Patent Document

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2004-61502, filed on Aug. 4, 2004 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0003]     The present invention relates to a cooking apparatus and a cooking method thereof, and, more particularly, to a cooking apparatus and a cooking method thereof capable of reading a bar code attached to a food package, thereby conveniently cooking the food.  
         [0004]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0005]     Generally, cooking apparatuses are devices that cook foods using various heating sources. The cooking apparatuses are classified into several types of cooking apparatuses. For example, a microwave oven is a cooking apparatus that cooks foods using microwaves. In the conventional microwave oven, a user directly inputs cooking time, cooking mode, and kinds of food to be cooked through the use of a key input unit formed at the front panel of the microwave oven: That is, in the conventional microwave oven it is necessary that the user manually input cooking information. Consequently, appropriate cooking conditions are not easily and conveniently set.  
         [0006]     In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a microwave oven having a bar-code reader has been developed that is capable of cooking foods based upon the cooking information read by the bar-code reader. Such a microwave oven is disclosed in Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-0010530 and Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1999-0074607.  
         [0007]     The conventional microwave oven having the bar-code reader includes a cooking chamber disposed in an oven body, a built-in bar-code reader disposed at the front panel of the oven body or a charge-coupled display-type or pen-type bar-code reader that is connected to the oven body via a cable, a display unit which displays the operation of the microwave oven, an input unit including a plurality of input buttons, and a magnetron which generates microwaves to be supplied to the cooking chamber.  
         [0008]     To perform a cooking process in the conventional microwave oven having the bar-code reader as described above, a user brings a bar code attached to a food package to the bar-code reader to read the bar code, and the microwave oven performs the cooking process on based upon the cooking condition stored in the read bar code.  
         [0009]     In the conventional microwave oven having the bar-code reader, however, the cooking process is performed only based upon the cooking condition read from the bar code without consideration of the amount of food to be cooked. As a result, the food may be insufficiently or excessively cooked. For example, when a portion of a three-serving food package is cooked in the cooking chamber in accordance with cooking conditions stored in a bar code printed on the three-serving food package, which are set to cook the entire three-serving food package, the food is excessively cooked.  
         [0010]     On the other hand, when the entire three-serving food package is cooked in the cooking chamber based upon a cooking condition stored in the bar code printed on the three-serving food package, which are set to cook a one-serving portion of the three-serving food package, the food is insufficiently cooked.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0011]     Accordingly, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide a cooking apparatus and a cooking method thereof capable of performing a cooking process in accordance with a cooking condition corresponding to an amount of food introduced into a cooking chamber when the cooking process is performed using a bar code printed on a food package.  
         [0012]     Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.  
         [0013]     The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention are achieved by providing a cooking method for performing a cooking process using a bar code, the method including reading a bar code storing a reference weight of food to be cooked and a cooking condition based on the reference weight, measuring a weight of the food introduced into a cooking chamber, calculating a number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber by using the weight of the food introduced into the cooking chamber and the reference weight of the food and changing the cooking condition to correspond to the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber, when the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber varies from a number of servings corresponding to the reference weight of the food, thereby setting a final cooking condition corresponding to the changed cooking condition . 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0014]     These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:  
         [0015]      FIG. 1  is a front view illustrating a cooking apparatus, such as a microwave oven, capable of performing a cooking method in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0016]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating the microwave oven shown in  FIG. 1 ;  
         [0017]      FIG. 3  is a view illustrating cooking information stored in a bar code used in the microwave oven shown in  FIG. 1 ;  
         [0018]      FIG. 4  is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the microwave oven shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2  in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0019]      FIG. 5  is a view illustrating cooking information stored in a bar code used in a second embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0020]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the microwave oven shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2  according to the second embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0021]      FIG. 7  is a view illustrating cooking information stored in a bar code used in a third embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0022]      FIG. 8  is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the microwave oven shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2  according to the third embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0023]      FIG. 9  is a view illustrating cooking information stored in a bar code used in a fourth embodiment of the present invention; and  
         [0024]      FIG. 10  is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the microwave oven shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2  in accordance with the fourth embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0025]     Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiment of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout. The embodiment is described below to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.  
         [0026]     In  FIG. 1 , a microwave oven according to the present invention comprises a cooking chamber  11  disposed in an oven body  10  a door  12  to open/close an opening of the cooking chamber  11 , and a front panel  13  disposed at the right side of the door  12 .  
         [0027]     A tray  14  is disposed at a bottom of the cooking chamber  11 , to be rotated with food placed thereon. At the central lower part of the tray  14  is mounted a tray motor  25  (See  FIG. 2 ) to rotate the tray  14 . Around the lower circumference of the tray  14  is disposed a ring-shaped roller supporting member  16  including a plurality of rollers  15 . The rollers  15  are moved along a circular track  17 . At the lower surface of the track  17  is disposed a weight sensor  18  to sense the weight of the food to be cooked placed on the tray  14 . As the tray motor  25  is operated, the tray is rotated while the plurality of rollers  15  roll along the track  17 . When the rollers  15  pass over the weight sensor  18 , the rollers  15  press against the weight sensor  18  so that the weight of the food to be cooked, which is placed on the tray  14 , can be measured by the weight sensor  18 .  
         [0028]     The front panel  13  comprises a display unit  19  disposed at the upper part thereof to display an operation of the microwave oven, a built-in bar-code reader  21  disposed below the display unit  19  to read a bar code, and an input unit  22  including a plurality of input buttons is disposed below the bar-code reader  21 .  
         [0029]     In  FIG. 2 , the microwave oven further comprises a magnetron-driving unit  24  to drive a magnetron  23  that generates microwaves to be supplied to the cooking chamber  11 , a tray motor  25  to rotate the tray  14 , and a microcomputer  20  to interpret the bar code read by the bar-code reader  21  and control the respective components of the microwave oven.  
         [0030]     An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to  FIGS. 3 and 4 . In  FIG. 3 , a bar code  26  stores cooking information containing number of servings, serving multipliers, the weight of one serving, and various cooking conditions. Also, the microcomputer  20  stores interpreting rules as is indicated in  FIG. 3 . Specifically, the interpreting rules stored in the microcomputer  20  prescribe what cooking information each line stores, and detailed contents of the cooking information corresponding to a value of the read bar code  26 .  
                                             TABLE 1                       Number of bits   Two bits   Three bits                   Cooking information   Number of servings   N-serving multiplier            Cooking contents   00   One serving   000   1.2           . . .       . . .           11   Four servings   111   2.6                  
 
         [0031]     In Table 1 above, the number of servings indicates the number of servings of food to be cooked. The number of servings stored in the bar code  26  is the total number of servings of the food package. Two bits are assigned to the bar code  26  set to store the number of servings. For example, when the read bar code  26  is “00,” the number of servings of the food to be cooked corresponds to one serving. When the read bar code  26  is “11,” the number of servings of the food to be cooked corresponds to four servings.  
         [0032]     For example, the serving multiplier may be used to properly change the cooking time stored in the bar code  26 , which is set to appropriately cook one serving of the food, when the number of servings is greater than one serving. When the cooking condition is cooking time, the serving multiplier determines a value by which the cooking time for one serving is multiplied when multiple servings are to be cooked. The cooking time for multiple servings is calculated by the following equation.  
         [0033]     Cooking time for N servings=cooking time for one serving*N-serving multiplier where, N is a natural number greater than 1, and N servings is the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber.  
         [0034]     For example, when the cooking time for one serving is set to 200 seconds, the two-serving multiplier is set to 1.2, and the three-serving multiplier is set to 1.4, the cooking time for two servings is 240 seconds (200*1.2), and the cooking time for three servings is 280 seconds (200*1.4). Consequently, the cooking time for N servings is the product of the cooking time for one serving and the N-serving multiplier.  
         [0035]     The bar code  26  stores serving multipliers corresponding to the respective servings (excluding one serving) less than or equal to the total servings of the food package to be cooked as shown in  FIG. 3 . For example, when a food package to be cooked is a three-serving food package, a two-serving multiplier corresponding to two servings and a three-serving multiplier corresponding to three servings are stored in sequence in the bar code  26 . The value of the serving multiplier may be experimentally selected. When the number of servings of the food to be cooked is more than one, the cooking time for one serving (i.e., the cooking time read from the bar code  26 ) is multiplied by the serving multiplier corresponding to the number of servings by means of the microcomputer  20  (shown in  FIG. 2 ). As a result, the cooking time for the number of servings is calculated.  
         [0036]     The weight of one serving is the weight of the food to be cooked corresponding to one serving. Three bits are assigned to the bar code  26  for storing the weight of one serving. For example, when the read bar code  26  is “000,” the weight of the food to be cooked is 200 grams. When the read bar code  26  is “111,” the weight of the food to be cooked is 340 grams.  
         [0037]     The cooking information stored in the bar code  26  further comprises various cooking conditions including cooking mode and cooking time, in addition to the number of servings, the serving multipliers, and the weight of one serving. Specifically, the cooking time is set to appropriately cook one serving of food.  
         [0038]     The operation of the first embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to  FIG. 4 .  
         [0039]     In  FIG. 4 , in operation  30 , when a user brings a bar code  26  printed on a food package to be cooked to the bar-code reader  21 , the bar-code reader  21  reads the bar code. When the bar code  26  is read by the bar-code reader  21 , the read bar code is transmitted to the microcomputer  20 . The microcomputer  20  interprets the cooking information stored in the bar code  26  using the interpreting rules stored in the microcomputer  20 .  
         [0040]     From operation  30 , the process moves to operation  32 , where when the cooking information is interpreted, the microcomputer  20  confirms the weight of one serving of food contained in the cooking information.  
         [0041]     From operation  32 , the process moves to operation  34 , where the weight of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  by the user is confirmed based upon the weight measured by the weight sensor  18 , which is obtained as the tray motor  25  is operated. The weight measured by the weight sensor  18  is a sum of the weight of the tray  14  and the weight of the food to be cooked. The microcomputer  20  calculates a net weight of the food introduced into the cooking chamber by subtracting the weight of the tray  14  from the weight measured by the weight sensor  18 . The weight of the tray  14  is previously stored in the microcomputer  20 .  
         [0042]     From operation  34 , the process moves to operation  36 , where when the weight of one serving and the weight of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  are obtained, the weight of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  is divided by the weight of one serving to calculate the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11 . For example, when the weight of one serving is 200 grams and the weight of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  is 400 grams, the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  is two servings (400 grams/200 grams).  
         [0043]     From operation  36 , the process moves to operation  38 , where the microcomputer  20  determines whether the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  is equal to one serving. When it is determined in operation  38  that the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  is one serving, the process moves to operation  42 , where the cooking process is performed using the cooking time stored in the bar code  26 .  
         [0044]     Alternatively, when it is determined in operation  38  that the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  is two or more servings, the process moves to operation  40 , where the microcomputer  20  changes the cooking time (i.e., multiplies the cooking time by the serving multiplier corresponding to the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11 ), and performs the cooking process using the changed cooking time. For example, when the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  corresponds to two servings, the cooking time is 50 seconds, and the two-serving multiplier is 1.2, the cooking time is changed to 60 seconds (50*1.2). As the cooking time is changed, the microcomputer  20  drives the magnetron  23  for the period of the changed cooking time to perform the cooking process. As a result, the food introduced into the cooking chamber is optimally cooked.  
         [0045]     A second embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to  FIGS. 5 and 6 . The second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the cooking time stored in the bar code  26   a  is set to appropriately cook the entire food package.  
                                             TABLE 2                       Number of bits   Two bits   Three bits                   Cooking information   Number of servings   N-serving multiplier            Cooking contents   00   One serving   000   0.2           . . .       . . .           11   Four servings   111   0.9                  
 
         [0046]     For example, the serving multiplier used in the second embodiment is provided for properly changing a cooking condition stored in the bar code  26   a  according to a decrease of the number of servings when a user cooks less food than the total number of servings as in indicated in Table 2. That is, when the cooking condition is cooking time, the serving multiplier determines a value by which the cooking time for the total number of servings to be multiplied by when less than the total number of servings is to be cooked. Consequently, when the total number of servings is different from the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber, the cooking time is calculated by the following equation. 
 
Cooking time for N servings=cooking time for the total number of servings*N-serving multiplier where, N is a natural number, and N servings is the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber, which is less than the total number of servings. 
 
         [0047]     For example, when the total number of servings is two servings, the cooking time for two servings is 200 seconds, the one-serving multiplier corresponding to one serving is 0.7, and the food to be cooked corresponds to one servings, the cooking time is changed to 140 seconds (200*0.7). Consequently, the cooking time for N servings is the product of the cooking time for the total number of servings and the N-serving multiplier.  
         [0048]     In  FIG. 5 , the bar code  26   a  stores serving multipliers corresponding to the number of servings less than the total number of servings of the food package to be cooked. For example, when a food package to be cooked is a three-serving food package, a one-serving multiplier corresponding to one serving and a two-serving multiplier corresponding to two servings are stored in sequence in the bar code  26   a.  The value of the serving multiplier may be experimentally selected. When the number of servings of the food to be cooked is less than the total number of servings, the cooking time for the total number of servings (i.e., the cooking time read from the bar code  26   a ) is multiplied by the serving multiplier corresponding to the number of servings by means of the microcomputer  20 . As a result, a cooking time for the number of servings is calculated. The other cooking information shown in  FIG. 5  is identical to that of  FIG. 3 , a description will not be given accordingly.  
         [0049]     The operation of the second embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to  FIG. 6 . Operations  50  to  56  of  FIG. 6  are identical to Operations  30  to  36  of  FIG. 4 , a description will not be given accordingly.  
         [0050]     In  FIG. 6 , from operation  56 , the process moves to operation  58 , where the microcomputer  20  determines whether the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  is equal to the total number of servings. When it is determined in operation  58  that the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  corresponds to the total number of servings, the process moves to operation  62 , where the cooking process is performed for the cooking time stored in the bar code  26   a.    
         [0051]     When it is determined in operation  58  that the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  is less than the total number of servings, the process moves to operation  60 , where the microcomputer  20  changes the cooking time(i.e., multiplies the cooking time by the serving multiplier corresponding to the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11 ), and performs the cooking process using the changed cooking time. For example, when a food package to be cooked corresponds to three servings, and the food introduced into the chamber  11  corresponds to two servings, the cooking time is 200 seconds, and the two-serving multiplier is 0.7, the cooking time is changed to 140 seconds (200*0.7). When the cooking time is changed, the microcomputer  20  drives the magnetron  23  for the period of the changed cooking time to perform the cooking process. As a result, the food introduced into the cooking chamber is optimally cooked.  
         [0052]     The third embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to  FIGS. 7 and 8 . In  FIG. 7 , a bar code  26   b  used in the third embodiment stores the total weight of the food instead of the weight of one serving of food, and the cooking time is set to appropriately cook one serving.  
         [0053]     The total weight of the food to be cooked is the total weight of the food package. The total weight of the food to be cooked is previously measured and stored in the bar code  26   b.  Three bits are assigned to the bar code for storing the weight of the total number of servings of the food to be cooked. When the read bar code  26   b  is “000,” the total weight of the food to be cooked is 200 grams. When the read bar code  26   b  is “111,” the total weight of the food to be cooked is 1600 grams. The additional cooking information of  FIG. 7  is identical to that of  FIG. 3 , the description of which will not be given accordingly.  
         [0054]     An operation of the third embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to  FIG. 8 . In  FIG. 8 , in operation  70 , when a user brings a bar code  26   b  printed on a food package to be cooked to the bar-code reader  21 , the bar-code reader  21  reads the bar code  26   b.  When the bar code  26   b  is read by the bar-code reader  21 , the read bar code  26   b  is transmitted to the microcomputer  20 . The microcomputer  20  interprets the cooking information stored in the bar code  26   b  using the interpreting rules stored in the microcomputer  20 . From operation  70 , the process moves to operation  72 , where, when the cooking information is interpreted, the microcomputer  20  confirms the number of servings of the food package to be cooked and the weight of the food package to be cooked based upon the total number of servings and the total weight of the food contained in the cooking information. From operation  72 , the process moves to operation  74 , where the total weight of the food to be cooked is divided by the total number of servings, to thereby calculate the weight of the food to be cooked corresponding to one serving.  
         [0055]     From operation  74  the process moves to operation  76 , where the weight of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  by the user is confirmed based upon the weight measured by the weight sensor  18 , which is obtained as the tray motor  25  is operated. The weight measured by the weight sensor  18  is the sum of the weight of the tray  14  and the weight of the food to be cooked. The microcomputer  20  calculates the net weight of the food introduced into the cooking chamber by subtracting the weight of the tray  14  from the weight measured by the weight sensor  18 . The weight of the tray  14  is previously stored in the microcomputer  20 .  
         [0056]     From operation  76 , the process moves to operation  78 , where when the weight of the food to be cooked corresponding to one serving and the weight of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  are obtained, the weight of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  is divided by the weight of the food to be cooked corresponding to one serving to calculate the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11 . For example, when the food package to be cooked is a three-serving food package (total number of servings) and the weight of the food package is 600 grams (i.e., total weight of the food to be cooked), the weight of the food to be cooked corresponding to one serving is 200 grams (600 grams/3). When the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  is 400 grams, the number of servings of the food introduced into the cooking chamber  11  is two servings (400 grams/200 grams).  
         [0057]     Operations  80  to  84  of  FIG. 8  are identical to Operations  38  to  42  of  FIG. 4 , the description of which will not be given accordingly.  
         [0058]     The fourth embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to  FIGS. 9 and 10 . As is shown in  FIG. 9 , a bar code  26   c  used in the fourth embodiment stores the total weight of the food same as the bar code  26   b  in  FIG. 7 , and the cooking time is set to appropriately cook the entirety of food to be cooked. The additional cooking information of  FIG. 9  is identical to that of  FIG. 3 , the description of which will not be given accordingly.  
         [0059]     The operation of the fourth embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to  FIG. 10 . Operations  90  to  98  of  FIG. 10  are identical to Operations  70  to  78  of  FIG. 8 , the description of which will not be given accordingly. Also, Operations  100  to  102  of  FIG. 10  are identical to Operations  58  to  62  of  FIG. 6 , the description of which will not be given accordingly.  
         [0060]     As apparent from the above description, the present invention provides a cooking apparatus and a cooking method capable of automatically recognizing the number of servings of food introduced into a cooking chamber. Consequently, the present invention has the effect of optimally cooking the food on the basis of the amount of the food to be cooked.  
         [0061]     Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in this embodiment without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.

Technology Category: h