Patent ID: 6236025
Filing Date: 2001-05-22
Classification: G05D,H05B

Abstract:
An acoustic sensor system for determining a boil state of contents of a cooking utensil, said acoustic sensor system being coupled to a cooking appliance, said acoustic sensor system comprising:at least one acoustic sensor positioned within the cooking appliance for sensing acoustic emissions from the contents and the cooking utensil being heated, the at least one acoustic sensor generating an acoustic signal representative of an acoustic signature of the contents; andsignal conditioning circuitry connected to the at least one acoustic sensor and receiving the acoustic signal, the signal conditioning circuitry comprising:a filter connected to the at least one acoustic sensor for filtering the acoustic signal;an amplifier connected to the filter for amplifying the acoustic signal; anda signal processing device connected to the amplifier and receiving a reference signal, the signal processing device generating a boil phase signal indicative of the boil state in response to analysis of the acoustic signal and the reference signal.