Microwave device

Abstract

 A microwave device, such as a microwave oven, is provided. The microwave device can heat up foods with a simplified operation procedure. The microwave device includes a main body, a door, a control panel, a memory unit, and a data access device. By encoding and labeling the optimized heating conditions on the package of the food to be heated, one can employ the data access device of the microwave device to read the heating conditions on the package. Accordingly, the food can be heated to its best quality.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates generally to a microwave device, and more particularly to a microwave oven that can read an encoded data that is labeled on an object to be heated, without the need to manually input the heating conditions into the microwave oven. According to the encoded data read by the microwave oven, the microwave oven can automatically start and perform the required heating operations.

[0002] Since a microwave device, such as a microwave oven, can rapidly heat up foods, it has become one of the essential electrical appliances of our daily life. Especially in this fast-paced modem society, people often do not have time to cook for themselves. For this reason, instead of dining in a restaurant, one can easily find all kinds of packaged foods that are microwavable in a convenient store. The consumer of such packaged foods can easily enjoy hot foods by heating up the foods using a microwave oven in the convenient store.

[0003] Since there are different requirements of time and power for heating up different kinds of foods, one needs to properly set up the time and the power that is required for the microwave oven to perform the heating operations for each kind of food according to one's own experiences. Without properly setting up the time and the power required for the microwave oven to perform the heating operations, the food to be heated can easily be over heated or under heated, which worsened the taste of the food.

[0004] By surveying all of the commercially available microwave devices, especially those allocated in a convenient store or in a supermarket, the heating conditions are all set to the microwave device by employing an input device. The input device can be either some turning knobs, as shown in FIG. 1, or some buttons to input the power and time into the microwave oven. Although one can always find a label on the packaged food describing the suggested heating conditions to input, one still needs to manually input those heating conditions and press the start button manually, which is rather inconvenient and cumbersome. Therefore, in order for a consumer of a convenient store to easily and rapidly input the heating conditions into the microwave device, many merchandizes that require similar heating conditions are classified into the same category. In this manner, the consumer no longer needs to look for the heating conditions labeled on the package, but requires only pressing a hot key on the microwave device. Although such input mechanism of pressing only a single hot key can slightly improve the inconvenience of the traditional way of inputting all the heating conditions, one still needs to find the category label printed on each package and to press the hot key corresponding to the category. After that, one needs to press the start key to initiate the heating operations. Such input mechanism still can not provide a fast input mechanism that does not require looking for the heating conditions or pressing a key.

[0005] Further, the utilization of the microwave device relies solely on the control of the input device disposed on the microwave device. However, there is always a lifetime for such a mechanical or electrical input device. Basically, the lifetime of an input device, such as an electrical input device, is defined as the number of times that the input device is pressed or operated. Since the microwave device in a convenient store often affords a huge number of input operations everyday, it can easily be damaged and the lifetime shortened.

[0006] Therefore, a microwave device that can improve the conventional input mechanism of mechanically or electrically inputting the heating conditions is demanding.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007] The present invention is to provide a microwave device that can decrease the hassle of manually inputting the heating conditions into the conventional microwave device.

[0008] The present invention is also to provide a microwave device that can automatically read the encoded heating conditions without physically touching the microwave device and start the heating operation.

[0009] The present invention is yet to provide a microwave device that can read the encoded heating conditions labeled on the package of the object to be heated and translate the encoded data into signals that can control the heating operation of the microwave device.

[0010] Accordingly, the microwave device includes a main body, a door, a control panel, a memory unit, and a data access device. By encoding and labeling the optimized heating conditions on the package of the food to be heated, one can employ the data access device of the microwave device to read the heating conditions on the package. Consequently, the food can be heated to its best quality.

[0011] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the data access device is a barcode reader.

[0012] In one particular embodiment of the present invention, the microwave device is internally or externally disposed on the main body of the microwave device. One can input the heating conditions via the data access device without manually pressing the buttons provided on the microwave device. The data access device can further be coupled to the main body through a transmission line, thereby being disposed away from the main body of the microwave device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] 

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional microwave oven.

FIG. 2 is a perspective of a microwave device in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a partial explosive view of the microwave device in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the microwave device in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a method for using the microwave device of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0014] In order to better understanding the features and technical contents of the present invention, the present invention is hereinafter described in detail by incorporating with the accompanying drawings. However, the accompanying drawings are only for the convenience of illustration and description, no limitation is intended thereto.

[0015] Referring to FIG. 2, a perspective view of a microwave device in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. As shown, the microwave device 1 includes a main body 11, a door 12 and a control panel 13. The main body 11 includes a hollow chamber so disposed to allow placing an object to be heated therein. The object to be heated is generally some sort of food. The door 12 and the control panel 13 are disposed at the front portion of the main body 11. The door 12 is provided for a user to place the food to be heated into the hollow chamber of the main body 11. The control panel 13 includes a plurality of input buttons 14 and a data access device 2. The input buttons 14 are provided to enable the user of the microwave device 1 to input the heating conditions into the microwave device 1, while the data access device 2 is provided to read the heating conditions encoded and printed on the package of the food to be heated. The control panel 13 further includes a memory unit that has a manual memory unit and a reading memory unit. The manual memory unit can memorize the data input from the input buttons 14 of the control panel 13, while the access memory unit can memorize the data read from the data access device 2 and the input buttons 14 of the control panel 13. By employing the memory unit, a plurality of heating conditions is configured and stored therein for properly heating a particular kind of food. The heating conditions are often the optimized heating conditions, such as some certain heating time and power, for that particular kind of food. Therefore, when the data access device 2 reads an encoded data on the package of the food to be heated, the stored heating conditions will be accessed, thereby heating the food in accordance with the accessed heating conditions such as the heating time and power.

[0016] The data access device 2 is primarily used for inputting heating conditions into the microwave device 1. The data access device 2 installed on the microwave device 1 can easily read the heating conditions from the encoded data of the food without touching the food package. As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the data access device 2 is internally disposed on the main body 11 or the control panel 13, which can read the encoded data labeled on the food to be heated.

[0017] Referring to FIG. 4, the microwave device 1 in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. As shown, the data access device 2 is externally disposed to the main body 11 of the microwave device 1. Namely, the data access device 2 in this particular embodiment is disposed on the outer surface of the main body 11. The externally disposed data access device 2 can further be coupled with the main body 11 of the microwave device 1 via a transmission line. Namely, the data access device 2 can be disposed away from the microwave device 1 by employing a transmission line, so as to extend the applicable spatial range of the data access device 2. This design is particular useful for heating an object that should be kept standing upright. In one particular embodiment, the data access device 2 is a barcode reader, while the encoded data printed on the package of the food to be heated is a barcode, such as a UPC barcode, an EAN barcode, a two dimensional barcode, etc. However, it is appreciated that the data access device 2 is not limited to a barcode reader, and the encoded data is not limited to a barcodes. The encoded data contain some optimized heating conditions for heating some specific food. In other words, the heating conditions that are suitable for heating up some particular kind of food are encoded and labeled on the package of the food. The encoded data is preferably printed on somewhere on the package that is easily recognized by the consumer. Thus, one can easily bring the encoded data labeled on the package of the food to be heated to the data access device 2. The data access device 2 then reads the encoded data, so as to initiate the microwave device 1 to perform the required heating operations.

[0018] In addition to the microwave device 1 disclosed heretofore, there is also provided a method for using the microwave device 1. Referring to FIG. 5, a flow diagram of the method for using the microwave device 1 is illustrated. The method for using the microwave device 1 includes the following steps.

[0019] Initially, the microwave device 1 is coupled to an external power source. The memory unit 10 is empty and waiting for data inputs. One can employ the input buttons 14 or the data access device 2 to input and configure the default heating conditions into the manual memory unit and the reading memory unit. Referring to FIG. 2 to FIG. 5, the microwave device 1 in one particular embodiment of the present invention includes ten sets of heating conditions stored in the manual memory unit and fifty sets of heating conditions stored in the reading memory unit. The numbers of heating condition sets given above are for illustrative purposes only, no limitation is intended thereto. In addition, one can also employ the input buttons 14 to unlock the memory units and reconfigure the stored heating conditions. The stored heating conditions can thus be modified or replaced.

[0020] After completing the configuration and storage processes as set forth above, the microwave device 1 is ready for use. When one wants to heat up an object using the microwave device 1, one simply needs to locate the encoded data labeled on the package of the object By bringing the encoded data to the data access device 2, the microwave device 1 can read the encoded data and translate the data into heating conditions, such as the heating time and power, previously stored in the memory unit. One can then open the door 12 of the microwave device 1, place the object to be heated into the hollow chamber of the microwave device 1, and close the door 12. The microwave device 1 then starts the heating operation following the heating conditions read from the encoded data.

[0021] Since, any person having ordinary skill in the art may readily find various equivalent alterations or modifications in light of the features as disclosed above, it is appreciated that the scope of the present invention is defined in the following claims. Therefore, all such equivalent alterations or modifications without departing from the subject matter as set forth in the following claims is considered within the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A microwave device, comprising:

a main body including a hollow chamber for situating an object to be heated;

a door disposed on the main body for the object accessing the hollow chamber of the main body;

a control panel disposed on the main body, the control panel including a memory unit and an input device electrically coupled to the memory unit; and

a data access device electrically coupled to the memory unit of the control panel.

2. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein the data access device comprises a barcode reader.

3. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein the data access device is disposed on the main body adjacent the control panel.

4. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein the data access device is externally disposed to the main body.

5. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein the data access device is coupled to the main body through a transmission line.

6. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein the memory unit further comprises a manual memory unit and a reading memory unit, wherein the manual memory unit memorizes a plurality of heating conditions configured through the input device, and the reading memory unit memorizes a plurality of heating conditions accessed through the data access device.

7. The device as recited in claim 6, wherein the heating conditions includes heating time and heating power.

8. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein the input device of the control panel comprises a plurality of input buttons.

9. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein the door and the control panel are disposed on the front portion of the main body.

10. A method for using a microwave device, comprising the steps of:

(a) bringing an object to be heated having an encoded data labeled thereon to a data access device;

(b) reading the encoded data on the object to be heated;

(c) translating the encoded data into heating conditions;

(d) situating the object to be heated into a hollow chamber of the microwave device; and

(e) heating the object to be heated according to the heating conditions.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein before step (a) further comprises the step of configuring a plurality of default heating conditions into a memory unit.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein step (d) further comprises the steps of:

(d1) opening a door of the microwave device;

(d2) placing the object to be heated into the microwave device; and

(d3) closing the door of the microwave device.

Drawing