Automatic cooking assistance device and method to provide cooking instructions
A cooking assistance device is for weighing a kitchen appliance or food container and then calculating a weight of food contained by the kitchen appliance or container based on a known dry weight. The food weight is provided to cooking aid device (which may be an integral part of the assistance device or it may be a remote device) for providing cooking instructions to a user. The device is thus able to coordinate the use of multiple kitchen appliances or utensils for example when a recipe is being followed by a user, with user instructions, information or advice being provided.
1. A cooking assistance device comprising:
a weighing apparatus;
an identifying unit for identifying a kitchen appliance or utensil placed on the weighing apparatus by receiving a kitchen appliance or utensil identification and for obtaining a dry weight of the kitchen appliance or utensil received with the identification as a part of electronic identification information communicated from the kitchen appliance or utensil to the cooking assistance device;
a calculating unit for calculating a weight of food contained by the kitchen appliance or utensil based on the dry weight of the identified kitchen appliance or utensil; and
a communications unit for communicating the weight of food to a cooking aid device for providing cooking instructions to a user which depend on the weight of food.
2. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the communications unit comprises:
a docking station for an external communications device which functions as the cooking aid device; or
a wireless communications interface for communicating with the external communications device which functions as the cooking aid device.
3. The device as claimed in claim 1 which further comprises the cooking aid device.
4. The device as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the cooking assistance device further comprises a processor for deriving the cooking instructions which depend on the weight of food and a display for displaying the cooking instructions.
5. The device as claimed in claim 3 , further comprising a user interface for receiving user commands relating to a recipe to be followed.
6. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the identifying unit comprises a receiving unit for obtaining identification of the kitchen appliance or utensil by a wired or wireless connection to the kitchen appliance or utensil.
7. The device as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the receiving unit comprises an RFID reader for reading an RFID tag of the kitchen appliance or utensil.
8. The device as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising a kitchen appliance interface for receiving data from kitchen appliances relating to cooking or food preparation processes being followed by the kitchen appliances.
9. The device as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the kitchen appliance interface is further used for providing instructions to an appliance relating to cooking or food preparation processes to be followed.
10. A cooking assistance method, comprising:
using a cooking assistance device to identify a kitchen appliance or utensil placed on a weighing apparatus of the cooking assistance device by receiving a kitchen appliance or utensil identification;
obtaining a dry weight of the kitchen appliance or utensil received with the identification as a part of electronic identification information communicated from the kitchen appliance or utensil to the cooking assistance device;
calculating a weight of food contained by the kitchen appliance or utensil based on a dry weight of the identified kitchen appliance or utensil; and
communicating the weight of food to a cooking aid device for providing cooking instructions to a user which depend on the weight of food.
11. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein identifying the kitchen appliance or utensil comprises obtaining identification of the kitchen appliance or utensil by a wired or wireless connection to the kitchen appliance or utensil.
12. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein communicating the weight of food comprises communicating with an external communications device using a docking station or using a wireless communications interface.
13. The method as claimed in claim 10 , comprising:
receiving user commands relating to a recipe to be followed;
receiving data from kitchen appliances relating to cooking or food preparation processes being followed by the kitchen appliances; and
presenting cooking instructions to the user which depend at least on the weight of food.
14. The device as claimed in claim 13 , comprising the cooking assistance device providing instructions to kitchen appliances relating to the cooking or food preparation processes to be followed.