Establishing a degree of browning of food to be cooked
AssigneeBSH Hausgeräte GmbH
InventorsSandra Ebert, Roland Schleser
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a method for establishing a degree of browning of food to be cooked in a cooking chamber of a household cooking appliance, a reference image is captured by a camera of the household cooking appliance, which camera is directed into the cooking chamber. A first measurement image is captured at a first brightness of a light source of the household cooking appliance, and a second measurement image is captured at a second brightness of the light source. A difference image is generated from the first measurement image and the second measurement image, and the difference image is compared with the reference image.
Claims14
A method for establishing a degree of browning of food in a cooking chamber of a household cooking appliance, comprising:
- capturing a first reference image of a food item within the household cooking appliance at a first brightness of a light source of the household cooking appliance by a camera of the household cooking appliance, which camera is directed into the cooking chamber;
- capturing a second reference image at a second brightness of the light source;
- capturing a first measurement image of the food item at the first brightness;
- capturing a second measurement image at the second brightness;
- compensating for changes in ambient light by (a) generating a reference difference image using the first reference image and the second reference image, wherein a first set of pixels of the reference difference image correspond to the food item, and (b) generating a difference image using the first measurement image and the second measurement image, wherein a second set of pixels of the difference image correspond to the first set of pixels of the reference difference image;
- and
- determining the degree of browning of the food item by comparing the second set of pixels in the difference image with the first set of pixels in the reference difference image;
- wherein comparing the first and second sets of pixels comprises determining whether a proportion of the second pixels having a minimum change in coloration has reached a selected threshold.
A household cooking appliance, comprising:
- a camera directed into a cooking chamber;
- a light source configured to illuminate the cooking chamber;
- and
- a control device coupled to the camera and the light source,
- said household cooking appliance being configured to:
- capture a first reference image of a food item within the cooking chamber at a first brightness of the light source by the camera,
- capture a second reference image of the food item at a second brightness by the camera, and,
- capture a first measurement image of the food item at the first brightness of the light source,
- capture a second measurement image at the second brightness of the light source;
- compensate for changes in ambient light by (a) generating a reference difference image using the first reference image and the second reference image, wherein a first set of pixels of the reference difference image correspond to the food item, and (b) generating a difference image from the first measurement image and the second measurement image, wherein a second set of pixels of the difference image correspond to the first set of pixels of the reference difference image;
- compare the difference image with the reference difference image by comparing the second set of pixels in the difference image with the first set of pixels in the reference difference image;
- and
- wherein comparing the first and second sets of pixels comprises determining whether a proportion of the second pixels having a minimum change in coloration has reached a selected threshold.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.