Foods and beverages: apparatus – Cooking – Automatic control
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-30
2001-03-06
Simone, Timothy (Department: 1761)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Cooking
Automatic control
C099S348000, C099S468000, C366S144000, C366S146000, C366S314000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06196113
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to an improved food appliance and, more particular, to a versatile food appliance having a coding system for program-control and including features for program updates that can be effected by an end-user.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
One embodiment of a food appliance in the form of a breadmaker with coding system has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,277. The program-controlled machine operates according to one of a plurality of provided specified programs by receiving materials required in the specified program such as ingredients of a selected kind of bread to be baked.
Breadmakers of the type comprising a baking chamber containing an electric heater at the bottom, a baking pan which is a container to be set inside the baking chamber for receiving ingredients therein, a stirrer for stirring and kneading the ingredients inside the baking pan and a motor for rotating the stirrer in a specified manner, have been known.
Breadmakers of the type storing a plurality of programs and allowing a user to select one of them for baking a desired kind of bread have also been known. These programs generally include many complicated steps such as mixing selected ingredients and controlling the baking temperature. With some prior art breadmakers, the user is required to read a cookbook carefully to ascertain the necessary steps before setting an appropriate program.
Some breadmakers are preprogrammed, and the user has only to specify the desired kind of bread to be baked, the breadmaker automatically carrying out the program associated with the specified kind of bread.
For allowing the user to specify the kind of bread to be baked, some breadmakers are designed to display, as power is switched on, the types of bread that can be specified. An indicator is initially displayed at a default position, say, next to the name of the most commonly selected kind of bread, and the user operates a SELECT button until the indicator moves one position at a time to finally reach a position next to the desired kind of bread.
Alternatively, the breadmaker may be provided with as many push buttons as the number of different kinds of bread that can be baked thereby, and the user is required to push the button corresponding to the desired kind of bread. With prior art breadmakers, therefore, the number of programs from which the user can select one is limited because the screen of the display device is not large and the control panel of the machine cannot accommodate too many buttons.
With prior art breadmakers, furthermore, the user must carefully add the required ingredients such as flour, sugar, salt and yeast. In other words, prior art breadmakers are not energy-efficient and are difficult to use and the choice of different kinds of bread that can be baked thereby cannot be increased significantly.
Prior art breadmakers and other program-controlled appliances have a limited set of preset programs they can operate on. That is, the repertoire of programs that can be executed by a breadmaker or a similar appliance is fixed at the factory. If a new recipe calls for a different process, the user can at best approximate it by selecting the closest existing preset program. In most cases, the user will have to purchase newer models of the machine in order to have the newer features and processes.
Furthermore, prior art food processing machines tend to be task-specific and single-purpose. For example, a breadmaker is dedicated to making bread, a rice cooker for cooking rice, a rotisserie for roasting, a regular oven or a microwave oven or a convection oven for either general-purpose or specific kind of baking, toasting and broiling, etc.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a general object of the invention to provide a versatile food appliance with updatable program control for replacing a plurality of dedicated appliances.
It is another object of the invention to provide a food appliance with a coding system in which a new recipe or a premixed package of ingredients can be associated with a predefined program.
It is another object of the invention to provide a food appliance having a repertoire of programs capable of being updated in the field by a user.
It is another object of the invention to provide a new coding system for a program-controlled machine such as a breadmaker or other food appliance which allows a user to select one from a larger number of different kind of products and to cause the machine to operate automatically on a program appropriate for the selected product.
It is still another object of the invention to provide such a coding system with which the user is less likely to make an error in providing ingredients for the specified product.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a versatile food appliance capable of operating as a breadmaker or other dedicated machine and which is equipped with such an improved coding system.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a food appliance which can efficiently store a large number of programs.
An improved breadmaker embodying the present invention, with which the above and other objects can be achieved, may be characterized as being like a prior art breadmaker comprising a baking chamber having a heater therein, a baking pan adapted to receive ingredients therein and be set inside the baking chamber, a stirrer for stirring and kneading the ingredient inside the baking pan and a motor for rotating the stirrer in a specified manner, and also comprising an air-circulating means such as a centrifugal fan for causing the air inside the baking chamber to move upward through the fan and to circulate downward around the baking pan.
A coding system embodying the invention, with which the above and other objects can be accomplished, may be characterized as being associated with a machine adapted to carry out selectively any of a plurality of tasks according to a program and by using specific materials both associated with the selected task. An example of such machines is a breadmaker programmed to make different kinds of bread by using different mixtures of ingredients. Each of the products that can be obtained by such a machine is assigned a different code, and a table, serving as an indexing means, is provided to show what code has been assigned to each of the products that can be made or processed by the machine, and a user specifies the product to be obtained or processed by inputting the corresponding code. The materials to be used by the machine for making a product of the specified kind or carrying out a specified process may be provided in the form of a premixed package with the corresponding code clearly printed thereon such that the user is spared of the trouble of mixing the required ingredients himself/herself. The user may specify the code corresponding to the desired product by directly forming it on numeric or alphanumeric keys, or by causing available codes to appear sequentially on a display device one by one and pressing a process-starting button when the code corresponding to the desired product or process is displayed.
One feature of the invention allows a food appliance to run additional new programs outside its existing repertoire. This is accomplished by providing facility for a user to transfer new programs to the food appliance.
In one embodiment, the new programs or updates are transferred via a standard data port, such as a parallel port, or a serial port, or an infrared port provided with the food appliance.
In another embodiment, the new programs or updates are transferred via a memory port which is able to receive a removable memory card.
Another feature of the invention incorporates multiple functions into a versatile appliance operating under the control of programs which are updatable. In this way, one versatile machine or appliance can replace several dedicated machines. This is accomplished by incorporating in the versatile appliance the hardware components common to a plurality of dedicated food machines.
An economy of scale is achieved since the different d
Majestic, Parsons, Stebert & Hsue P.C.
Simone Timothy
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