Cooking hood vent with predictive event recognition

1 . A cooking exhaust hood system, comprising:

an exhaust hood adapted to be located over at least one cooking appliance;

an exhaust fan connected to the exhaust hood, the exhaust fan having a controllable exhaust air flow volume;

a camera that monitors a surface of the at least one cooking appliance and provides an image signal representing a visual status of the at least one cooking appliance;

an image processing controller connected to an image database, the image processing controller being configured to receive the image signal, compare the visual status of the at least one cooking appliance based on the image signal to stored images in the image database, and output a cooking appliance status signal;

an exhaust fan controller connected to the exhaust fan, the exhaust fan controller being configured to receive the cooking appliance status signal and adjust the controllable exhaust air flow volume of the exhaust fan based on the cooking appliance status signal,

wherein the image processing controller is trainable to recognize cooking appliance conditions including a number and type of the cooking appliances being used as well as food items located on the cooking appliance, and

the exhaust fan controller is adapted to adjust the exhaust air flow volume based on the number and type of the at least one cooking appliance being used to implement a predictive control of the exhaust air flow volume.

2 . The cooking exhaust hood system of claim 1 , further comprising a hood fire suppression system configured to be activated by the image processing controller upon the cooking appliance status signal indicating that there is a fire.

3 . The cooking exhaust hood system of claim 1 , wherein the image processing controller is trainable to recognize cleaning equipment.

4 . The cooking exhaust hood system of claim 1 , wherein the exhaust fan controller is configured to signal a make-up air unit to adjust a make-up air volume based on the exhaust air flow volume.

5 . The cooking exhaust hood system of claim 1 , wherein the exhaust fan controller is configured to control duct or hood mounted dampers.

6 . A method of controlling a cooking exhaust hood system of claim 1 , the method comprising:

monitoring the at least one cooking appliance with the camera, and the camera signaling image data on captured images to the image processing controller;

comparing the image data for the captured images against images in the database using the image processing controller, the image processing controller generating a cooking appliance status signal;

the exhaust fan controller receiving the cooking appliance status signal and adjusting at least one of a fan speed of exhaust fan to increase or decrease the controllable exhaust air flow volume or a damper position based on the cooking appliance status signal;

training the image processing controller to recognize cooking appliance conditions including the number and type of the cooking appliances being used as well as the food items located on the cooking appliance, and

the exhaust fan controller adjusting the exhaust air flow volume based on the number and type of the at least one cooking appliance being used to implement the predictive control of the exhaust air flow volume.

7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising

activating a fire suppression system for the cooking exhaust hood upon the cooking appliance status signal indicating a fire on the at least one cooking appliance.

8 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising

adjusting a make-up air volume provided by a make-up air unit based on the exhaust air flow volume.