Food heating system and method for pick-up or delivery
AssigneeInductive Intelligence, LLC
InventorsDavid W Baarman, Gregory L. Clark, Benjamin C. Moes
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An intelligent heating system and method for providing varied heating experiences to food product packages and their contents in connection with pick-up food service, delivery food service, or both. The intelligent heating system dynamically controls energy provided to food packages and their contents in order to provide different heating experiences. The system can use location information to heat the food just before pick-up or delivery to enhance the consumption experience. The system can also control temperature to reduce the amount of condensation that forms within the package.
Claims20
An intelligent heating system for heating food, the intelligent heating system comprising:
- an order system configured to receive an indication regarding a food order of a food item;
- an initial cooking system configured to partially cook the food item;
- a communication system for receiving location information from a remote device;
- and
- a finishing heating system including an energy transfer system and a control system, wherein the control system is configured to selectively control the energy transfer system to finish cooking the partially cooked food item in response to the location information.
A cooking apparatus comprising:
- a support surface for receiving a food package including a food item within the package;
- an energy transfer element disposed in proximity of the support surface for transferring energy to the food package for heating the food item within the package;
- and
- a controller configured to selectively control energy applied to the energy transfer element based on information from a radio location system.
An inductive warming rack comprising:
- compartments for receiving food packages having an RFID tag including order information;
- energy transfer elements disposed in proximity of the compartments for transferring energy to food package stored therein;
- RFID coils disposed in proximity of the compartments for identifying food packages stored therein by reading the order information from the RFID tags of the food packages stored therein;
- and
- a control system in communication with the RFID coils for receiving the order information identifying, by compartment, locations of the food packages stored, the control system configured to control energy applied to the energy transfer elements to provide heating experiences to the food packages stored in the compartments based on the order information.
A heating package control system comprising
- a support surface for receiving a food package;
- an inductive coil disposed in proximity of the support surface for inductively transferring energy to the food package;
- an ambient temperature sensor for sensing an ambient temperature;
- a feedback system configured to receive a food temperature from the food package;
- a humidity sensor for sensing a humidity level;
- and
- a controller configured to automatically control energy applied to the inductive coil based on the humidity sensor, food temperature, and the ambient temperature such that condensation formed on the food package is reduced.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.