Abstract:
An apparatus for displaying recipe information includes an output device for displaying an icon to display the recipe information, a central processing unit for controlling set up a device and a memory for storing the recipe information.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and apparatus providing for navigation, viewing, internet exchange, maintenance and manipulation of food recipes and other food-related information. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present invention relates to a recipe computer system and method. More specifically, it relates to use of a recipe computer to aid in the preparation of a plurality of dishes. (As used herein, “dish” shall mean a particular kind of food, not a plate or other container for food. “Dishes” will likewise refer to a several particular kinds of food.) 
         [0003]    When preparing a meal, it is difficult for an individual to keep track of all the menus that the individual may wish to have available when planning for a meal. Furthermore, the individual may not know if the ingredients for the meal are available. It would be desirable to be able to build a grocery list which would include the items to be purchased when the individual visits the grocery store. 
         [0004]    Various U.S. patents have disclosed techniques of helping a cook with the steps in preparing a meal and related areas. 
         [0005]    US patent to Barnett, U.S. Pat. No. 6,381,614, discloses a system and method for recipe integration providing a single timeline for a cook preparing a meal of several different dishes. A food recipe integration computer combines steps from the recipes of the individual dishes and de-conflicts steps as necessary such that the cook is not required to perform multiple actions at once. The single timeline is a list of steps and corresponding times for preparing the dishes to be ready at the selected times. The time allocated to a given step may be greater for a beginning cook than for a more skilled cook. Optionally, one or more steps in a list are more detailed for less skilled cooks and less detailed for cooks having higher skills. 
         [0006]    The Overbeck Patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,169, patent discloses a food preparation information system whereby preparation instructions are supplied in sequence. Its abstract refers to combining and preparing food dishes. Different dishes are combined for the cook&#39;s consideration, but the individual steps in the preparation and cooking of those dishes are apparently left to the cook to coordinate. Instead of requiring a cook to shift between recipes on different pages (from a single cook book or multiple cook books), it apparently requires the cook to use menu (dish) jump or skip keys to shift between different dishes or between different meals. 
         [0007]    The Brenner U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,440 shows a recipe database system with timers for various preparation steps. The system allows easy switching between an ingredient list and a preparation instruction list. It adjusts ingredient amounts depending on serving size. 
         [0008]    The Hungerford U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,112 patent shows a recipe calculator that scales recipes depending on the number of servings that are being prepared. 
         [0009]    The Stanley U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,991 patent is a kitchen calculator for determining cooking time based on the quantity that is being cooked. 
         [0010]    The Del Giomo U.S. Pat. No. 5,899,502 patent discloses a system that personalizes recipes based on food allergies and preferences. 
         [0011]    Both the Horinouchi U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,429 patent and the Petty U.S. Pat. No. 5,877,477 patent disclose ovens with heating controlled by a recipe in a database. 
         [0012]    Although some of the prior arrangements have been generally useful, they have often been subject to one or more of several disadvantages. Many prior cook helping processes or devices have insufficient flexibility in meal planning. For example, instructions for an entire pre-planned meal (consisting of several individual dishes) are available in cookbooks, CDs, the internet, and floppy disks. However, changes to these pre-planned meals are not possible. Instructions are for a single group of dishes in a single meal. Substitutions are not possible. The inability to pick a side dish from one meal plan and a main dish from another meal plan is a real limitation on the adaptability of those arrangements using pre-planned meals. Generally, prior processes or devices do not provide as much help to a cook as is desirable. 
       OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0013]    Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a new and improved recipe computer system and method. 
         [0014]    A further object of the present invention is to provide an extremely flexible and powerful technique to help cooks. 
         [0015]    A further object of the present invention is to help cooks so that their energies can be directed to observing and controlling various cooking processes, instead of recalling routine information such as specific orders of steps or specific times of taking actions. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0016]    The invention may be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which, like reference numerals identify like elements, and in which: 
           [0017]      FIG. 1  illustrates the first menu of the present invention; 
           [0018]      FIG. 2  illustrates a second menu of the present invention; 
           [0019]      FIG. 3  illustrates a third menu of the present invention; 
           [0020]      FIG. 4  illustrates a fourth menu of the present invention; 
           [0021]      FIG. 5  illustrates a diagram of the present invention; 
           [0022]      FIG. 6  illustrates a system of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0023]    The above and other features of the present invention which will be more readily understood when the following detailed description is considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings are realized by a process for automatic food recipe integration as an aid to a cook. While recipe information includes recipes, meals, grocery lists and inventory, recipes include the steps of preparing the dishes; meals include different foods prepared by different recipes; grocery lists include the ingredients for the recipes; and inventory includes the ingredients and associated items which are associated with the ingredients. 
         [0024]      FIG. 6  illustrates a system in accordance with the present invention, and the system  600  which could be a POS system and includes a central processing unit CPU  602  which is connected to an output device  604  which may be a screen of a monitor to display the recipes, meals, inventory and grocery list and other associated data. The CPU  602  is additionally connected to an input device  608  which may be a keyboard or a touchscreen and connected to a memory  606 . 
         [0025]      FIG. 1  illustrates a first touchscreen  100  which includes a first icon  102  of a first touchscreen  100  for obtaining recipes, a second icon  104  of the first touchscreen  100  for obtaining meals and a third icon  106  of the first touchscreen  100  for obtaining grocery and inventory information. 
         [0026]      FIG. 2  illustrates a second touchscreen  200  which is used to generate recipes and which includes a first icon  202  of the second touchscreen  200  to provide general global recipes, a second icon  204  of the second touchscreen  200  to generate cultural recipes, and a third icon  206  of the second touchscreen  200  to provide ethnic recipes. The second touchscreen  200  includes a fourth icon  208  of the second touchscreen  200  to provide a menu, a fifth icon  210  of the second touchscreen  200  to provide the best recipes by specific cooks, a sixth icon  212  of the second touchscreen  200  to provide the recipes of celebrity favorites and a seventh icon  214  of the second touchscreen  200  to provide grandmas recipes. The various recipes are stored in the memory  606 , and the CPU  602  will retrieve the recipes from the memory  606  and display the recipes on the output device  604  when the icons  202 ,  204 ,  206 ,  208 ,  210 ,  212 ,  214  are selected by the user. Other types of recipes can be viewed by additional icons. 
         [0027]      FIG. 3  illustrates the third touchscreen  300  of the present invention to display various types of meals prepared. The third touchscreen  300  includes a first icon  302  of the third touchscreen  300  to display dietary meals, a second icon  304  of the third touchscreen  300  to display vegetarian meals, a third icon  306  of the third touchscreen  300  to display recommended meals for diabetics, and a fourth icon  308  of the third touchscreen  300  to display recommended meals for individuals with intestinal problems. The third touchscreen  300  includes a fifth icon  310  of the third touchscreen  300  to display recommended meals for individuals with high blood pressure and a sixth icon  312  of the third touchscreen  300  to display meals for infants, toddlers etc. The CPU  602  displays the meals on the output device  604 . Other icons can be added to display additional types of meals. 
         [0028]      FIG. 4  illustrates the fourth touchscreen  400  to display grocery and inventory information. The fourth touchscreen  400  includes a first icon  402  of the fourth touchscreen  400  to display the current grocery list which is stored within the memory  606 , a second icon  404  of the fourth touchscreen  400  to create a customized grocery list of items to the purchased, a third icon  406  of the fourth touchscreen  400  to recognize frequently used items and to identify when restocking these items is necessary. The fourth touchscreen  400  includes a fifth icon  410  of the fourth touchscreen  400  to direct the CPU  602  to fax by the fax machine  610  the grocery list to the grocery store or to send an e-mail with a grocery list  616  to the grocery store, a sixth icon  412  of the fourth touchscreen  400  to create and store in the memory  606  a custom recipe created by the user and a seventh icon  414  of the fourth touchscreen  400  to calculate and adjust portions of the recipe for example by one half or one quarter based upon the amount of servings required. Also, fourth touchscreen  400  will accept the number of people going to be served and convert that to a recipe with the appropriate quantities to be used. The fourth touchscreen  400  includes an eight icon  416  of the fourth touchscreen  400  to activate a medication reminder using a beeping device timer  612  which is activated by the CPU  602  and a ninth icon  418  of the fourth touchscreen  400  to activate an alert device  614  to send a message to the output device  604  to indicate if an ingredient is not available for selected recipe and to place that ingredient onto the grocery list  616  stored in memory  606  if the ingredient is not available. The CPU  602  maintains the inventory  618  of ingredients in memory  606 . The CPU  602  includes voice recognition circuitry  620  so that the output device  604  will respond to the voice of the user with the above functions. Furthermore, the output device  604  is user-friendly with people suffering from disabilities such as users who cannot see and require Braille. The above information is displayed by the CPU  602  on the output device  604 . The present invention could be incorporated into a hand device, installed on the wall of a house or placed on the countertop of the counter.  FIG. 5  illustrates the components of the recipe which include the ingredients, the quantities of the ingredients and the instructions of how the ingredients should be combined. 
         [0029]    The CPU  602  will manage an internet exchange component which will be linked by Internet connection  632  with a website  630  where uploads of various recipes stored in the memory  606  will be included. The site in the  630  will also be the repository for the grocery store order lists (perhaps w/links to store sites) and chef pc members/users recipe exchange via email stored in the memory  606 . The Internet site  630  may contain a chat center and forums where users can dialogue about recipes and send the recipes to each other. The CPU  602  manipulates the recipes stored within the memory  606  and will provide potential altered diet recipes, as well as fulfill a nutrition function by providing a list of substitute ingredients which will be available for those trying to stay under certain caloric or fat thresholds. 
         [0030]    Each recipe in the memory  606  should include nutrition info and suggestions for substitute ingredients to lower bad calorie intake. Also, the memory  606  should include substitute shortcut recipes for scratch recipes where time is restricted. Chefpc will be the name and function of the apparatus and website, while each unit will eventually have a mychefpc profile with the user&#39;s own preferences and personal recipes. This way, the user can either tap into a vast already existing database, or create one entirely of her own. Furthermore, mychefpc profiles will have a password protected function that limits viewing and exchange of certain recipes. The website  630  will also contain private forums where certain members sign up to have an open exchange between their individual mychefpcs, also password protected. This will give outside users the ability to view and import all recipes in another&#39;s profile that are not password protected. Each unit will be able to access the internet  632  individually. 
         [0031]    While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the invention to the particular forms disclosed.