Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Naoya Taniguchi

Gantetsu Matsui

Hirohisa Imai

Saki Takakura

Mariko Takenouchi

Kiyoshi Nakashita

Shinya Iwadare

A heating cooker of the present disclosure includes a heating chamber for accommodating a heating target; a heating unit; a control unit; a detection unit; an illumination unit; an image-capturing unit; a recognition processing unit; and a notification unit. The heating unit heats a heating target. The control unit controls heating by the heating unit. The detection unit detects opening/closing of a door of the heating chamber. The illumination unit illuminates an interior of the heating chamber. The image-capturing unit captures images of the interior of the heating chamber when the door is opened and closed. The recognition processing unit is operable to read the heating control information provided to the heating target from the captured images. When the recognition processing unit successfully reads the heating control information when the door is opened, the control unit causes the notification unit to notify success in reading the heating control information.

Heating cooker

A heating cooker includes a heating cavity for accommodating a heating target, an imager for capturing an image of an interior of the heating cavity, and an exposure controller for performing exposure control. The exposure controller is operable to perform the exposure control based on gray level information obtained from the image captured by the imager. As a result, it is possible to acquire an image for recognition after accurately detecting the illuminance of the interior of the heating cavity and performing exposure control.

Heating control information recognizing unit recognizes heating control information of an object to be heated from an image of the inside of heating chamber captured by imaging unit, and heating controller controls heating unit based on the heating control information. When it is difficult for heating control information recognizing unit to perform recognition, disposing position guide unit guides the object to be heated to a capturing range of imaging unit. It is thus possible to recognize the heating control information with a simple configuration including a single camera functioning as imaging unit.

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Kyoto, Japan

Naoya Taniguchi