Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Kiyoshi Hiejima

Hiroyuki Uehashi

Haruo Sakai

Kazuo Taino

Toshitada Kojima

Morito Yamada

Yoriko Kishitani

In a sake/milk heating process, the field of view of an infrared sensor is moved by a predetermined pattern in a heating chamber as an initial search. When the field of view is fixed after the initial search, if the temperature variation of an object within the field of view after a predetermined time has passed is equal to or lower than a specified value, various determinations are made, and the field of view of the infrared sensor is again moved in the heating chamber as a re-search. Thus, even if the field of view is fixed at a position where no food item is placed for some reason in the initial search, the field of view will not be fixed in the incorrect position and can be moved again.

Cooking appliance with infrared sensor having movable field of view

A microwave oven mainly comprises a heating chamber (3) where food (2) is placed, a magnetron (8) for supplying microwaves to the heating chamber, a humidity sensor (11) for detecting an absolute humidity in the heating chamber, and a microcomputer (12) for controlling operation of the magnetron. The microcomputer (12) determines whether the food is covered with clear-plastic wrap or not, based on a humidity change rate at an early stage of heating. Further, the microcomputer determines the quantity of the food based on the detection of a humidity change rate at a later stage. The microcomputer determines a heating pattern suited for the state of the food, based on the two determinations.

Electronically controlled cooking apparatus for controlling heating of

An electronic control cooking apparatus, such as a microwave oven, when a thawing program comprising a plurality of heating stages is executed, once interrupts the execution of the thawing program at the time of completion of a first heating stage so as to interrupt the heating for food under thawing operation. During the interruption of heating, a user turns over the food and restarts the thawing operation to execute the process from a second heating stage in the thawing program, whereby the thawing process free from non-uniformity is easy to execute in a relatively short time.

Electronic control cooking apparatus

An induction heating apparatus comprises a high frequency generation circuit (1) having a heating coil (3), a frequency controlling circuit (10), a duty-cycle controlling circuit (29) and an output setting knob (12). The output setting knob (12) is interlockingly operated with both of the frequency control circuit (10) and the duty-cycle controlling circuit (29) to simultaneously control the oscillation frequency and the duty ratio of the high frequency generation circuit (1). The frequency control circuit (10) has a characteristic of reducing the amount of change in the oscillation frequency of the high frequency generation circuit (1) to be changed in response to change in the volume of adjustment of the output setting knob (12) as the output set by the output setting knob (12) is increased, and the duty-cycle controlling circuit (29) has a characteristic of reducing the amount of change in the duty ratio of the high frequency generation circuit (1) to be changed in response to change in the volume of adjustment of the output setting knob (12) as the output set by the output setting knob (12) is increased.

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Shiga, Japan

Kiyoshi Hiejima