Back to results
US 7,069,091 B2Granted
Intelligent microwave oven appliance
AssigneeSalton, Inc.
InventorCharles G. Williamson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The invention may be broadly conceptualized as an approach in which a microwave oven (120) receives a plurality of program recipes from a network that are executed by scanning with a scanner (1326) a symbol and associating the scanned symbol with one of the plurality of program recipes while keeping a real-time clock (1308) synchronized and correctly set by receiving period time synchronization messages.
Claims20
A microwave oven apparatus, comprising:
- a housing;
- a microwave generator disposed in association with the housing;
- a code input device;
- a controller that stores a plurality of recipe programs upon receipt of the plurality of programs and operates the microwave generator in accordance with a recipe program selected from the plurality of recipe programs in view of a code input by the code input device;
- and
- a network interface in communication with the controller;
- wherein upon entry of a code input by the code input device, the controller determines whether the code corresponds to any one of the plurality of recipe programs stored in the controller;
- and
- wherein if the code does not correspond to any one of the plurality of recipe programs stored in the controller, the network interface requests, without user intervention, a recipe program corresponding to the code from an operably connected, from an external database, and automatically download the recipe program that corresponds to the code.
6 more elements
A method, comprising:
- receiving, without user intervention, in a microwave oven a plurality of recipe programs at a network interface from an operably connected, but external device;
- and
- storing the plurality of recipe programs in a memory by a controller that are each selectable with a digital signal from a code input device;
- determining whether a code input by a code input device corresponds to any one of the plurality of recipe programs stored in the memory;
- requesting, without user intervention, a recipe program from the operably connected, from an external database, if the code input by a code input device does not correspond to any one of the plurality of recipe programs stored in the memory;
- and automatically download the recipe program that corresponds to the code
- configuring the microwave oven in response to the digital signal being associated with one recipe program in the plurality of recipe programs.
4 more elements
A apparatus, comprising:
- means for receiving, without user intervention, in a microwave oven a plurality of recipe programs at a network interface from an operably connected, but external device ;
- and
- means for storing the plurality of recipe programs in a memory by a controller that are each selectable with a digital signal from a code input device;
- means for determining whether a code input by a code input device corresponds to any one of the plurality of recipe programs stored in the memory;
- means for requesting, without user intervention, a recipe program from the operably connected, from an external database, if the code input by a code input device does not correspond to any one of the plurality of recipe programs stored in the memory;
- and means for automatically downloading the recipe program that corresponds to the code
- means for configuring the microwave oven in response to the digital signal being associated with one recipe program in the plurality of recipe programs.
4 more elements
A machine-readable signal-bearing medium containing instructions that cause a system to perform a method for operating a microwave oven, the method comprising:
- receiving, without user intervention, in a microwave oven a plurality of recipe programs at a network interface from an operably connected, from an external database;
- and
- storing the plurality of recipe programs in a memory by a controller that are each selectable with a digital signal from a code input device;
- determining whether a code input by a code input device corresponds to any one of the plurality of recipe programs stored in the memory;
- requesting, without user intervention, a recipe program from the operably connected, from an external database, if the code input by a code input device does not correspond to any one of the plurality of recipe programs stored in the memory;
- and automatically download the recipe program that corresponds to the code
- configuring the microwave oven in response to the digital signal being associated with one recipe program in the plurality of recipe programs.
4 more elements
A microwave oven apparatus, comprising:
- a housing;
- a heat generator disposed in association with the housing;
- a code input device including a bar code reader for scanning a unique product code;
- and
- a controller that stores a plurality of recipe programs upon receipt of the plurality of programs and operates the heat generator in accordance with a recipe program selected from the plurality of recipe programs in view of a code input by the code input device, the plurality of recipe programs being received at a network interface from an operably connected, but external device, the controller configuring without user intervention, a recipe program request message including the input code upon the controller failing to find a recipe program in the plurality of recipe programs associated with the input code and transmitting the recipe program request message to the operably connected, from an external database, and automatically downloading the recipe program that corresponds to the input code.
2 more elements
A method, comprising:
- receiving in a microwave oven a plurality of recipe programs at a network interface from an operably connected, but external device;
- and
- storing the plurality of recipe programs in a memory by a controller that are each selectable with a digital signal from a code input device, the code input device including a bar code reader for scanning a unique product code;
- configuring the microwave oven in response to the digital signal being associated with one recipe program in the plurality of recipe programs;
- and
- configuring, without user intervention, a recipe program request message in response to the controller failing to select a recipe program from the plurality of recipe programs that is associated with the digital signal;
- and
- receiving a requested recipe program at the network interface from the operably connected, from an external database, and automatically downloading in response to the recipe program request message.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.