model, and the predictive model can predict the doneness level based on the predicting variables.
  • the predictive model can be set up using data mining techniques, which includes Bayesian network, decision tree/random forest, neural network, k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) algorithm, and the like. For example, a large number of samples pairing the parameters (or features) extracted from the emitted RF signals, the reflection signals, or the transmission signals (denoted by
  • Fig. 6 is a block diagram of an apparatus configured to control a cooking process of food in accordance with one embodiment.
  • the apparatus 600 includes an obtaining unit 610, a determining unit 620 and a controlling unit 630.
  • the apparatus 600 can work separately. It also can be partially or completely integrated into a cooking device. Now the functions of these elements will be described with reference to Fig. 6.
  • the obtaining unit 610 in the apparatus 600 obtains the protein status in the food in the course of heating the food.
  • the food refers to any kind of food that has protein as one of the dominant ingredients, such as beef, pork, egg, and the like.
  • the obtaining unit 610 may invasively cut food samples from the food during heating the food, and put the food samples into a separate protein status analyzer, which is responsible for analyzing the protein status of the food samples. As such, the obtaining unit 610 may take the protein status of the food sample as the protein status of the food. In another embodiment, the protein status of the food can be obtained in a noninvasive way.
  • the apparatus 600 may emit a penetrative signal such as radio frequency wave to the food, which penetrative signal can penetrate into the food at a sufficient depth (e.g. centimeters) to detect the status of protein. Therefore, the obtaining unit 610 can obtain the protein status of the food can by measuring the RF frequency absorption reflecting the dielectric behavior in the food, which will be described in detail later.
  • the determining unit 620 in the apparatus 600 determines a doneness level of the food at least partially based on the protein status.
  • the doneness level of the food can be determined based on established relation between doneness level and the protein status.
  • the protein status can be indicated in various ways, such as by the dielectric property change pattern, the spectrum characteristics of the RF signals suggesting the dielectric property in the food, as will be discussed later.
  • the determining unit 620 may search the database for the doneness level corresponding to the dielectric property change pattern (e.g. a curve line) that indicates the protein status.
  • the determining unit 620 may utilize the spectrum characteristics of the RF signals suggesting the dielectric property in the food to predict the doneness level of the food. The implementation of these embodiments will be discussed in detail later.
  • the controlling unit 630 in the apparatus 600 controls the cooking process of the food at least partially based on the determined doneness level. For example, if the determined doneness level is equal to the target doneness level, the controlling unit 630 may terminate the cooking process, and audibly or visually signal the user to remove the food from the cooking device. If the determined doneness level is approaching to the target one, the controlling unit 630 may tune the cooking parameters of the cooking device, including the heating power level, the duty cycle and the cooking time, so as to eventually reach the target doneness level without over-cooking.
  • the advantages of the embodiment are embodied in the following aspects.
  • the first aspect it offers an automatic cooking solution in comparison with traditional methods that need user's input about target time/temperature.
  • the user is only required to set a target doneness level of the food without inputting other cooking parameters such as temperature, cooking time etc, which is not easily grasped by an average user. As a result, it minimizes user intervention during cooking.
  • precise cooking control is enabled due to the direct indication of protein status during cooking.
  • Temperature is a traditional indicator for cooking process. It is the cause of ingredient status change, but it is not the direct indicator of food status. In some cases, with salt, with different meat composition, with different personal preferences, and with different meat types, the temperature cannot give precise doneness information. By contrast, in this embodiment, protein status is proposed as the indicator of food doneness, which facilitates to detect the food doneness more timely and accurately.
  • conductive food heating such as frying, baking and grilling, involves a process of the heat transferring from the food surface to inside, which results in a negative temperature gradient to the center of the food.
  • the core temperature of the food is used to indicate the food doneness.
  • the temperature probe e.g. thermocouple or thermal resistor
  • the food doneness can be determined in a non-invasive way, which is made possible by involving the penetrative signal such as radio frequency signal in obtaining the protein status of the food.
  • the apparatus 600 may further comprise an emitting unit 601 and a receiving unit 605 as illustrated in Fig. 7.
  • the emitting unit 601 in the apparatus 600 may emit a plurality of radio frequency signals into the food noninvasively.
  • the emitting unit 601 can be an open-ended coaxial probe.
  • the probe may keep touch with the food when emitting the RF signal.
  • the probe may don't contact with the food while emitting the RF signal, as long as the emitted RF signal can penetrate into the food up to a depth sufficient to detect the protein status.
  • the receiving unit 605 may accordingly receive a plurality of reflection signals or transmission signals of the radio frequency signals from the food.
  • the reflection signals is a part of the radio frequency signals that reflect from inside of the food.
  • the transmission signals is a part of the radio frequency signals that transmit through the food.
  • the reflection signals can be reflected from different depths of the food. As such, the reflections signals can indicate the energy absorption of RF signals at different depth of the food, which will help obtain the protein status of the food more accurately.
  • the receiving unit 605 When the receiving unit 605 is configured to receive the reflection signals, it can be placed on the same side of the food. In this case, the receiving unit 605 and the obtaining unit 601 can be integrated together as a single element. Additionally or
  • the receiving unit 605 when configured to receive the transmission signal, it will be placed on the other side of the food in opposition to the emitting unit 601.
  • the obtaining unit 610 may obtain the protein status based on the plurality of radio frequency signals emitted by the emitting unit 601 and the plurality of reflection signals or transmission signals received by the receiving unit 605.
  • These units in the apparatus 600 may collaborate in the following ways to determine the doneness level of the food:
  • the emitting unit 601 may emit a plurality of radio frequency signals into the food at different points of time in the course of heating the food and the receiving unit 605 may receive the respective reflection signals or transmission signals. These RF signals have the same frequency. The RF signals can be emitted and received continuously or discretely during heating the food.
  • the obtaining unit 610 may calculate the dielectric properties over time based on the phases and/or amplitudes of the emitted radio frequency signals and the plurality of reflection signals or transmission signals.
  • the dielectric property can be represented by Sn, which is calculated as the ratio of the phase and/or amplitude of the emitted RF signal and the phase and/or amplitude of the
  • the dielectric property can be represented by S 12 , which is calculated as the ratio of the phase and/or amplitude of the emitted RF signal and the phase and/or amplitude of the corresponding transmission RF signal.
  • the determining unit 620 may determine the doneness level of the food based on the obtained dielectric properties. For example, the method may use the obtained dielectric properties to form a curve which illustrates the change of the dielectric property over time, and then match the shape of the curve with those predetermined curves indicating the individual doneness level to obtain the doneness level indicated by the curve.
  • the shape of the curve indicating the change of dielectric property in food is featured by staged drop and rise associated with food doneness levels, which makes the determination of the doneness level of the food independent of the absolute measurement value, thereby protecting the determination of the doneness level against disturbing factors.
  • the obtaining unit 610 may also set up a function, denoted as f(t), based on the obtained dielectric properties.
  • the f(t) is a function of the dielectric properties with respect to time.
  • a derivative is taken for the f(t), and then normalized with respect to the f(t), whereby a function g(t) is derived, which can be formulated as:
  • the obtaining unit may calculate the value of g(t) at the current point of time, and then the determining unit may compare the calculated value with the predetermined threshold ranges indicating the individual doneness levels. In this way, the doneness level indicated by the calculated value can be determined.
  • the emitting unit 601 may emit a plurality of radio frequency signals into the food. These RF signals have at least two frequencies, which can be multiple separated frequency points, a frequency band, or combination thereof. They can be emitted
  • the receiving unit 605 may receive the respective reflection signals or transmission signals.
  • the obtaining unit 610 may extract parameters indicating the protein status in the food based on the plurality of emitted radio frequency signals and the plurality of reflection signals or transmission signals.
  • the parameters refer to the spectrum characteristics of the dielectric property in the food, including, but not limited to, the magnitude and/or phase of the emitted radio frequency signals at different frequencies; the magnitude and/or phase of the reflection signals or transmission signals at different frequencies; the scattering parameters of the emitted radio frequency signals such as Sn and S 12 ; the derivation information of the emitted RF signals, the reflection signals or transmission signals; and the morphological information of these RF signals at multiple frequencies, for example, the ratio of the magnitudes/energies of the RF signals at the high frequency and the low frequency.
  • the determining unit 620 may determine the doneness level of the food based on the extracted parameters. For example, the determining unit 620may input the parameters as predicting variables into a doneness predictive model, and the predictive model can predict the doneness level based on the predicting variables.
  • the predictive model can be set up using data mining techniques as described above.
  • conductive food heating involves a process of the heat transferring from the food surface to inside.
  • the other parts especially those at corners and close to edge, are overcooked.
  • the extent of overcooking increases with the size and thickness of a beef steak.
  • Undercooking happens with an irregular food shape or uneven food composition distribution.
  • over- or undercooking at other parts may affect on overall taste and mouth-feel (stiff, less juicy etc).
  • the overall doneness level of the food can be determined by taking into account its spatial unevenness.
  • the apparatus 600 may comprise a plurality of pairs of the emitting unit 601 and the receiving unit 605, each of which may emit a plurality of radio frequency signals into different parts of the food and receive the respective reflection signals or transmission signals therefrom.
  • the plurality of pairs of the emitting unit 601 and the receiving unit 605 are an array of open-ended coaxial probes.
  • the probes can be arranged inside one plane or following a specific curvature, as illustrated in Fig. 8. If the probes keep touch with the food in operation, a curved surface may lead to better contact and therefore improved signal to noise ratio (SNR) of detection.
  • SNR signal to noise ratio
  • the probes can be equidistantly placed or arranged in a specific pattern as desired.
  • the obtaining unit 610 may obtain protein statuses in the different parts of the food based on the radio frequency signals and the plurality of reflection signals or transmission signals for the individual parts.
  • the determining unit 630 may determine doneness levels of the different parts of the food based on the respective protein statuses, and calculate the doneness level of the food by weighing the doneness levels of the different parts of the food.
  • the overall doneness level of the food can be generally described by a function as below:
  • DL mma f(PL i ,DL i ,..DL N )
  • oveml1 represents the overall doneness level
  • DLi(i l,2, .
  • the ⁇ a can be calculated by the formula as
  • W ' is the weighing factor of the doneness level
  • roun ⁇ ( x ) [ s to take an integer closest to x .
  • the weighing factor W ' is based on the relevance of a local doneness level to the overall one.
  • the doneness of the core is most important, as it is used traditionally as a defining criterion, so the weighing factor can be set the highest. In common sense, the doneness degree gets less important when moving away from the core towards corners and edges. Thew ⁇ therefore can be set in a descending order accordingly.
  • Doneness levels from individual probes can be given fractional values in order to allow a higher doneness 'resolution' in the intermediate calculation, for instance, 3.5 for a status between 'medium' and 'medium well'.
  • the present disclosure also proposes a cooking device comprising the apparatus configured to control a cooking process of food as described above.
  • the emitting unit and the receiving unit in the apparatus can be arranged into the cooking device as appropriate, such as on lid of the cooking device, at bottom of the cooking device, etc.
  • Fig. 10 the arrangements of the emitting unit and the receiving unit in the cooking device are illustrated in Fig. 10.
  • both the emitting unit and the receiving unit are placed on lid of the cooking device.
  • the receiving unit may receive the reflection signals. They don't have contact with the food in operation.
  • both the emitting unit and the receiving unit are placed at the bottom of the cooking device, i.e. under the food. They have contact with the food in operation.
  • Fig. 10(c) one of the emitting unit and the receiving unit is placed at the bottom of the cooking device, the other one is placed on lid of the cooking device.
  • the receiving unit may receive the transmission signals.
  • the arrangement is similar to Fig. 10 (c) except that both the emitting unit and the receiving unit have contact with the food in operation.
  • the emitting unit and the receiving unit are placed at the bottom of the side wall of the cooking device in opposition to each other.
  • the food is placed between the emitting unit and the receiving unit.
  • the emitting unit emits the RF signals into the food from a side of the food, and the receiving unit receives the transmission RF signals propagating through the food from another side of the food.
  • the emitting unit and the receiving unit can be placed in the middle of the side wall of the cooking device in opposition to each other as illustrated in Fig. 10(f). In this case, the RF signals emitted by the emitting unit will graze through the food, and the scattered signals will be received by the receiving unit. This is especially applicable for the food that is too thick to be transmitted by the RF signals.
  • the determining unit 630 may determine doneness levels of the different parts of the food based on the respective protein statuses, and calculate the doneness level of the food by combining the doneness levels of the different parts of the food with different (mathematical) weights.
  • the overall doneness level of the food can be generally described by a function as below:
  • DL mma f(PL i ,DL i ,..DL N )
  • each frequency When multiple frequencies are used, each frequency enables information about the protein status to be obtained up to a certain depth.
  • the individual doneness levels may thus each relate to a particular depth within the food item.
  • the doneness level for different depths is thus combined to derive an overall doneness level.
  • the signal generator may for example generate multi-frequency RF signals ranging from a few MHz to a few GHz.
  • an antenna can function as both an emitter and receiver.
  • the RF signal emitted by the antenna interacts with the food through the air and the reflectance is received by the antenna.
  • the S 1 1 reflection coefficient is associated with the dielectric property of the food.
  • the dielectric constant ⁇ ' and loss factor ⁇ " are both a function of the RF frequency f.
  • d p is dependent on the frequency f.
  • an RF signal at a lower frequency has a larger penetration depth.
  • d p of an RF wave of different frequencies in a beef meatball is listed below:
  • the penetration depth at a certain frequency relates to the RF decaying rate in the food.
  • the reflected signal provides information relating to the protein status (and thus the doneness level along the signal travelling path), as shown in Fig. 1 1.
  • each frequency f x is associated with a penetration depth.
  • the penetration depth at 40 MHz (51.1 mm) is larger than that at 915 MHz
  • the determining unit 620 receives the S 1 1 reflection signals, which relate to the dielectric property of the food, as inputs from a multi-frequency sensor probe and it determines the overall (i.e. volumetric) doneness level over the thickness direction, i.e., doneness levels corresponding to different layers of the food.
  • the food is characterized as divided into n layers perpendicular to the thickness direction according to the penetration depths dp at selected frequencies.
  • the S 1 1 reflection parameter takes account of the dielectric properties up to the penetration depth.
  • S i g(DL 1 , DL 2 DL ) (3)
  • S r represents the S I 1 signal parameter at the i-th frequency (i-th depth)
  • the function g() indicates that the value S r is dependent on the doneness information along the signal path up to the final penetration depth for that signal, i.e. for each layer up to the i-th layer.
  • ⁇ l 'rare'
  • 2 ' medium rare'
  • 3 'medium'
  • 4 ' medium well'
  • the RF wave decays as an exponential function along the propagation path, thus defined by e " " 2 according to Maxwell's equations, where a represents the dielectric property of the food, which is related to the doneness level, and z represents the propagation path.
  • the signal Si at fi received as a result of the RF wave propagating through the first layer is denoted as:
  • the signal (S 2 at f 2 ) received as a result of the RF wave propagating through the first layer and the second layer, is denoted as:
  • the dielectric attenuation parameter a for each layer can be obtained in an iterative manner.
  • the frequencies can be selected so that the food item is divided into layers approximately 0.5cm thick.
  • the system may operate with approximately 10 different frequencies in order to penetrate to a depth of 5 cm (for a total food item thickness of 10cm).
  • a higher number of different frequencies enables either a finer resolution between layers or a greater penetration depth.
  • the relationship between o and DL r can be determined by a predictive method based on calibration information.
  • This calibration information can be obtained based on system training using samples of food items, and by measuring the actual doneness levels by an invasive method, such as temperature probes or chemical analysis of the samples, or analysis by a chef. This training method is described above in connection with obtaining threshold values. In this way, dielectric attenuation parameters are converted into respective doneness levels using calibration information.
  • the controlling unit 630 receives the overall (volumetric) doneness level determined by the determining unit (by combining the doneness levels for the different depths), and compares this with a value derived from the user's specified desired doneness level. There is a doneness distribution along the thickness direction in the cooked food, especially when using conduction heating.
  • a target volumetric doneness level DLoveraii can be determined based on a pre-set program which maps between a user's seting and a corresponding value of the overall doneness level DLoveraii.
  • the cooking control can be based on a single overall doneness level.
  • the user's selection is converted to an overall doneness level DLoveraii and the cooking is controlled until this doneness level is reached.
  • the cooking process may instead be based on doneness levels for multiple depths, to provide more intelligent functionality.
  • target doneness levels may be set for multiple depths.
  • a cooking strategy can be determined based on one or more values of ADL r . For example:
  • ADLr for a surface portion of the food is significantly below ADL r in the core portion, which means the surface portion of food is cooked too quickly compared to the core portion, turn the power down (in the case of continuous heating) or increase the period of cooking pulse (in the case of pulse heating) to make the heating function more evenly;
  • Fig. 13 shows how the magnitude of a normalized S I 1 signal varies during cooking (i.e. as a function of time) for different frequencies. This is based on a test during which a piece of beef was cooked in a frying pan with an induction cooker. A probe placed on the top side of the beef provided and measured RF signals at 0.2GHz, 0.7 GHz, 1.2 GHz, and 2GHz.

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Abstract

Les modes de réalisation de la présente invention portent sur un processus de commande de cuisson. L'invention porte également sur un procédé pour commander un processus de cuisson de nourriture. Le procédé comprend les étapes consistant à obtenir un état de protéine dans la nourriture au cours du chauffage de la nourriture ; déterminer un niveau de cuisson de la nourriture au moins partiellement sur la base de l'état de protéine ; et commander le processus de cuisson de la nourriture au moins partiellement sur la base du niveau de cuisson déterminé. L'invention porte également sur un appareil correspondant.
PCT/EP2015/070502 2014-09-11 2015-09-08 Commande d'un processus de cuisson de nourriture WO2016038039A1 (fr)

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EP3404409A1 (fr) * 2017-05-19 2018-11-21 Nederlandse Organisatie voor toegepast- natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek TNO Procédé et système servant à évaluer la sécurité alimentaire
CN111752170A (zh) * 2019-03-28 2020-10-09 青岛海尔智能技术研发有限公司 一种智能烹饪方法及装置
CN113436159A (zh) * 2021-06-21 2021-09-24 青岛海尔科技有限公司 食材的熟度检测方法和装置、存储介质及电子装置
EP4206695A1 (fr) * 2021-12-28 2023-07-05 Atanas Pentchev Procédés et systèmes d'analyse de paramètres rf complexes dans des applications énergétiques rf et mw
CN116594367A (zh) * 2023-07-19 2023-08-15 烟台金潮果蔬食品有限公司 一种地瓜汁螺旋预煮机煮熟度控制系统
EP4486061A4 (fr) * 2022-02-24 2025-06-18 Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. Dispositif d'émission d'ondes radio

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WO2012073113A2 (fr) * 2010-11-29 2012-06-07 Goji Ltd. Système, appareil, et procédé pour cuisson à l'aide d'un four rf
WO2012109634A1 (fr) * 2011-02-11 2012-08-16 Goji Ltd. Interface de commande d'un appareil d'application d'énergie
WO2013021280A2 (fr) * 2011-08-11 2013-02-14 Goji Ltd. Application de fréquences radioélectriques en l'absence de rétro-information
WO2013033330A2 (fr) * 2011-08-31 2013-03-07 Goji Ltd. Détection d'état de traitement d'objet à l'aide de rayonnement rf
US20130092682A1 (en) * 2011-10-17 2013-04-18 Illinois Tool Works, Inc. Adaptive cooking control for an oven
WO2013121288A1 (fr) * 2012-02-14 2013-08-22 Goji Ltd. Dispositif d'application d'énergie rf à une cavité

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US20090321427A1 (en) * 2008-06-30 2009-12-31 Hyde Roderick A Microwave Oven
US20100187224A1 (en) * 2008-06-30 2010-07-29 Hyde Roderick A Microwave processing systems and methods
WO2012073113A2 (fr) * 2010-11-29 2012-06-07 Goji Ltd. Système, appareil, et procédé pour cuisson à l'aide d'un four rf
WO2012109634A1 (fr) * 2011-02-11 2012-08-16 Goji Ltd. Interface de commande d'un appareil d'application d'énergie
WO2013021280A2 (fr) * 2011-08-11 2013-02-14 Goji Ltd. Application de fréquences radioélectriques en l'absence de rétro-information
WO2013033330A2 (fr) * 2011-08-31 2013-03-07 Goji Ltd. Détection d'état de traitement d'objet à l'aide de rayonnement rf
US20130092682A1 (en) * 2011-10-17 2013-04-18 Illinois Tool Works, Inc. Adaptive cooking control for an oven
WO2013121288A1 (fr) * 2012-02-14 2013-08-22 Goji Ltd. Dispositif d'application d'énergie rf à une cavité

Cited By (8)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP3404409A1 (fr) * 2017-05-19 2018-11-21 Nederlandse Organisatie voor toegepast- natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek TNO Procédé et système servant à évaluer la sécurité alimentaire
CN111752170A (zh) * 2019-03-28 2020-10-09 青岛海尔智能技术研发有限公司 一种智能烹饪方法及装置
CN111752170B (zh) * 2019-03-28 2024-02-27 青岛海尔智能技术研发有限公司 一种智能烹饪方法及装置
CN113436159A (zh) * 2021-06-21 2021-09-24 青岛海尔科技有限公司 食材的熟度检测方法和装置、存储介质及电子装置
EP4206695A1 (fr) * 2021-12-28 2023-07-05 Atanas Pentchev Procédés et systèmes d'analyse de paramètres rf complexes dans des applications énergétiques rf et mw
EP4486061A4 (fr) * 2022-02-24 2025-06-18 Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. Dispositif d'émission d'ondes radio
CN116594367A (zh) * 2023-07-19 2023-08-15 烟台金潮果蔬食品有限公司 一种地瓜汁螺旋预煮机煮熟度控制系统
CN116594367B (zh) * 2023-07-19 2023-09-19 烟台金潮果蔬食品有限公司 一种地瓜汁螺旋预煮机煮熟度控制系统

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