Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Machiko Azuma

Shuji Abe

Shinji Kondoh

Haruo Terai

Yumiko Hara

A cooking apparatus such as a rice cooker includes means for obtaining a value or a combination of values indicative of an amount of food that is to be cooked, and a fuzzy inference section for operating on that value or combination of values to determine a level of heating power to be supplied to a heater element of the apparatus, during at least one part of the cooking process. The amount-indicating value can be obtained for example as a rate of change of temperature of the food while it is being heated to boiling point. The apparatus can further be configured to determine a plurality of cooking control parameters, by fuzzy inference operation, based on a specified degree of final hardness of the cooked food, which can be selectively inputted by the user.

Growing community of inventors

Hyogo, Japan

Machiko Azuma