Pattern recognizing appliance

A food preparation appliance comprising:

• a housing defining an inlet, an outlet, and a processing zone between the inlet and the outlet;
• a conveyor configured to move a food product from the inlet, through the processing zone, and to the outlet;
• a thermal element positioned within the processing zone;
• a first sensor positioned along an exterior surface of the housing proximate the inlet of the housing, the first sensor configured acquire pre-processing data regarding a pre-processing characteristic of the food product to be processed by the food preparation appliance;
• a second sensor positioned within the processing zone, the second sensor configured to acquire processing data regarding an in-process characteristic of the food product;
• a third sensor positioned along the exterior surface of the housing proximate the outlet of the housing, the third sensor configured to acquire post-processing data regarding a post-processing characteristic of the food product;
• a cantilever arm extending laterally across the conveyor in front of the inlet;
• and
• a fourth sensor positioned along the cantilever arm.

A food preparation appliance comprising:

• a housing defining an inlet, an outlet, and a processing zone between the inlet and the outlet;
• a conveyor;
• a sensor;
• a heating element positioned within the processing zone, wherein at least one of (i) the conveyor includes a plurality of independently controllable conveyors arranged side-by-side or (ii) the heating element includes a plurality of independently controllable heating elements;
• and
• a controller having programmed instructions to:
• receive data from the sensor regarding a plurality of food products on the conveyor to facilitate tracking the plurality of food products as the plurality of food products are moved through the processing zone simultaneously by the conveyor, the data including information regarding (i) a respective type of each of the plurality of food products and (ii) a positioning of the plurality of food products relative to one another;
• and
• variably control a speed of the conveyor based on the data to facilitate variably processing the plurality of food products as the plurality of food products are moved through the processing zone simultaneously by the conveyor to achieve target processing for each of the plurality of food products.

A food preparation appliance comprising:

• a housing defining an inlet, an outlet, and a processing zone between the inlet and the outlet;
• a single conveyor configured to move food products from the inlet, through the processing zone, and to the outlet;
• a heating element positioned within the processing zone;
• a sensor configured to acquire data regarding (i) a respective type of each of multiple food products and (ii) a positioning of the multiple food products relative to one another spaced along the single conveyor;
• and
• a controller having programmed instructions to control the single conveyor and the heating element to facilitate providing independent zone processing based on the data such that the multiple food products spaced along the single conveyor can be processed simultaneously with different operating parameters as the single conveyor moves the multiple food products through the processing zone simultaneously to achieve target processing for each of the multiple food products.