System and method for centralized remote control of heaters

文档序号：1602908 发布日期：2020-01-07 浏览：31次中文

阅读说明：本技术 用于对加热器进行集中式远程控制的系统和方法 (System and method for centralized remote control of heaters ) 是由本·齐克尔拉姆·埃尔波伊姆利奥尔·达尔尚大卫·谢克特扎尔曼·伊布拉吉莫夫于 2018-05-06 设计创作，主要内容包括：提供了一种用于对加热器中的食物部分的加热进行监测和控制的方法,每个加热器都被安装成与对应的客户端计算机通信,所述客户端计算机与同一服务器通信,由所述服务器执行的方法包括：从所述客户端计算机接收RF签名,每个RF签名基于在所述加热器之一的腔内发射的RF信号的测得反射,所述腔中包含所述食物部分；分析所述RF签名；基于对所述RF签名的分析为每个加热器确定至少一个加热指令,以操作每个加热器来加热其中的食物部分；以及向所述客户端计算机中的每一个发射对应的至少一个所确定的加热指令,所述加热指令包括用于生成RF信号并使用所述加热器的加热天线将所述RF信号发射到所述食物部分的指令。(There is provided a method for monitoring and controlling heating of food portions in heaters, each heater being mounted in communication with a corresponding client computer, the client computers being in communication with the same server, the method performed by the server comprising: receiving RF signatures from the client computer, each RF signature based on a measured reflection of an RF signal emitted within a cavity of one of the heaters, the cavity containing the food portion therein; analyzing the RF signature; determining at least one heating instruction for each heater based on the analysis of the RF signature to operate each heater to heat a portion of food therein; and transmitting the corresponding at least one determined heating instruction to each of the client computers, the heating instructions including instructions for generating an RF signal and transmitting the RF signal to the food portions using a heating antenna of the heater.)

1. A computer-implemented method for monitoring and controlling heating of food portions in a plurality of heaters, each heater being mounted in communication with a corresponding client computer, wherein the client computers are in communication with the same server, the method comprising:

receiving, at the server, RF signatures from the client computer, each RF signature being based on measured reflections of a plurality of RF signals emitted within a cavity of one of the heaters, the cavity containing a portion of food to be heated by the corresponding heater;

analyzing, by the server, the RF signature received from the client computer;

determining, by the server, at least one heating instruction for each heater based on the analysis of the RF signature to operate each heater to heat a portion of food therein; and

transmitting, from the server to each of the client computers, a corresponding at least one heating instruction determined for a corresponding heater.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the heater is a dielectric heater.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each heating instruction includes instructions to generate a plurality of RF signals and transmit the plurality of RF signals to the food portion using a heating antenna of the dielectric heater.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein each of the plurality of RF signals has a power of at least 100W.

5. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the analyzing comprises comparing the RF signature to RF signatures received by the server from a plurality of client computers, each client computer being in communication with a corresponding heater.

6. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein determining comprises selecting the at least one heating instruction from a plurality of heating instructions.

7. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein analyzing is performed by a member selected from the group consisting of:

a classifier trained on RF signatures obtained by a plurality of client computers, each client computer in communication with a corresponding heater;

a regression function modeling RF signatures obtained by a plurality of client computers, each client computer in communication with a corresponding heater;

matching the received RF signature with entries in a lookup table that stores RF signatures obtained by the plurality of client computers; and

associating the received RF signature with one of the RF signatures stored in the database according to the statistical similarity, wherein the RF signatures stored in the database are obtained by the plurality of client computers.

8. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein determining comprises determining at least one heating instruction to operate the heater to at least one of: reducing the relative total energy consumption to heat the food portion during heating; and

increasing the effectiveness of heating the portion of the food during heating as compared to a locally stored standard heating program executed by the client computer without server input.

9. The method of claim 3 or 4, wherein the instructions for generating a plurality of RF signals comprise instructions for generating RF signals that differ from each other in at least one of frequency and phase.

10. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein analyzing comprises:

applying a classifier to the RF signature to classify the food portion into a heating category from a plurality of heating categories, each heating category associated with a respective heating instruction; and

selecting a heating instruction for the food portion based on the classification.

11. The method of any of the preceding claims, further comprising:

controlling, by the server, heating of the food portion by:

iterating the receiving and the analyzing, and wherein determining comprises receiving data indicative of measurements of reflections of the RF signal;

adjusting the at least one heating instruction according to the result of the analysis to generate an adjusted heating instruction; and

transmitting the adjusted heating instructions to the client computer to operate the heater according to the adjusted heating instructions.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

controlling, by the server, heating of the food portion by:

iterating the receiving and the analyzing, and wherein determining comprises receiving data indicative of measurements of reflections of the RF;

adjusting the heating instruction according to the analysis result to generate an adjusted heating mode; and

transmitting the adjusted heating mode to the client computer to operate the heater to generate RF signals according to the adjusted heating mode.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the heating instructions are adjusted according to a heating target.

14. The method of any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein the controlling is performed in real time.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising: transmitting instructions to generate an RF signal according to the adjusted heating mode for a predefined period of time, and repeating the controlling when the predefined period of time expires.

16. The method of claim 11 or 14, wherein the controlling is repeatedly performed during a cooking process of the food portion.

17. The method of any of the preceding claims, further comprising:

receiving, at the server, an indication from each of the client computers whether a desired heating effect is achieved;

associating with each of the received RF signature data at least one heating instruction transmitted from the server to operate a corresponding heater, and an associated indication of whether the desired heating effect was achieved using the at least one heating instruction; and

training a classifier that performs the determination of the at least one heating instruction in accordance with the indication of the desired heating effect.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising: training the classifier using RF signature data as input into the classifier and corresponding applied heating instructions as output of the classifier.

19. The method of any of the preceding claims, further comprising:

aggregating, at the server, RF signature data and an indication of a current state of the food portions received from at least some of the client computers; and

training a classifier to perform the analysis using the RF signature data representing inputs into the classifier and using a current state of the food portion as a class representing an output of the classifier.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the current state of the food includes a type of food.

21. The method of any of the preceding claims, further comprising:

aggregating, at the server, test results of self-tests performed by at least one of the client computers to test a corresponding heater;

grouping the test results according to the type of the heater; and

the test results are analyzed according to the grouped heater types to determine service requirements.

22. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

aggregating, at the server, the adjusted heating modes and corresponding measured reflections of applied heating instructions from the plurality of client computers associated with corresponding heaters to update a trained classifier that adjusts at least one heating instruction based on the received measured reflections.

23. The method of any of the preceding claims, further comprising:

determining a hardware type of each heater;

receiving RF signature data from at least one of each heater; and

determining the at least one heating instruction for each heater according to the hardware type of the heater and the received RF signature data aggregated from the corresponding heater.

24. The method of any of the preceding claims, further comprising:

receiving, at the server, from each of a plurality of client computers, a dish indication indicating a dish heated by a corresponding user using a corresponding heater in communication with the corresponding client computer through the corresponding heater;

creating a user profile for each user based on a set of dish instructions; and

associating different user profiles as a public profile according to a set of dish indications across the user profiles common to the dish indications.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

receiving, at the server, an indication that a particular user with a particular user profile heats a new dish;

identifying a public profile associated with the particular user;

accessing the public profile for another at least one dish; and

transmitting the obtained additional at least one dish to the client computer for presentation.

26. The method of claim 24 or 25, further comprising:

determining at least one cooking parameter for the dish indication;

including the at least one cooking parameter determined for the dish indication in the user profile; and is

Wherein associating comprises associating different user profiles with a common profile according to cooking parameters indicated by dishes common between the user profiles.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the at least one cooking parameter comprises one or more members selected from the group consisting of: a total cooking time indicated by the dish, a cooking temperature indicated by the dish, a time of day to cook the dish indication, a day of week to cook the dish indication, a holiday to cook the dish indication, a date to cook the dish indication, and a geographic location to cook the dish indication.

28. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the heater comprises or is in communication with a non-RF heating element; wherein the determining further comprises: determining at least one non-RF heating instruction for application by the non-RF heating element, the non-RF heating instruction being associated with the determined RF heating instruction.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the non-RF heating instructions include instructions to use convection heating.

30. The method of any of the preceding claims, further comprising: initialization is performed by:

receiving, at the server, data indicative of RF signals whose reflections are used to measure the RF signature, the RF signals including data for calculating a phase difference between at least two of the RF signals;

calculating the phase difference; and

instructions are transmitted to adjust the RF signal such that the calculated phase difference approaches a target phase value.

31. The method of any of the preceding claims, further comprising: prior to the act of receiving the RF signature data:

receiving, at the server, an initialization signature from the client computer indicating that there is a food portion ready to be heated in the heater in communication with the client computer;

transmitting instructions from the server to the client computer to:

measuring reflections of a plurality of RF signals emitted within a cavity of the heater, the cavity containing the food portion therein;

transmitting an RF signature to the server based on the measured reflection; and

associating the RF signature with the received initialization signature.

32. A computer-implemented method for monitoring and controlling heating of food portions in a heater mounted in communication with a client computer, wherein the client computer is in communication with a server, the method comprising:

transmitting an RF signature from the client computer to the server based on measured reflections of a plurality of RF signals transmitted within a cavity of the heater, the cavity containing the food portion therein;

receiving, from the server, at least one heating instruction determined by the server based on the analysis of the RF signature to operate the heater to heat the food portion, the at least one heating instruction including instructions to generate a plurality of RF signals and transmit the plurality of RF signals to a cavity of the heater; and

controlling the heater according to the received at least one heating instruction.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

detecting, by the client computer, a failure to receive an instruction message from the server defining the heating instruction within an upcoming period of time; and

continuing to control, by the client computer, the heater to heat according to the previously received heating instructions.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

monitoring, by the client computer, for receipt of the instruction message within a predefined time requirement; and

applying heating instructions according to instructions stored locally on a storage medium of the client computer of the heater upon expiration of the predefined time requirement.

35. A server for monitoring and controlling heating of food portions in a plurality of heaters, each heater being mounted in communication with a corresponding client computer, each food portion being contained within a cavity of a corresponding heater, the server comprising:

a communication interface for communicating with a plurality of client computers using a network;

a program storage device storing code; and

a processor coupled to the communication interface and the program storage device for implementing the stored code, the code comprising:

instructions for performing the following:

receiving RF signatures from each of the client computers, each RF signature based on measured reflections of a plurality of RF signals transmitted within each corresponding cavity;

analyzing each RF signature;

determining at least one heating instruction based on the analysis of the RF signature to operate a corresponding heater to heat a corresponding food portion; and

transmitting each determined at least one heating instruction to a corresponding client computer.

Wherein the determined at least one heating instruction comprises instructions to generate and transmit a plurality of RF signals to a cavity of a corresponding heater.

36. The server of claim 35, wherein the determined at least one heating instruction comprises instructions to generate a plurality of RF signals and transmit the plurality of RF signals to a cavity of a corresponding heater.

37. A computer-implemented method for monitoring and controlling heating of food portions in a heater mounted in communication with a client computer, wherein the client computer is in communication with a server, the method comprising:

receiving, at the server, an RF signature from the client computer based on measured reflections of a plurality of RF signals emitted within a cavity of the heater, the cavity containing the food portion therein;

analyzing, by the server, the RF signature received from the client computer;

determining, by the server, at least one heating instruction based on the analysis of the RF signature to operate the heater to heat the food portion; and

transmitting the determined at least one heating instruction from the server to the client computer.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the determined at least one heating instruction includes instructions to generate a plurality of RF signals and transmit the plurality of RF signals to the food portion using a heating antenna of the heater.

39. The method of claim 37, wherein the heater is one of a plurality of heaters, each heater is installed in communication with a corresponding client computer, and all client computers are in communication with the server.

Background

In some embodiments thereof, the present invention relates to systems and methods for controlling a heater, and more particularly, but not exclusively, to systems and methods for centralized control of a heater, which may be a heater.

The heater heats and cooks food by applying electromagnetic energy in the microwave frequency range to a resonant cavity having the food therein.

Heaters tend to heat food quickly while using less energy than standard ovens, but are difficult to control by a user to achieve a desired heating result. For example, the user may stop the heating process several times to check the state of the food. Further, the heater tends to heat the food unevenly, which may make it difficult to cook the food in the heater. For example, frozen food may be cooked at some portions while other portions remain frozen.

Disclosure of Invention

Unless defined otherwise, all technical and/or scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Although methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of embodiments of the present invention, exemplary methods and/or materials are described below. In case of conflict, the present patent specification, including definitions, will control. In addition, these materials, methods, and examples are illustrative only and not intended to be necessarily limiting.

An aspect of some embodiments of the invention includes a computer-implemented method for monitoring and controlling heating of food portions in a plurality of heaters, each heater being installed in communication with a corresponding client computer, wherein the client computers are in communication with the same server.

The method comprises the following steps:

analyzing, by the server, the RF signature received from the client computer;

determining, by the server, at least one heating instruction for each heater based on the analysis of the RF signature to operate each heater to heat a portion of food therein; and

transmitting, from the server to each of the client computers, a corresponding at least one heating instruction determined for a corresponding heater.

In some embodiments, the heater is a dielectric heater.

In some embodiments, each heating instruction includes instructions to generate a plurality of RF signals and transmit the plurality of RF signals to the food portion using a heating antenna of the dielectric heater. In some such embodiments, each of the plurality of RF signals has a power of at least 100W.

In some embodiments, the analyzing includes comparing the RF signature to RF signatures received by the server from a plurality of client computers, each client computer in communication with a corresponding heater.

In some embodiments, determining the at least one heating instruction comprises selecting the at least one heating instruction from a plurality of heating instructions.

In some embodiments, the analysis of the RF signature is performed by a member selected from the group consisting of:

a classifier trained on RF signatures obtained by a plurality of client computers, each client computer in communication with a corresponding heater;

a regression function modeling RF signatures obtained by a plurality of client computers, each client computer in communication with a corresponding heater;

matching the received RF signature with entries in a lookup table that stores RF signatures obtained by the plurality of client computers; and

In some embodiments, determining the at least one heating instruction comprises determining at least one heating instruction to operate the heater to at least one of:

reducing the relative total energy consumption to heat the food portion during heating; and

increasing the effectiveness of heating the portion of the food during heating as compared to a locally stored standard heating program executed by the client computer without server input.

In some embodiments, the instructions for generating the plurality of RF signals comprise instructions for generating RF signals that differ from each other in at least one of frequency and phase.

In some embodiments, the analysis of the RF signature comprises:

selecting a heating instruction for the food portion based on the classification.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

controlling heating of the food portion by the server. The control may be performed, for example, by:

iterating the receiving and the analyzing, and wherein determining comprises receiving data indicative of measurements of reflections of the RF signal;

adjusting the at least one heating instruction according to the result of the analysis to generate an adjusted heating instruction; and

transmitting the adjusted heating instructions to the client computer to operate the heater according to the adjusted heating instructions.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

controlling, by the server, heating of the food portion by:

iterating the receiving and the analyzing, and wherein determining comprises receiving data indicative of measurements of reflections of the RF;

adjusting the heating instruction according to the analysis result to generate an adjusted heating mode; and

transmitting the adjusted heating mode to the client computer to operate the heater to generate RF signals according to the adjusted heating mode.

In some embodiments, the heating instructions are adjusted according to a heating target.

In some embodiments, the controlling is performed in real time.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises transmitting instructions to generate an RF signal according to the adjusted heating mode for a predefined period of time, and repeating the controlling when the predefined period of time expires.

In some embodiments, the controlling is performed repeatedly during a cooking process of the food portion.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

receiving, at the server, an indication from each of the client computers whether a desired heating effect is achieved;

training a classifier that performs the determination of the at least one heating instruction in accordance with the indication of the desired heating effect.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises training the classifier using RF signature data as input into the classifier and using the corresponding applied heating instructions as output of the classifier.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

aggregating, at the server, RF signature data and an indication of a current state of the food portions received from at least some of the client computers; and

In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

aggregating, at the server, test results of self-tests performed by at least one of the client computers to test a corresponding heater;

grouping the test results according to the type of the heater; and

the test results are analyzed according to the grouped heater types to determine service requirements.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

determining a hardware type of each heater;

receiving RF signature data from at least one of each heater; and

determining the at least one heating instruction for each heater according to the hardware type of the heater and the received RF signature data aggregated from the corresponding heater.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

creating a user profile for each user based on a set of dish instructions; and

associating different user profiles as a public profile according to a set of dish indications across the user profiles common to the dish indications. Optionally, the method further comprises:

receiving, at the server, an indication that a particular user with a particular user profile heats a new dish;

identifying a public profile associated with the particular user;

accessing the public profile for another at least one dish; and

transmitting the obtained additional at least one dish to the client computer for presentation.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

determining at least one cooking parameter for the dish indication;

including the at least one cooking parameter determined for the dish indication in the user profile; and is

Wherein associating comprises associating different user profiles with a common profile according to cooking parameters indicated by dishes common between the user profiles.

In some embodiments, the at least one cooking parameter comprises one or more members selected from the group consisting of: a total cooking time indicated by the dish, a cooking temperature indicated by the dish, a time of day to cook the dish indication, a day of week to cook the dish indication, a holiday to cook the dish indication, a date to cook the dish indication, and a geographic location to cook the dish indication.

In some embodiments, the heater comprises or is in communication with a non-RF heating element; wherein the determining further comprises: determining at least one non-RF heating instruction for application by the non-RF heating element, the non-RF heating instruction being associated with the determined RF heating instruction. Optionally, the non-RF heating instructions comprise instructions to use convection heating.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises: initialization is performed by:

calculating the phase difference; and

instructions are transmitted to adjust the RF signal such that the calculated phase difference approaches a target phase value.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises, prior to the act of receiving RF signature data:

receiving, at the server, an initialization signature from the client computer indicating that there is a food portion ready to be heated in the heater in communication with the client computer;

transmitting instructions from the server to the client computer to:

measuring reflections of a plurality of RF signals emitted within a cavity of the heater, the cavity containing the food portion therein;

transmitting an RF signature to the server based on the measured reflection; and

associating the RF signature with the received initialization signature.

An aspect of some embodiments of the invention is a computer-implemented method for monitoring and controlling heating of food portions in a heater installed in communication with a client computer, wherein the client computer is in communication with a server, the method comprising:

controlling the heater according to the received at least one heating instruction.

In some such embodiments, the method further comprises:

detecting, by the client computer, a failure to receive an instruction message from the server defining the heating instruction within an upcoming period of time; and

continuing to control, by the client computer, the heater to heat according to the previously received heating instructions.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

monitoring, by the client computer, for receipt of the instruction message within a predefined time requirement; and

applying heating instructions according to instructions stored locally on a storage medium of the client computer of the heater upon expiration of the predefined time requirement.

An aspect of some embodiments of the invention includes a server for monitoring and controlling heating of food portions in a plurality of heaters, each heater mounted in communication with a corresponding client computer, each food portion contained within a cavity of a corresponding heater, the server comprising:

a communication interface for communicating with a plurality of client computers using a network;

a program storage device storing code; and

a processor coupled to the communication interface and the program storage device for implementing the stored code, the code comprising:

instructions for performing the following:

receiving RF signatures from each of the client computers, each RF signature based on measured reflections of a plurality of RF signals transmitted within each corresponding cavity;

analyzing each RF signature;

determining at least one heating instruction based on the analysis of the RF signature to operate a corresponding heater to heat a corresponding food portion; and

transmitting each determined at least one heating instruction to a corresponding client computer.

Wherein the determined at least one heating instruction comprises instructions to generate and transmit a plurality of RF signals to a cavity of a corresponding heater.

In some embodiments, the determined at least one heating instruction comprises instructions for generating and transmitting a plurality of RF signals to a cavity of a corresponding heater.

analyzing, by the server, the RF signature received from the client computer;

determining, by the server, at least one heating instruction based on the analysis of the RF signature to operate the heater to heat the food portion; and

transmitting the determined at least one heating instruction from the server to the client computer.

In some embodiments, the determined at least one heating instruction includes instructions to generate a plurality of RF signals and transmit the plurality of RF signals to the food portion using a heating antenna of the heater.

In some embodiments, the heater is one of a plurality of heaters, each heater is installed in communication with a corresponding client computer, and all client computers are in communication with the server.

Drawings

Some embodiments of the invention are described herein, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings. Referring now in detail to the drawings in detail, it is stressed that the particulars shown are by way of example and for purposes of illustrative discussion of the embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, the description taken with the drawings make it apparent to those skilled in the art how the embodiments of the invention may be practiced.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of a method for centralized monitoring and control of heating of portions of food heated by corresponding heaters according to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 2A is a block diagram of a system including a central server determining heating instructions for a plurality of networked client computers, each client computer installed in association with a heater, according to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 2B is a block diagram depicting exemplary internal components of a server, client computer, and heater, according to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a computer-implemented method of training a classifier to determine heating instructions for a heater according to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 4A is a flow diagram of a computer-implemented method of aggregating data from multiple users, according to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 4B is a flow diagram of a computer-implemented method of providing personalized recommendations to a user based on data aggregated from a plurality of users, according to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a computer-implemented method for monitoring and/or controlling heating of a food portion in a heater according to some embodiments of the invention; and is

Fig. 6 is a schematic illustration of another exemplary implementation of the system based on fig. 2B, according to some embodiments of the invention.

Detailed Description

In some embodiments thereof, the present invention relates to systems and methods for controlling heaters, and more particularly, but not exclusively, to systems and methods for centralized control of heaters. In some embodiments, the heater is a dielectric heater, i.e. a heater configured to heat an object to be heated by emitting electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range into a microwave cavity resonator housing the object to be heated. In some embodiments, the heater heats by heating air surrounding the object to be heated and/or by convection of hot air surrounding the object to be heated. In some embodiments, the heater may include: an IR heater that heats by radiating IR radiation to an object, an induction heater that induces a current in a metal plate in which an object to be heated is placed, or any other type of heater known in the art.

An aspect of some embodiments of the invention relates to a server in network communication with a plurality of client computers, each installed in communication with a heater. The server provides control services to a plurality of client computers, each of which is in communication with a corresponding heater. In some embodiments, the server is dedicated to serving heaters, as described herein. In some embodiments, the server may provide services to additional clients, whether related or unrelated to the present disclosure. The heater may be a microwave oven. In some embodiments, the heater includes a microwave heater and/or one or more heaters of other kinds, such as a convection heater, an IR heater, and/or an induction heater. An aspect of some embodiments of the invention relates to a method of centralized monitoring and/or control (e.g., implemented by a server) of heating of food portions in heaters, each of which is connected to a client computer connected to the server. For example, the server may receive the RF signature(s) from each client computer. The RF signature is a data set indicative of measured reflections of the RF signal emitted within the corresponding cavity of the heater containing the food portion. The server analyzes the RF signature to determine heating instruction(s) for operating the heater and heating the food portion. The heating instructions may include, for example, the following instructions: instructions for how to apply RF energy to the chamber from which the RF signature was received, to what temperature to heat the air in the chamber, to what speed to deliver the air to the chamber, etc. In embodiments where heat is applied by RF heating, an RF signature may be obtained by reading reflections of the signal that are also used for heating. However, in some embodiments, RF may be used for heating, and the RF signature is still obtained from a lower power signal, so that the signature can be obtained without heating the object. In some embodiments, the heater includes an RF system for generating a signature without using RF energy for heating. Such a system may be configured to supply RF energy only at low power levels sufficient to collect signatures (e.g., between about 1mW to 100 mW).

For example, instructions on how to heat by RF energy for heating in a dielectric heater (also referred to herein as RF heating modes) may include instructions on what frequency to apply energy, at what power level, and for how long. The power level and/or the duration length may be frequency dependent. The RF heating mode may also include instructions to apply energy in a sequence. The RF heating pattern may include a phase difference instead of or in addition to frequency. For example, if the RF heating device is configured to heat by coherent radiation emitted by two antennas, the RF heating mode may include instructions for emitting RF radiation at a particular phase difference between the signals emitted by the two antennas. Similarly, the RF heating mode may include an amplitude ratio instead of or in addition to frequency and/or phase difference. For example, if the RF heating device is configured to be heated by coherent radiation emitted by two antennas, the RF heating mode may provide a ratio between the amplitudes of the signals emitted by the two antennas. The RF heating pattern may be represented, for example, as values of heating parameters for operating the dielectric heater, compiled code executed by the heater, scripts, non-compiled programs, or other implementations of instructions.

Heating instructions for the convection heater may include, for example: air temperature, air velocity, nozzles from which air is to be delivered to the heater cavity, length of heating, period of time during which no heating is applied, period of time during which air is not circulated around the object, etc. In some embodiments, a dielectric heating system and a non-dielectric heating system are provided in one or more of the heaters. Such heaters may be referred to herein as combination heaters. The heating instructions for the combination heater may include instructions regarding the order in which the different heating systems are provided in the combination heater. For example, the heating instructions may include instructions for when to start and when to stop each of the heating systems (e.g., dielectric heating system, convection heating system, induction heating system, IR heating system, etc.).

Optionally, the server dynamically monitors and controls heating of the food portions in real time during the cooking process. As used herein, the term "real-time" refers to the server receiving data from the client computer representing the current state of the food being heated, processing the data, and transmitting instructions to the corresponding client computer at a speed fast enough to respond to the current state of the food before the food changes statistically significantly due to heating during the delay caused by the server. For example, real-time heating control may include controlling the change in heating in less than about 0.5 seconds, or 1 second, or 3 seconds, or 5 seconds from the time of considering the decision to change the heating instruction.

A heating target, such as temperature, food consistency, water content, may be selected for the food portion. The food portion may be indicated by manual input by the user, for example, input using a user interface (e.g., a touch screen or keypad).

Data indicative of reflection measurements measured during execution of instructions included in the heating instructions is analyzed. The reflected measurements may be analyzed in view of a heating target to determine an adjusted heating instruction, and/or to adjust the determined heating instruction. The data may represent a current state of the portion of the food being heated, which may be compared to a heating target. The server may transmit the adjusted heating instructions to the corresponding client computer to operate the heater.

An aspect of some embodiments of the invention relates to a server in network communication with a plurality of client computers. Each of the client computers is installed in communication with a corresponding heater (e.g., microwave oven, convection oven, combination oven, etc.). The server may determine a heating instruction for each of the heaters. Determining heating instructions for a heater may be performed, for example, by a trained classifier based on a data set aggregated from a plurality of other heaters. In some embodiments, the server receives the RF signature from the heater and determines heating instructions to operate the corresponding heater to heat the food portion. The determination may be based on a data set comprising data aggregated from a plurality of other heaters.

The determination of the heating instructions by the server may be performed, for example, by selecting from available heating instructions and/or by calculating heating instructions. The selection from the available heating instructions may be performed, for example, by a classifier that maps the received RF signature to the heating instructions.

For example, the data set may allow selection of heating instructions that already have a good effect when heating similar food portions in other similar heaters. The client-server architecture allows a server to aggregate data from multiple client computers and to centrally analyze the data, such as by centrally training and/or updating classifiers, to create a data set.

Optionally, the heating instructions are selected to increase the effectiveness of heating the food portion. The heating effectiveness may be associated with the food portion and/or with the heating instructions and used to train a classifier that selects the best heating instruction.

The heating effectiveness may indicate a correspondence between the desired heating result and the established heating result. For example, in some embodiments, the user may be prompted to report what they believe is the quality of the heating, without any objective aspects of the heating being involved. In some embodiments, in response to such a prompt, the user can rate the cooking to one of several levels, e.g., good, acceptable, or poor. In some embodiments, the user may initiate providing feedback without being prompted to do so, for example, by pressing a "provide feedback" button. Additionally or alternatively, the information regarding data validity may be more specific. For example, in some embodiments, users are allowed to share (e.g., via a user interface) perspectives regarding more specific cooking process quality, such as how evenly the heating is, whether the heating is fast enough, whether the food is cooked to a desired extent, and the like. The heating effectiveness may indicate a total energy consumption for achieving a desired heating result, which may be relatively reduced compared to the established heating result, e.g., using less power to achieve the desired heating result compared to the established heating result.

The parameter indicative of heating effectiveness may be manually entered by a user using a user interface, and/or automatically measured and/or calculated by a client computer.

Optionally, the indication of whether the desired heating effect is achieved using the determined heating instructions is aggregated from the client computer, e.g., manually entered by a user using a physical user interface and/or automatically measured by the client computer. In some embodiments, the RF signature data, the determined heating instructions, and the indication of aggregated heating effectiveness are used to train a classifier to determine the heating instruction that provides the most satisfactory result for different RF signatures.

Optionally, the classifier is trained and/or updated using the indication of the current state of the food. The state of the food may include, for example, the temperature of the food, the degree of doneness, the degree of freeze/thaw, and the like. The current state of the food may be determined by the server, for example, based on manually entered data entered by the user using a physical user interface (e.g., a keyboard, touch screen, or bar code reader). In another example, the current state of the food may be automatically calculated by the code based on one or more sensor measurements (e.g., temperature measured by a thermometer). The classifier may be used to dynamically control the heating process by dynamically selecting (or adjusting) the adjusted heating instructions according to the current state of the food and/or according to the current RF signature, optionally in an attempt to reach a desired state of the food.

The classifier may be trained to determine the heating instructions based on the hardware type of each heater. The different hardware types of devices may differ from each other, for example, in the type of heating provided, one or more of the chamber volumes, etc.

In some embodiments, the classifier may be trained to analyze test results of self-tests performed by the client computer to test the heater and determine service requirements from the test results.

Optionally, the server creates a user profile for each user based on a set of indications of dishes heated by the corresponding user using the heater. The heating may for example be used for cooking or thawing. In some embodiments, a user profile may be associated with a particular client computer. In some embodiments, for example, when multiple users use the same heating device, one client computer may be associated with multiple user profiles. The user may prove his identity before starting a heating session, e.g. for cooking. The server optionally clusters the different user profiles to create a public profile representing indications of dishes the users whose profiles are clustered into the public profile often prepare.

For example, one public profile may include a profile of a user who contains beef, pork, and poultry that are prepared using a heater frequently, while another public profile may include a profile of a user who prepares a dairy dish using a heater mainly. For a user heating a new dish, the server may access a public profile associated with the new dish indication to identify other dish indications that the user may like. For example, it may be recommended that a user preparing cheesecake also prepare a cheesecake. Another indication of the dish is transmitted to the user's client computer for presentation to the user, for example within a graphical user interface presented on a display of the client computer, or a message is sent to another computing device (e.g., a cell phone) of the user. In some embodiments, the suggestion is automatically sent to the user. In some embodiments, the suggestion is sent to the user in response to a user request for a recommendation of a new menu indication.

The systems and/or methods described herein relate to the technical problem of improving the process of determining heating instructions (and/or cooking mode, and/or toasting mode, and/or other effects of applying RF energy or other kinds of energy to food portions) for operating a heater that heats food portions located within a heater cavity. The heating instructions are determined to improve heating effectiveness (e.g., to heat portions of the food relatively more evenly, e.g., to avoid cooking certain portions while other portions remain frozen), and/or to improve energy efficiency in achieving a heating goal (e.g., to reduce the total energy consumption required to achieve the heating goal).

The systems and/or methods described herein relate to a server in communication with a plurality of client computers over a network, each client computer installed to communicate with a corresponding heater. As such, the systems and/or methods described herein are related to computer technology and/or heating technology. In particular, the systems and/or methods described herein improve the process of heating (optionally, achieving a desired heating target) a food portion in a cavity of a heater by analyzing received RF signatures, determining and/or adjusting heating instructions, and monitoring the effect of the heating instructions.

The client-server architecture of the systems described herein (and/or systems implementing the methods described herein) improves the performance of client computers, servers, and/or networks. The method performed by the server may be centrally updated to affect the heaters receiving the service. For example, the method for selecting heating instructions, and/or the method for training a classifier to select heating instructions, may be improved and centrally updated, e.g., without updating each heater, which reduces network traffic and/or improves resource utilization of the processor and/or memory. The update may be performed without involving the heater user. Relatively few computing resources (e.g., processors, memory) may be required at each site (i.e., a set of client computers and heaters), while computationally complex services are provided by the server, e.g., extended memory storage space and more powerful processing power may be installed at the server as compared to the client computers. In this manner, the cost of each client computer and/or heater may be relatively low (due to reduced resource requirements), while still providing computationally complex services remotely from the server.

Before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not necessarily limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of the components and/or methods set forth in the following description and/or illustrated in the drawings and/or examples. The invention is capable of other embodiments or of being practiced or carried out in various ways.

The present invention may be a system, method and/or computer program product. The computer program product may include computer-readable storage medium(s) having thereon computer-readable program instructions for causing a processor to perform various aspects of the present invention.

The computer readable storage medium may be a tangible device that can retain and store instructions for use by an instruction execution device. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic memory device, a magnetic memory device, an optical memory device, an electromagnetic memory device, a semiconductor memory device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of the computer-readable storage medium includes the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), a memory stick, a floppy disk, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. As used herein, a computer-readable storage medium should not be interpreted as a transitory signal per se, such as a radio wave or other freely propagating electromagnetic wave, an electromagnetic wave propagating through a waveguide or other transmission medium (e.g., optical pulses through a fiber optic cable), or an electrical signal transmitted through an electrical wire.

The computer-readable program instructions described herein may be downloaded from a computer-readable storage medium to a corresponding computing/processing device, or to an external computer or external storage device via a network (e.g., the internet, a local area network, a wide area network, and/or a wireless network). The network may include copper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wireless transmissions, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/or edge servers. The network adapter card or network interface in each computing/processing device receives computer-readable program instructions from the network and forwards the computer-readable program instructions for storage in a computer-readable storage medium within the corresponding computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations of the present invention may be assembler instructions, Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) instructions, machine-related instructions, microcode, firmware instructions, state setting data, or source or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C + + or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages. The computer-readable program instructions may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including: a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN); or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the internet using an internet service provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry, including, for example, programmable logic circuitry, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), or Programmable Logic Arrays (PLAs), may execute computer-readable program instructions to perform aspects of the present invention by personalizing the electronic circuitry with state information of the computer-readable program instructions.

Some embodiments of the present invention are described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer-readable program instructions.

These computer-readable program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. These computer-readable program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium that can direct a computer, programmable data processing apparatus, and/or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the computer-readable storage medium having the instructions stored thereon include an article of manufacture including instructions which implement various aspects of the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other devices to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other devices implement the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternative implementations, the functions/acts noted in the blocks may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems which perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.

As used herein, the terms heating and cooking (and other terms used to describe the effect of applying thermal energy to food in a heater) are sometimes interchangeable.

As used herein, the terms dielectric heating, RF heating and microwave heating are used synonymously and refer to heating by electromagnetic radiation rather than by induction or by Infrared (IR), and in some embodiments to heating by electromagnetic radiation at frequencies of 300MHz to 6GHz, in particular by radiation at frequency bands (also referred to as ISM bands) that regulatory agencies allow for industrial, scientific and medical use. For example, in some embodiments, the RF energy may be limited to heating only at frequencies in one or more recognized ISM bands, such as: between 433.05MHz and 434.79 MHz; between 902MHz and 928 MHz; between 2.4GHz and 2.5 GHz; and between 5.725GHz and 5.875 GHz.

As used herein, the term RF signature refers to a measurement of a signal received at an antenna of a heater when (other) signals are transmitted by the antenna. The measurement may be indicative of an electrical reaction of the cavity and the portion of food therein to the emitted signal. The signature may be multidimensional (e.g., may have N (N-1) dimensions of RF signatures (N received powers and N-1 phase differences) in the sense that the transmitted signal may define several dimensions (e.g., when all antennas are transmitting at the same frequency and different phases and the measurement is the power received by each of the N antennas.) when the signature includes M frequencies, the dimension of the signature may be MN (N-1). when the measurement is not the power received at each antenna but the amplitude and phase of the signal received at each antenna, the dimension may become 2MN (N-1). the signal transmitted to obtain the RF signature may have the same frequency as the RF used for heating, but in some embodiments the RF signature is not limited to frequency bands, as the RF signature may be at very low power levels (e.g., between 1mW and 100 mW) and at such low power levels it can be easily and cheaply ensured that radiation does not escape the cavity. The power level for heating is of the order of hundreds of watts (typically between 100W and 1000W).

As used herein, the term code refers to instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium that are executed by a processor, such as compilers, scripts (e.g., text), non-compilers, binary code, and other instruction formats.

Examples of measurements that may be used to represent an RF signature include measurements of the S parameter and the Γ (gamma) parameter.

The S parameter is measured when one antenna is transmitting and all other antennas are silent. The S parameter represents the ratio between the signal received at the antenna and the signal transmitted through the transmit antenna. The amplitude is represented as a value between zero and one because each measured signal to be received at the antenna is at most as large as the original signal launched into the dielectric heater cavity.

It should be noted that the signal ratio may be a complex number, the real part of which is the ratio between the amplitudes of the signals and the imaginary part is the difference between the phases of the signals.

When two or more of the antennas transmit simultaneously, the Γ parameter is measured, which represents the ratio of the signals received and transmitted on the same antenna. The Γ parameter may be greater than 1 because the antenna from which the parameter is measured is not necessarily the only antenna that transmits at the time of measurement.

The Dissipation Ratio (DR) represents the ratio between the power dissipated in the cavity (including the object to be heated, the cavity wall, the plate) and the power input into the cavity. The dissipated power may be approximated by the difference between the measured power to be input into the cavity and the measured power exiting the cavity

Sometimes referred to as losses.

The RF signature may be a plot of loss or DR versus frequency (e.g., when only one antenna is used), or a plot of the combination of frequency and phase (when two or more antennas are used coherently). Alternatively or additionally, the RF signature may include an S-parameter, a Γ -parameter, or any other parameter indicative of the electrical response of the cavity to the incoming RF signal as a function of the setting under which the incoming signal was excited (also referred to herein as the excitation setting). The excitation settings may comprise frequency, phase combination, amplitude combination (e.g. if different antennas transmit at different amplitudes simultaneously), or any other parameter controllable by the device that may affect the field pattern excited in the cavity (also referred to herein as a controllable field influencing parameter, abbreviated c-FAP).

Reference is now made to fig. 1, which is a flow diagram of a method (e.g., implemented by a server) for centralized monitoring and control of heating of food portions, each food portion being heated by a heater installed in communication with the server, according to some embodiments of the invention. A server implementing the method determines heating instructions for operating the heater based on an analysis of the RF signature received from the corresponding client computer.

The method is based on two types of control implemented by the server according to data transmitted from the client computer. One type analyzes the RF signature (i.e., based on measurements of reflections within the heater) to decide how to continue heating. For example, if heating is only performed by radio frequencies with high DR values, the server identifies these frequencies and transmits instructions to the client computer to operate the dielectric heating device to heat using only the defined frequencies. Another type of control that may be implemented by the server is to ensure that the instructions transmitted to the client terminal are accurately fulfilled. For example, when the server decides to heat with a certain phase difference and/or amplitude, the heating actually occurs with a certain phase difference and/or amplitude.

Reference is also made to fig. 2A, which is a block diagram of a system including a central computing unit (e.g., a server) that centrally determines heating instructions for a plurality of networked client computers, each installed in association with a heater, according to some embodiments of the invention. Reference is also made to fig. 2B, which is a block diagram depicting exemplary internal components of a server, client computer, and heater, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. A centralized server architecture allows machine learning (e.g., training statistical classifiers, decision tree learning, association rule learning, clustering, bayesian networks, support vector machines, and/or other machine learning processes) based on data aggregation from multiple client terminals. The machine learning approach may be based on supervised learning (e.g., heating results obtained by other heaters) to improve the determination of heating instructions, which may relatively increase the heating effectiveness of food portion 224 (e.g., improved uniform heating) and/or relatively decrease the overall energy consumption (e.g., using less power to achieve similar heating results). The machine learning approach may be based on unsupervised learning, e.g., determining RF patterns based on cluster analysis. The acts of the method of fig. 1 may be implemented by the system 200 described with reference to fig. 2A and 2B.

Using the server 202 located remotely from the heater 210 may improve performance of the heater 210, for example, by providing the heater 210 with the ability to increase the effectiveness and/or efficiency of heating the food portion 224 based on instructions provided by the server 202. The server 202 may implement higher performance processing resources and/or memory resources (in practice, this may not be implemented in each heater 210) that perform the food heating algorithm, resulting in improved heating effectiveness and/or efficiency. The update code may be centralized in the server 202 to provide heating instructions to the connected heaters 210. The code update may be performed without input from the heater 210. By centrally updating the code, the heating effectiveness and/or efficiency of the plurality of heaters 210 is increased by the centralized code update to the server 202. Code residing on the server 202 (i.e., rather than being stored on the plurality of heaters 210 used by the end user) may be better protected from theft, hacking, counterfeiting, and/or other malicious entities.

The system 200 includes one or more servers 202 (one server is illustrated for clarity, but it should be understood that multiple servers may be implemented, for example, in a distributed processing system and/or based on a clustering architecture in which each server is assigned a different client computer that performs centralized determination of heating instructions for the heaters 210 installed to communicate with client computers 208 that communicate with the servers 202 (via server network interface 230) over a network 206 (e.g., the internet, a wireless network, a cellular network, a local area network, and/or other network) via client network interface 204. It should be noted that for clarity, a set of client computers and heaters are described, but it should be understood that the server may communicate with multiple client computers, each associated with a corresponding heater. The server 202 may be implemented as a hardware component (e.g., a stand-alone computing unit), a software component (e.g., implemented within an existing computing unit), and/or a hardware component (e.g., a plug-and-play card, an attachable unit) that is plugged into an existing computing unit. The server 202 may provide services to the client computer 208 by: providing software as a service (Saas), providing applications that may be installed on client computer 208 that communicate with server 202 (e.g., via a software interface), and/or providing functionality that uses a remote access session (e.g., a Web server accessed through a Web browser).

Each client computer 208 is installed in association with a heater 210. The client computer 208 provides communication services with the server 202. The heater 210 may comprise, for example, a microwave oven.

The heater 210 may be an existing device connected to the server 202 via an integrated client computer 208 interface (e.g., an internet of things (IoT) platform).

The client computer 208 may be integrated within the heater, for example, as software installed on the heater 210 and/or as hardware components installed therein. The client computer 208 may be a stand-alone unit that is connected to the heater 210, for example, using a wireless and/or wired connection. Client computer 208 may optionally use a standard communication protocol (e.g., such as

A short-range wireless protocol, or a local wired connection such as a local area network) to an existing computing device (e.g., laptop, desktop, smartphone, tablet, wearable computer) running custom code of the heater 210. The client computer 208 may be a component designed to be inserted into the heater 210 (or alternatively removable from the heater),such as a hardware card inserted into a slot in the heater 210.

The client computer 208 includes one or more processors 212 for implementing code stored in a program storage device 214 (e.g., random access memory, hard disk, and/or other storage devices). The client computer 208 may include a data repository 216 (e.g., a storage unit, a local memory unit, a data storage on a remote server, a data storage on a cloud server, a hard drive, and an optical drive) for storing data, e.g., for storing received heating instructions provided by the server. Client computer 208 may include or be in communication with a user interface 219 that displays data to a user and/or allows a user to input data. The user interface 219 may include, for example, a display (e.g., an LED or LCD) and data input (e.g., a keyboard, touch screen, barcode reader, RFID reader, etc.). The client computer 208 may be implemented as software and/or hardware and/or firmware, such as software installed on the heater 210, an external unit in communication with the heater 210, and/or a hardware card installed within the heater 210. The client computer 208 may be designed as a general-purpose modular component capable of operating with the heater 210 regardless of the number of antennas and/or without requiring additional RF connections between different client computers, e.g., the client computer 208 is implemented as software installed on a processor and memory built into or connectable to the heater 210. The software may be implemented using virtual interfaces (e.g., Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Software Development Kits (SDKs) designed to operate with different parameters (e.g., number of antennas). the universal module client computer 208 may be easily integrated with different heaters, e.g., of different sizes, of different types, and/or from different manufacturers.

The client computer 208 may issue instructions to operate the heater 210 to apply RF energy to the cavity 220 of the heater 210 so that the applied RF energy may heat the food portion 224 inside the cavity. RF energy may be applied to the cavity 220 through one or more antennas 222. The microwave frequency generated by the source 608 of fig. 6, for example, ranges between approximately 300 megahertz (MHz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). Most heaters use frequencies that allow for industrial, scientific and medical use (also referred to as ISM bands). Exemplary ISM bands include, for example: 433.05MHz to 434.79 MHz; 902MHz to 928 MHz; 2.4GHz to 2.5 GHz; and 5.725GHz to 5.875 GHz.

In some embodiments, the client computer 208 may issue instructions to operate the heater 210 to blow hot air into the cavity 220 of the heater 210 so that the hot air may heat the food portion 224 inside the cavity. These instructions may include, for example: to what temperature the air inside the chamber 220 is heated, at what speed the air inside the chamber is circulated, through which nozzles the air is blown into the chamber, etc. In some embodiments, the client computer 208 may issue instructions to operate the heater 210 to radiate IR radiation into the cavity 220 of the heater 210 so that the IR radiation may heat the food portion 224 inside the cavity. In some embodiments, the client computer 208 may issue instructions to operate the heater 210 to heat the food portion 224 by several heat sources (e.g., hot air and RF radiation). The instructions may also include timing instructions, e.g., when which heating to use, e.g., start with 10 minutes of IR heating, then turn off the IR and heat up with the RF by convection for 15 minutes, then turn off the RF and heat up by convection for 5 minutes only, etc. The instructions to heat by RF may include, for example, detailed information about what frequency to use to heat, at what power level, for how long a period of time, when, etc.

In some embodiments, the client computer 208 receives signals measured by one or more sensors 227. These signals may include reflections of the RF energy applied to the cavity 220. The RF energy reflected and sensed by the sensor 227 may be a signal transmitted into the cavity 220 according to a heating instruction received from the server. Alternatively or additionally, the RF energy reflected and sensed by the sensor 227 may comprise a signal emitted for sensing purposes only. The signal may be processed by the heater 210 (e.g., by circuitry, a processor executing code instructions, by the sensor 227). For example, the sensor 227 outputs raw reflectance measurements that are processed by the heater 210 to create an indication of the measurements. An indication of the measurement is transmitted to the client computer 208.

In some embodiments, the antenna 222 may function as a sensor. In some such embodiments, there is no separate sensor 227 for receiving the RF signature. In some embodiments, the antenna 222 may be connected to a detector, for example, to a power meter and/or a phase detector. The client computer 208 may receive data from the heater 210 indicative of the readings produced by the detector.

Reference is now made to fig. 6, which is a schematic illustration of an apparatus 600 according to some embodiments of the present invention. The apparatus 600 is designed for use with food portions in a heating chamber (e.g., the heater 210 of fig. 2A). The device 600 can heat an object by feeding an RF signal at a target power level to the cavity. It should be noted that the target power level referred to herein is the power of the signal supplied to the antenna, and not the power generated by the source 608 or by the power amplifier 610. It should also be noted that in practice, the power amplification supplied by amplifier 610 may depend on the temperature of the amplifier and the reflections from the cavity. For example, reflections from the cavity may be reflected back into the cavity and added to the forward power. An isolator 620 may be disposed between the amplifier 610 and the antenna to isolate the amplifier from reflections from the cavity. Isolator 620 may include, for example, two three-port circulators each having one port connected to a 50 ohm load. The isolator may have an isolation of at least 50 dB.

The device 600 may include a source 608 of RF signals. In some embodiments, the source 608 may be configured to simultaneously supply RF signals having a common frequency to multiple output channels. However, in the embodiment depicted in FIG. 6, the source 608 feeds only one output channel. The source may comprise, for example, a single synthesizer. The phase shifter and the splitter may be omitted.

The apparatus 600 may include a phase detector 650 having two input ports and configured to measure a phase difference between two signals input through the input ports, e.g., a phase difference between a signal input into the cavity 220 and a signal returned from the cavity 220. Coupler 630 may couple a forward signal to the cavity to one input port and a backward signal from the cavity to the other input port. The phase detector 650 may include an output port for outputting an output signal indicative of the measured phase difference, e.g., the phase detector may generate a voltage output signal proportional to the measured phase difference. When a single output channel is used, one input port of the phase detector may receive a portion of the signal reflected from the cavity, while the other input port of the phase detector may receive a portion of the signal forward forwarded to the cavity. For example, when multiple signals are simultaneously output into the cavity through multiple output channels, a switching mechanism may be used to direct different signals to phase detector 650. Optionally, a portion of the forward signal is split with a splitter (not shown) such that one split continues towards the phase detector and one split is directed to the input port of the power meter.

The device 600 may further include a power meter 640 and a processor 612. The power meter 640 may measure the power of the signal forwarded to the antenna, and the processor 612 may determine the actual amplitude of the signal entering the cavity and control the source 608 so that the actual power to be supplied to the antenna, estimated based on the readings of the power meter 640 and the readings of the phase detector, approaches a target power level. The inventors have found that the reading of the power meter 640 may be affected by reflections from the cavity. For example, it has been found that when the s-parameter of the cavity changes while the control of the amplifier remains constant, the readings of the power meter 640 may change, and thus, the processor 612 may be configured to control the source 608 and/or the amplifier 610 based on inputs from the power meter 640 and the phase detector 650. The phase detector may help to use the phase of the s-parameter of the cavity for calculating the power actually arriving at the antenna. The phase detector may have an output port that outputs an output signal indicative of a ratio between the two input signals. This output may be used to determine the magnitude of the s-parameter. Alternatively, a portion of the reflected signal may be coupled to a power meter, and the power levels of the reflected signal and the repeated signal (or the amplitude of the forward (or backward) signal and the ratio between them) may be used to determine the magnitude of the s-parameter.

Returning now to fig. 2A and 2B, the server 202 may be, for example, a central server, a proxy server, and/or other networked computing unit. The server 202 includes processor(s) 226, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), and an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). The processor(s) 226 may include one or more processors (homogeneous or heterogeneous) that may be arranged for parallel processing, arranged as clusters, and/or be one or more multiple core processing units.

The server 202 includes a program storage device 228, e.g., Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), and/or storage devices, e.g., non-volatile memory, magnetic media, semiconductor memory devices, hard drives, removable storage devices, and optical media (e.g., DVD, CD-ROM), that store code that can be implemented by the processor(s) 226. The server 202 may comprise a plurality of computers (having a heterogeneous or homogeneous architecture) that may be arranged for distributed processing, such as in a cluster. The servers 202 may be distributed at different locations within the network 206, for example at key points based on the density of the heaters.

The server 202 includes a network communication interface 230, e.g., a physical interface such as a network interface card and/or a virtual network interface implemented as code instructions, for communicating with the client computer 208 over the network 206. The network communication interface 230 may provide wireless and/or wired connectivity using at least one network communication protocol. The server 202 may include or be in communication with a data store 232 for storing data and/or code that may be implemented by the processor 226, e.g., storing aggregated data and/or trained classifiers (as described herein).

Exemplary embodiments of the heater 210 are described, for example, in WIPO publication No. WO2016/166695, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The heater 210 includes a signal synthesizer (e.g., a direct digital synthesizer a/k/a DDS or a voltage controlled oscillator a/k/a VCO), amplifiers, couplers, detectors, digital-to-analog (D2A) converters, and a communication port (e.g., for communicating with the server 202, optionally using the client computer 208). The signal synthesizer generates an RF signal which is amplified by an amplifier and transmitted to the antenna 222 through a coupler. The coupler couples a portion of the signal from the combiner to the antenna 222 to a sensor 227 that outputs a signal indicative of the amplitude and/or phase of the measured signal. The output from the detector is digitized by A2D and transmitted to the server 202 over the network 206.

At 102, the server 202 receives an initialization signature indicating that there is a food portion 224 in the cavity 220 that is ready to be heated in one or more heaters 210 that are in communication with the corresponding client computers 208. The initialization signature is transmitted over the network 206, for example, as a packet, network message, and/or using other network communications based on the implementation. The initialization signature may be transmitted (e.g., triggered), for example, by the user manually pressing a "start" button or other trigger condition on the user interface 219 to begin heating.

Food portion 224 may be, for example, frozen food to be thawed or food to be heated. Food portion 224 may be substantially homogenous, e.g., a glass of water, a piece of beef, or a bowl of soup. The food portion 224 may be substantially heterogeneous, for example, a meal comprising precooked chicken, potato salad on one side, and green beans on one side (together on a plate). Food portion 224 may be food ready for consumption (i.e., for heating). Food portion 224 may be a food item to be cooked and/or baked (i.e., a food item that is not ready for consumption, such as a raw food item).

In response to receiving the initialization signature, code stored in program storage 218 executed by processor(s) 226 of server 202 transmits instructions back to each corresponding client computer 208 over network 206, e.g., as packets and/or other network messages. The instructions include: for example, using antenna 222) to emit an RF signal within a cavity 220 containing a corresponding heater for a portion of the food, and for measuring a reflection of the emitted RF signal (for example, using sensor 226). The measurements of the RF signal may be processed to obtain an RF signature, or direct measurements of the transmitted RF signal may represent the RF signature.

The RF signature may be defined according to a format, protocol, standard, rule set, or other implementation. The standard format of the RF signature may allow the server 202 to analyze multiple RF signatures from different client computers 208, for example, to aggregate RF signatures, compare RF signatures, and/or compute data based on RF signatures. The RF signature format may: designed for comparative analysis (e.g., by matching with a predefined RF signature), analyzed according to a rule set, processed using signal processing methods to obtain parameters for analysis (e.g., signal-to-noise ratio), and/or mapped to results. Examples of RF signature formats may include one or more of the following: a predefined sample length representing a measured reflection of the transmitted RF signal of about 1 or 5 or 0.1 seconds (or other value), an average of the measured reflected RF signals, and a sum of the measured reflected RF signals (e.g., taking into account wave cancellation and/or superposition).

Each corresponding client computer 208 transmits an RF signature generated based on the measured reflections to the server 202 over the network 206. The RF signature is associated with the received initialization signature. The association may be made by the client computer 208 and/or the server 202, for example, the RF signature and the initialization signature may be associated with each other by being stored in a database as a record mapping the initialization signature to the RF signature, tagged with matching metadata, using a created hash function, or by other methods.

At 104, the server 202 receives the RF signature transmitted from the client computer 208. Each RF signature is based on a measured reflection (measured by the sensor 226) of an RF signal emitted within the cavity 220 of the heater 210 associated with the client computer.

Exemplary RF signatures may be implemented, for example, as a set, list, data array, graph of measurements output by a sensor. Each result may be associated with a condition under which the result was obtained. For example, the measurements may be S-parameters or S-matrices, each associated with a frequency. In another example, the measurements may be gamma parameters, each measurement being associated with a frequency, a power transmitted by each antenna, a phase difference between signals transmitted by the respective antennas, and the antenna from which the gamma parameter was measured. In another example, the measurement may be loss or DR values, and each value may be associated with a frequency, a power transmitted through each antenna, a phase difference between signals transmitted by the respective antennas. More generally, the condition may be an excitation setting at which the measurement is made.

Optionally, the server 202 determines the hardware type of each heater 210. The hardware type may include, for example, the model, manufacturer, and/or other design details of the heater 210, such as the size of the cavity 220, the location, shape, and/or orientation of the antennas 222, 226, and so forth. The hardware type may be determined, for example, by a look-up table (e.g., stored in the data store 232) that stores data of the hardware type transmitted by the client computer 208 to the server 202 (e.g., as packets and/or other network messages). The hardware type may also include information about the non-RF heating system incorporated in the heater 210.

Optionally, at 106, initialization of the one or more heaters 210 is performed by the server 202. The initialization may be performed, for example, periodically (e.g., at predefined intervals, such as monthly), upon a defined event (e.g., detection of a possible misalignment), before heating the food portions (e.g., before heating each food portion or before heating a certain number of food portions), and/or during heating of the food portions (e.g., upon analysis during heating).

Initialization is performed to allow the server 202 to monitor and/or control the emission of RF signals by the heater 210 during the food heating and/or cooking process. For example, the RF signature received during the food heating process may be analyzed and/or compared to an earlier RF signature to determine how well the food heating process is proceeding, such as whether the food is heated as desired (e.g., according to a heating target).

The server 202 receives data from the corresponding client computer 208 indicating that its reflection was used to measure the RF signal of the RF signature. In some embodiments, the received data is used to calculate a phase difference between at least two of the received RF signals (which may be part of an RF signature). The server 202 analyzes the phase difference (e.g., compares the phase difference to a target phase value that may be stored in the data store 232) and may transmit instructions to adjust the RF signal (transmitted by the heater 210) so that the calculated phase difference approaches the target phase value.

At 108, server 202 analyzes the RF signature received from the client computer. In some embodiments, the analysis may include comparing an RF signature received from one of the client computers 208 to one or more of:

the RF signatures received by the server 202 from other client computers 208 (each in communication with a corresponding heater 210).

The server 202 receives RF signatures from the same client computer 208 at an earlier time in the food heating process.

Server 202 receives RF signatures from the same client computer 208 during earlier food heating processes.

A cooking plan that may define the state of food portions and/or RF signatures as a function of time (may be stored in the data store 232 as database entries, functions, rule sets, and/or look-up tables).

The comparison may be performed, for example, by a mapping function that identifies matches between the RF signatures. The comparison may be performed based on statistical similarity between the RF signatures to identify the most similar RF signature, e.g., as calculated by a correlation function with at least 80% correlation, or at least 95% correlation, or other values.

The analysis may include determining a current state of the food portion heated by the corresponding heater 210, for example, by classifying the corresponding food portion into one or more categories, and/or calculating a value (e.g., an absolute value or a relative value) representative of the current state of the food portion. For example, the categories of the current state of food may include: uncooked, fully cooked, over cooked, too low temperature, non-uniform heating.

The current state of the categorized food may be compared to a cooking plan to determine whether cooking is occurring as planned, e.g., whether the food is being or is not cooked, relative to the plan.

The cooking plan may be manually selected by the user (e.g., using the user interface 219 and transmitted to the server 202 by the client computer 208), automatically selected by the server 202 (e.g., based on RF signatures and/or other user-provided data, such as the type and/or volume and/or initial status of the food).

The cooking plan may be a generic plan suitable for multiple users to cook similar foods, and/or customized for one or more users according to taste preferences (e.g., some users may prefer a well-done food, while other users may prefer a less well-done similar food).

Alternatively or additionally, the analyzing comprises classifying the food portions into heating categories (the heating categories being from a plurality of heating categories, each heating category being associated with a respective heating instruction). The heating category may be considered a heating objective or task, such as thawing frozen dinners, baking bread, heating liquids, heating refrigerated meals, and cooking meat. In some embodiments, analyzing may include assigning a heating value to the food portion based on the analysis (e.g., a relative heating value, e.g., heating the food 10 degrees above the current temperature; or an absolute heating value, e.g., heating the food 65 degrees Celsius). Each heating category (or heating value, or range or values) may be associated with a heating instruction. The heating categories and associated RF patterns may further be associated with different types of food portions, and/or cooking plans, and/or classifications of current states of food portions. As discussed in more detail with reference to block 110, the heating instructions may be determined according to the heating category and/or current state of the food, and/or the cooking plan.

The analysis may be performed using one or more of the following methods (e.g., stored as code instructions in the program storage 218 and/or data store 32, executed by the processor 226 of the server 202):

classifier trained on RF signatures obtained from a plurality of client computers 208 (each in communication with a corresponding heater).

Regression function modeling the RF signature obtained from the client computer 208.

Match the received RF signature with an entry in a look-up table that stores RF signatures obtained from client computers 208.

Associate the received RF signature with one of the RF signatures obtained from the client computer 208 stored in the database (e.g., in the data store 232), e.g., based on statistical similarity between the RF signatures.

Training of classifiers and/or other data analysis methods (e.g., using data aggregated from multiple client computers 208) is described with reference to block 116 and/or fig. 3.

At 110, the server 202 determines one or more heating instructions for each heater 210 associated with the corresponding client computer 208 (that transmitted the corresponding RF signature). The heating instructions are determined based on an analysis of the RF signature. The heating instructions include instructions (e.g., values stored as signals, codes, instructions, rule sets, parameters, and/or settings) for operating each corresponding heater 210 to heat the food portion within the corresponding cavity 220. The heating instructions may include instructions for generating an RF signal (e.g., frequency(s), phase, amplitude, duration, and/or other field influencing parameters such as excitation settings). The heating instructions may include instructions for generating (e.g., by antenna 222) RF signals that differ from one another in excitation settings (e.g., in frequency and/or phase).

The heating instructions may be determined to operate the corresponding heaters 210 to reduce the relative total energy consumption to heat the food portions during heating. For example, heating instructions that have been determined (e.g., by the server 202 and/or by the manufacturer performing the tests) for achieving a heating goal and/or following a cooking plan that uses less energy may be specified and determined for operating the corresponding heater 210.

The heating instruction may be determined to operate the corresponding heater 210 with a certain tradeoff between heating speed and heating uniformity. For example, some heating instructions may have been determined (e.g., by the server 202 and/or by the manufacturer performing the test) to achieve superior uniformity in 30 minutes of cooking, and other heating instructions may have been determined to achieve uniformity in (of the same dish) and so on in 20 minutes of cooking. In some embodiments, the decision as to which heating instructions to use may be based on uniformity/speed preferences introduced by the user, for example, via a user interface.

The heating instructions may be determined from a plurality of heating instructions stored, for example, in the data store 232. The determination may be made by selecting from stored heating instructions. Some heating instructions may be predefined (e.g., by the manufacturer). The stored heating instructions may represent heating instructions that have been previously successfully applied by the different heaters 210. Optionally, the determined heating instructions may improve heating effectiveness (e.g., uniformity of volume of the heated food portion, reaching a target temperature, achieving a desired cooking state for the food). The heating effectiveness may be improved, for example, compared to heating effectiveness that may be achieved by a locally stored standard heating program that may be executed by the client computer 208 without server input. In another example or additionally, the heating effectiveness may be improved as compared to the heating effectiveness achieved when a user manually programs the client computer 208 to operate the heater 210 in a particular manner based on the user's experience or guess of heating.

The heating instructions may be dynamically created by the server 202, for example, based on code implementing a heating algorithm. The dynamically created heating instructions may be a customized instruction set for the corresponding heater 210 based on a generic heating mode generation function. For example, the heating instruction may include values of parameters of the general heating mode generation function. The same general heating mode generation function may generate the custom instruction based on the values of the custom function parameters.

The heating instructions may be determined from the analyzed RF signature. For example, a mapping function, statistical classifier (or other method) may map the analyzed RF signature to the corresponding heating instructions. The mapping may be performed according to the determined current state of the food, according to a cooking plan, a heating category, according to a hardware type of the heater 210, and/or other parameters. The heating instructions may be dynamically created by a function using inputs of the RF signature, the current state of the food, the cooking plan, the determined heating category, the determined hardware type, and/or other parameters.

Optionally, the heating instructions include parameters defining when to emit RF energy to heat the food, such as a length of time to emit, a length of time to not emit, and a frequency of repeating the emission after not emitting.

Optionally, when the heater 210 includes or is in communication with a non-RF heating element (optionally a convection heating element, an IR heating element, an induction heater, etc.), the server 202 may determine one or more non-RF heating instructions for application by the non-RF heating element. The non-RF heating instructions may be associated with the determined RF-related heating instructions, for example, included as a set of instructions implemented by the client computer 208. The non-RF heating instructions may include, for example, heating temperature, time, and timing. The timing may include when to turn on and when to turn off non-RF heating during the cooking process.

At 112, the server 202 transmits the corresponding heating instruction(s) determined for the corresponding heater 210 to each client computer 208 (that transmitted the RF signature) over the network 206. The determined heating instructions may be transmitted, for example, as packets and/or network messages using an appropriate network communication protocol.

Each determined heating instruction(s) may include instructions to generate and transmit an RF signal to a corresponding food portion 224 (located within cavity 220) using heating antenna 222 of the corresponding heater 210.

At 114, one or more of blocks 104 through 112 are iterated. The iterations may be performed by the server 202 to control and/or monitor heating of the food portions by the corresponding client computers 208. The control may be repeatedly performed during the cooking process of the food portion. Control may be performed continuously at predefined time intervals and/or according to events in response to receiving an RF signature from the client computer 208. The control may be performed in real time.

The iterations may be performed to monitor and/or control heating of the food portions according to the determined heating goals and/or the determined cooking plan.

The server 202 controls heating of the corresponding food portion 224 by receiving data indicative of measurements of reflections of the determined heating instructions transmitted to the cavity 220 of the heater 210. As described with reference to block 104, the data may be received as an RF signature or other RF-based data.

For example, server 202 analyzes the received data as described with reference to block 108. The received data may be compared to: historical data previously received from the same heater 210 (e.g., during a current heating process and/or another heating process), data received from other heaters 210 (e.g., performing a similar heating process), and/or stored data representing a model of a heating process and/or heating target.

The server 202 may adjust the heating instructions based on the analysis. The adjustment may be performed when the current heating instruction appears to deviate from the heating target and/or cooking plan. The adjusted heating instructions may be determined for achieving the heating goal and/or the cooking plan. Existing heating instructions may be adjusted (e.g., increased or decreased intensity or amplitude, changing RF signal pattern), and/or new heating instructions may be determined to generate an adjusted heating pattern, e.g., as described with reference to block 110.

In some embodiments, the adjusted heating mode (and/or instructions for generating RF signals according to the adjusted heating mode) is transmitted from the server 202 to the client computer 208 using the antenna 222 to operate the heater 210 to generate RF signals to heat the food portions 224 in the cavity 220 according to the adjusted heating mode, e.g., as described with reference to block 112.

The instructions for generating the RF signal according to the adjusted heating may be indicative of a predefined time period. Blocks 104 through 112 may be repeated during or upon expiration of the time period.

Optionally, at 116, the server 202 collects and aggregates data from a plurality of client computers 208. By learning from the current determination of heating instructions from the RF signature, the aggregated data can be used as part of a machine learning process to apply to future food portions. Aggregation of the data may be used to control the current heating process of the food portions by learning from other client computers that operate other heaters to heat similar food portions. The aggregated data may be used to train a classifier that may be applied to analyze the RF signature (e.g., in block 108 of fig. 1) and/or determine the heating instructions from the RF signature.

Reference is now made to fig. 3, which is a flowchart of a computer-implemented method of training a classifier to determine heating instructions for a heater, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. The acts of the method of fig. 3 may be implemented by instruction code stored in the program storage 218 being executed by the processor 226 of the server 202.

As used herein, the term classifier is used broadly to include one or more machine learning methods that receive an RF signature (and/or other values) as input and provide heating instructions (and/or other values described herein) as output. The classifier may be implemented, for example, as a kernel method, a support vector machine, a support vector regression, a lookup table, a regression function or set of regression functions, a statistical classifier that maps inputs to output classes, a deterministic classifier, a hash table, a mapping function, and/or other methods.

At 302, the server 202 receives an indication from the client computer 208 whether a desired heating effect has been achieved by the heating instructions determined for the corresponding heater 210.

The indication may be manually entered by a user, for example, using user interface 219. For example, the user may press a "yes" (or "like") or "no" (or "dislike") button on the graphical user interface to enter data regarding whether the user is satisfied with the heating results. The indication of the user input may be used by the classifier. For example, information that an applied heating instruction gives a certain user a satisfactory result may increase the probability that the classifier will determine to use the same heating instruction the next time the same user is heating the same dish.

An incentive program may be created to encourage the user to enter data. For example, a user who enters data for each cooking session for a month may receive a month of free server 202 service. Employees in companies and enterprises may be instructed to enter data while using the common heater 210 (e.g., located in an employee's kitchen).

At 306, the server 202 receives RF signature data from the client computer. The received data may be stored in a data store 232.

Server 202 may receive one or more data items, including:

an association between the RF signature data and an indication of a current status of the food portion. The user may manually enter the current status of the food using the user interface 219 (e.g., based on the user manually examining the food, such as pressing a button, selecting a value on a gauge, and/or other methods). Exemplary current states of food may include, for example: freezing, thawing, uncooked food, uncooked, properly cooked, overcooked, and unevenly cooked. The current state of the food may include the type of food, for example, meat, chicken, fish, eggs, water, cake, bread, vegetables. The current state of the food may include the weight, volume, shape, and/or size of the food. The current state of the food portion may include the temperature and/or phase state of the food, for example, a frozen state, a cold state (e.g., removed from a refrigerator), and a room temperature state. The current state of the food portion may include an edible state of the food, e.g., a raw state (e.g., meat), a raw ready for toasting state, and a ready for consumption (e.g., after heating). One or more of these parameters of the current state of the food may be estimated, measured, and/or manually entered.

Performed by one or more client computers 208 to test results of self-tests of the corresponding heaters 210. The heater 210 may degrade at different rates or unexpectedly. A self-test may be designed to identify unexpected degradation or degradation rates. For example, self-testing may include: transmitting a predefined RF signal within the cavity 220 using the antenna 222, recording the reflection using the sensor 227, and comparing the actual measured value to an expected value. The test results may be grouped according to the hardware type of the heater. The server 202 may analyze the test results according to the hardware type of the grouped heaters and compare them with test results obtained from other heaters of the same hardware type, or from the same heater at an earlier occasion. Such a comparison may be used to determine service requirements. For example, when the measured reflectance value is significantly different from the expected reflectance value, the server 202 may transmit instructions to display a message on the user interface 219 (e.g., a display), such as: maintenance, resetting of the heating device, cleaning of the chamber, or other messages are required.

Adjusted heating pattern and corresponding measured reflection of applied RF heating. The server determined heating mode may be represented as a set of instructions, e.g., implemented as compiled code, values to be received by a function, scripts, or non-compiled programs. The adjusted heating mode and corresponding measured reflections may be used to update a trained classifier that adjusts the heating instructions based on the received measured reflections.

At 308, the server 202 associates with each received RF signature data the heating instruction(s) previously transmitted from the server 202 to operate the corresponding heater 210 and/or an associated indication of whether the desired heating effect was achieved using the determined heating instruction. An indication of whether the desired heating effect has been achieved may be provided manually.

At 310, server 202 trains and/or updates classifiers based on the aggregated and/or associated data. The classifier may be trained using the correlation between the received RF signature, the heating mode, and the active heating as inputs. The output of the classifier may be the association of the rule or heating mode that causes the most efficient heating with the RF signature. Existing classifiers can be updated with additional data (e.g., by recalculating the classifier using the additional data).

The classifier may be trained using data that achieves a desired heating effect as a desired output result. The classifier may be trained using data that does not achieve the desired heating effect as an undesired output result. The results associated with the data may improve the ability of the classifier to achieve a desired heating effect.

The classifier may be trained using additional data (optionally, the current state of the food portion) that may be received from the client computer 208. The classifier may be trained to output heating instructions based on the current state of the food (provided as an input to the classifier). Alternatively or additionally, the statistical classifier may be trained by providing an RF signature as an input to output a category (and/or value) representing the current state of the food.

The trained classifier receives RF signature data as input and performs the determination of the heating instruction(s). The determination is performed to achieve a desired heating effect (e.g., as described with reference to block 110).

The trained classifier may be stored in the data store 232.

Reference is now made to fig. 4A, which is a flowchart of a computer-implemented method of aggregating data from multiple users, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. The aggregated data is based on the personal preferences of the user. The aggregated data may be used to create a user profile for each user, which may include dishes that the user likes to heat and/or habits of each user. The acts of the method of fig. 4A may be implemented by instruction code stored in the program storage 218 being executed by the processor 226 of the server 202. The actions of the method of fig. 4A may be triggered, for example, by the server 202 receiving an initialization signature (e.g., as described with reference to block 102 of fig. 1), and/or at other events during the heating process described with reference to fig. 1. At 402, the server 202 receives a dish identifier from the client computer 208 indicating a dish being heated by a corresponding heater 210 used by a corresponding user. The dishes may comprise, for example, a plurality of types of food arranged together on a tray. The dish may include a variety of ingredients, for example, chicken stuffed with rice. Dishes may include, for example, frozen dinners, heated ready-to-eat food products, raw food ingredients to be baked or cooked, and the like.

The dish identifier may be manually entered by a user and/or automatically determined. The user may enter the dish identifier, for example, using the user interface 218 (e.g., selecting from a list of dishes, typing in the dish identifier, and/or scanning a barcode or QR code of a package of dishes). The automatic determination of the dishes may be performed, for example, by the server 202 analyzing the RF signature data. The dish identifier may indicate any one or more of the following: the type of food included in the dish, the shape of the dish, the size of the dish, the weight of the dish, the temperature of the dish, the frozen state of the dish (e.g., fully frozen, partially frozen, fully thawed).

The server 202 may optionally receive a dish identifier from a client computer each time a corresponding user of a different client computer 208 heats a dish in a corresponding heater 210.

At 404, a user profile is generated (as explained below), or if a user profile already exists, updated by the server 202. The user profile is updated by associating the user profile with a dish identifier, and optionally before the user cooks the dish on weekdays. The user profile may be generated and updated based on data from the same user cooking similar (or same) dishes in multiple heating sessions.

The user profile may be stored in the data store 232, for example, as a database entry, a set of parameter values, a code, text, script, or other implementation.

As used herein, a user profile may include user characteristics, dish identifiers for dishes cooked by the user, one or more of cooking parameters for each dish suitable for the user to cook, and/or cooking habits associated with the dishes. Examples of user characteristics may include: the geographic location of the client computer used by the user. Examples of cooking parameters include: a total target cooking time for the dish, a cooking power suitable for the dish (e.g., full power, half power, 200 watts, 500 watts), a cooking algorithm suitable for the dish (e.g., an algorithm for selecting controllable field influencing parameters such as frequency and phase difference based on the DR value). One or more of the cooking parameters may be based on experience of the user and/or other users (e.g., other users having similar user characteristics) in achieving a desired heating effect. Examples of cooking habits may include: a time of day when a dish is most frequently cooked, a day of the week when a dish is most frequently cooked, a holiday when a user cooks a dish more often than on other days of the year, a date when a dish type is cooked more than on other dates, and/or a geographic location where a dish is generally cooked. The user profile may include cooking habits of the user and/or other users having similar user characteristics.

The server 202 may analyze cooking parameters from multiple user profiles of different users. The analysis may be used to determine heating instructions, for example, the server may use the data to train a classifier that determines heating instructions. The classifier may be trained to determine heating instructions for a particular user based on heating instructions of other users for cooking similar dishes. The classifier may be trained to determine heating instructions for a particular user based on heating instructions used by other users with similar user profiles (e.g., other users located in the same geographic area as the particular user).

The server 202 may analyze cooking habits from a plurality of user profiles for determining heating instructions. For example, the heating instructions may be determined based on the geographic location of the heater 210. For example, a user located in the united states and a user located in france may heat the same or similar dishes differently based on an analysis of the user profiles, as americans may have different taste preferences than french.

A user profile is created and/or updated for each user. The user profile may be stored in the data store 232, for example, as a record, database entry, code, script, value associated with a parameter, or other implementation. The user profile may include a dish identifier representing dishes that the user has heated (e.g., dishes that the user has frequently heated). In this context, "frequently" may be defined absolutely (e.g., more than once per week), or relative to the user (e.g., the five dishes that the user heats most frequently), or relative to other users (e.g., the user cooks the dishes more frequently than 80% of the other users that cook the same dishes). The user profile may comprise cooking parameters for the types of dishes comprised in the user profile, e.g. the user profile may comprise a plurality of dish identifiers and cooking parameters associated with each of these dish identifiers.

In some embodiments, for example, in embodiments where the heater is installed in a restaurant or other establishment where one heater may be used by multiple users, the user may prove his or her identity, for example, by entering a name and/or password using user interface 218, for example, before starting a new heating process. The user profile may be associated with the user itself such that the same user using different client computers 208 may log in using the assigned name and/or password. Alternatively, the user profile may be associated with a client computer 208 (which may have one or more users) that may not necessarily require a name and/or password for identification. The user profile may be associated with a numeric ID (e.g., a network address) of the client computer 208, which may be obtained automatically by the server 202 (i.e., without the user entering the ID).

At 408, the server 202 associates a different user profile with the public profile according to a dish indication that is common among a set of dish indications of the user profile. The public profile may be generated as a union of individual user profiles having at least a predetermined number of dish identifiers in common (e.g. one dish identifier). The common profile may be calculated according to a rule set, such as at least 2 dishes in common with each other, at least 2 dishes in common with different other users, or other rule sets, to include user profiles that have dish indications in common according to the rule set. For example, for a first user profile comprising macaroni and cheese and pizza, and a second user profile comprising macaroni and cheese puffs, the common profile may comprise macaroni and cheese, pizza, and cheese puffs.

Optionally, the server 202 clusters the different user profiles into a common profile according to a dish identifier common between the user profiles. The public profile may be generated as a union (or as a set of rules) based on user profiles having similar dish identifiers in their profiles that are associated with similar cooking parameters (e.g., may be identified as similar according to a similarity requirement of, for example, at least 80%). For example, user profiles that include fully cooked meat as a cooking target may be clustered together in a common profile.

Alternatively or additionally, the server 202 may cluster the user profiles into common profiles based on other parameters stored in the user profiles (e.g., cooking parameters, geographic location, user gender, and user age). For example, a public profile may be created for users located in the same geographic location and/or having the same age. For example, a public profile may store dish identifiers preferred by retired italians or american of college age.

The mapping between the individual user profiles and the public profile may be stored in the data store 232, for example, by a mapping function, link, lookup table, or other implementation. The public profile may store values or links to individual user profiles, for example as database entries, or within a portion of a data table.

Reference is now made to fig. 4B, which is a flowchart of a computer-implemented method of providing personalized recommendations to a user based on data aggregated from a plurality of users, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. The aggregated data may be performed using the method described with reference to fig. 4A. The acts of the method of fig. 4B may be implemented by instruction code stored in the program storage 218 being executed by the processor 226 of the server 202. The actions of the method of fig. 4B may be triggered, for example, by the server 202 receiving an initialization signature (e.g., as described with reference to block 102 of fig. 1), and/or at other events during the heating process described with reference to fig. 1.

In short, the method of fig. 4B provides recommendations to specific users to prepare a specific type of dish. Dishes may be recommended based on dishes that other users frequently cook. In some embodiments, the other users are users having profiles similar to the profile of the particular user, and/or users associated with the same public profile.

At 410, the server 202 receives an indication that the user is about to heat a dish or is currently heating a dish. The user is associated with a user profile. For example, the user may be identified from a client computer associated with the heater that the user is using, or the user may enter a user name in a GUI presented on a display associated with the client computer. Server 202 may identify the user profile based on the user's indication, for example, by using a user name to look up the user profile stored in a database using a lookup table.

At 411, the server 202 receives an indication of a dish identifier for a dish to be heated by a particular user having a particular user profile. A dish identifier may be entered, for example, as described with respect to block 402 of fig. 4A.

At 412, server 202 identifies a public profile associated with the particular user, e.g., using a mapping function, performing a lookup process in a database, and/or other methods.

At 413, the server 202 accesses the public profile to obtain one or more heating instructions for the dish to be heated by the user. The heating instructions may be presented for selection by the user, for example, as a list or icon on the GUI for the user to select from. The heating instructions may be presented based on habits of other users of the public profile. For example, a user may cook a puff pastry in the morning as breakfast. Useful heating instructions may include: italian has heating instructions for cooking the multi-layer steamed bread, american university students have heating instructions for cooking the multi-layer steamed bread as breakfast, and friends of the user have heating instructions for cooking the multi-layer steamed bread while on vacation. Alternatively or additionally, the heating instructions are determined based on a set of rules that the user may input, for example, selecting the most common heating instruction used by the user of the public profile.

At 414, the server 202 accesses the public profile to obtain one or more other dish identifiers. Optionally, the obtained dish identifier is present in the public profile, but not in the profile of the specific user. The other dish indication indicates dishes other similar users included in the public profile like heating and which the particular user may be interested in.

At 416, the server 202 transmits the obtained dish identifier to the client computer 208 of the particular user. The obtained dish identifier is used as an instruction presented on the user interface 218 (e.g., on a display and/or touch screen), e.g., an image of the dish and/or a textual description of the dish associated with the obtained dish indication. The dish associated with the obtained dish identifier is hereinafter referred to as "obtained dish". The user may use the GUI on the user interface 218 to obtain additional information about the obtained dishes, such as a coupon to purchase a dish (e.g., when pre-packaged), a link to purchase a book that includes a recipe for a new dish, and/or an advertisement for a supermarket that sells dishes.

The obtained dish identifier may be transmitted using the client computer to present the obtained dish on another display of the user, for example as: as an email to the user's email account, as an animation for presentation on the user's smartphone, and/or as a web page that opens automatically on the user's tablet computer. The client computer may forward the dish identifier to another display, and/or the server may transmit the obtained dish identifier directly to another display (e.g., according to a communication address stored on the server).

Reference is now made to fig. 5, which is a flow diagram of a computer-implemented method for monitoring and/or controlling heating of food portions in a heater 210 installed in communication with a client computer 208 in communication with a server 202 over a network 206, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. The actions of the method of fig. 5 represent the client side corresponding to the method described with reference to fig. 2A to 2B. The acts of the method of fig. 5 may be implemented by instruction code stored in program storage 214 executed by processor 212 of client computer 208. The method of FIG. 5 is described with reference to one of the client computers 208, but should be understood to be capable of being implemented by each client computer 208 in communication with the server 202.

At 502, the client computer 208 transmits the RF signature to the server 202 over the network 206. The RF signature is based on measured reflections of the RF signal emitted by the antenna 222 within the cavity 220 of the associated heater 210 containing the food portion 224. For example, as described with reference to block 104 of fig. 1, server 202 receives the RF signature.

At 504, the client computer 208 receives the heating instruction(s) from the server 202 that were determined based on the analysis of the RF signature (e.g., determined by the server 202 as described with reference to block 110 of fig. 1). The heating instructions include instructions for generating and transmitting an RF signal to the cavity 220 of the heater 210 using the antenna 222. The heating instructions are for operating the associated heater 210 to heat the food portion 224, as described with reference to block 510.

At 505, client computer 208 stores the received heating instructions locally in program storage 214 and/or data store 216.

As an alternative to 504, at 506, the client computer 208 detects that an instruction message defining a heating instruction has not been received from the server 202 for an upcoming period of time. Such a reception failure may be detected based on the expiration of a predefined time threshold (e.g., 5 seconds, 10 seconds, or 20 seconds).

At 507, for example, where a reception failure occurs at the beginning of heating, the client computer 208 may continue to apply the previously received heating instructions to the cavity 220 or apply a default heating mode. The default settings may depend on the type of dish, and the client computer may prompt the user to enter information about the type of dish.

At 508, the client computer 208 may monitor for receipt of the instruction message (e.g., the instruction message may have been lost and/or delayed in the network 206, and/or resent by the server 202). The monitoring may be for a predefined time requirement during which previously received heating instructions or default heating instructions are applied. Upon expiration of the predefined time requirement, the client computer 208 may issue an instruction to the heater 210 to apply another heating instruction according to a locally stored heating instruction (e.g., stored in the data store 216). For example, a plurality of heating instructions may be stored as a series, each of the series representing a default setting for a certain dish type. During heating, one mode may be used at a time. For example, one heating instruction may be used to thaw a frozen dish, while a second heating mode may be used to cook the thawed dish after the first heating mode is used and the dish has been thawed.

At 510, the client computer 208 issues instructions (or forwards received instructions) according to the received heating instructions (after 504 or 508, when the message arrives) to control the heater 210, as described herein.

At 512, one or more of blocks 502-510 are iterated during the control and/or monitoring process described with reference to block 114 of fig. 1.

The description of various embodiments of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the disclosed embodiments. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments. The terminology used herein is selected to best explain the principles of the embodiments, the practical application or technical improvements to the technology found in the marketplace, or to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein.

It is expected that during the life of a patent maturing from this application many relevant heaters, client computers and servers will be developed and the scope of the terms heater, client computer and server is intended to include all such new technologies a priori.

As used herein, the term "about" means ± 10%.

The terms "comprising", "including", "having" and their homologues mean: "including but not limited to". The term encompasses the terms "consisting of … … (inclusive of)" and "consisting essentially of … … (inclusive of)".

The phrase "consisting essentially of … …" means that the composition or method may include additional ingredients and/or steps, but only if the additional ingredients and/or steps do not materially alter the basic and novel characteristics of the claimed composition or method.

As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. For example, the term "compound" or "at least one compound" may include a plurality of compounds, including mixtures thereof.

The word "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment described as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments and/or to exclude the inclusion of features from other embodiments.

The word "optionally" is used herein to mean "provided in some embodiments and not provided in other embodiments. Unless these features conflict, any particular embodiment of the present invention may include a number of "optional" features.

Throughout this application, various embodiments of the present invention may be presented in a range format. It should be understood that the description in range format is merely for convenience and brevity and should not be construed as an inflexible limitation on the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the description of a range should be considered to have exactly disclosed all the possible sub-ranges as well as individual numerical values within that range. For example, a description of a range such as "from 1 to 6" should be considered to have specifically disclosed sub-ranges (such as "from 1 to 3," "from 1 to 4," "from 1 to 5," "from 2 to 4," "from 2 to 6," "from 3 to 6," etc.) as well as individual numbers within that range (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6). This applies regardless of the breadth of the range.

Whenever a numerical range is indicated herein, it is meant to include any number of references (fractional or integer) within the indicated range. The phrases "in a variation/range" between a first indicated number and a second indicated number, and "in a variation/range" from a first indicated number to a second indicated number, are used interchangeably herein and are meant to include the first and second indicated numbers and all fractions and integers therebetween.

It is appreciated that certain features of the invention, which are, for clarity, described in the context of separate embodiments, may also be provided in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features of the invention which are, for brevity, described in the context of a single embodiment, may also be provided separately or in any suitable subcombination or in any other described embodiment of the invention in any suitable manner. Certain features described in the context of various embodiments are not considered essential features of those embodiments, unless the embodiments do not function without those elements.

While the invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications, and variations as fall within the spirit and broad scope of the appended claims.

All publications, patents and patent applications mentioned in this specification are herein incorporated in their entirety by reference into the specification, to the same extent as if each individual publication, patent or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated herein by reference. In addition, citation or identification of any reference in this application shall not be construed as an admission that such reference is available as prior art to the present invention. To the extent that section headings are used, they should not be construed as necessarily limiting.

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