US-12618566-B2 - Cooking appliance

US12618566B2US 12618566 B2US12618566 B2US 12618566B2US-12618566-B2

Abstract

A cooling appliance is proposed. A casing ( 100, 200 ) may include a cavity (S) therein, and a heat source module may be arranged inside the casing ( 100, 200 ). Furthermore, a camera module ( 730 ) may be arranged at a rear surface of the casing ( 100, 200 ) and capture the inside space of the cavity (S). Accordingly, in the casing ( 100, 200 ), heat sources and the camera module ( 730 ) may be arranged without interference therebetween, and the camera module ( 730 ) can secure a wide view angle at a rear portion of the casing ( 100, 200 ).

Inventors

Dong Hun Kim
Dong Kwan Yu

Assignees

LG ELECTRONICS INC.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20221027
Priority Date: 20211028

Claims (18)

1 . A cooking appliance comprising: a casing having a cavity therein; a door provided at the casing, to open and close the cavity; a heat source arranged inside the casing, to heat an inside space of the cavity; and a camera arranged at a rear surface of the casing, to capture the inside space of the cavity, wherein the casing comprises an inner casing and an outer casing arranged outside the inner casing, wherein a camera mounting part is provided at an inner rear plate of the inner casing, the camera mounting part protruding toward an outer rear plate of the outer casing, wherein the camera mounting part has an inclined flat surface provided with a capture opening, and wherein the camera is arranged behind the inclined flat surface to capture the inside space of the cavity through the capture opening.
2 . The cooking appliance of claim 1 , wherein the casing comprises: a plurality of electric chambers are provided between the inner casing and the outer casing, wherein the heat source and the camera are respectively arranged in the plurality of electric chambers.
3 . The cooking appliance of claim 2 , comprising a cooling fan arranged at a first electric chamber of the plurality of electric chambers, the first electric chamber provided behind an air inlet part, and the cooling fan transfers air, the air being suctioned through the air inlet part and into a second electric chamber provided behind an air outlet part, and the camera is arranged at an air flow path generated by the cooling fan.
4 . The cooking appliance of claim 3 , wherein a third electric chamber connecting the first electric chamber to the second electric chamber is provided between an inner rear plate and an outer rear plate of the casing, and a camera mounting part protruding toward an inside space of the third electric chamber is provided at the inner rear plate.
5 . The cooking appliance of claim 4 , wherein an insulation rear plate is arranged behind the inner rear plate, and the insulation rear plate has a camera avoidance hole that exposes the camera to the inside space of the third electric chamber.
6 . The cooking appliance of claim 4 , comprising a power supply arranged in the third electric chamber, and the camera is arranged higher than a voltage transformer of the power supply.
7 . The cooking appliance of claim 6 , wherein the camera is arranged between the cooling fan and the voltage transformer.
8 . The cooking appliance of claim 2 , comprising a cooling fan, the cooling fan comprises: a first cooling fan to suction air in a direction perpendicular to an open direction of an air inlet part; and a second cooling fan arranged closer to the air inlet part than the first cooling fan, to suction air in the open direction of the air inlet part, wherein the camera is arranged below the first cooling fan.
9 . The cooking appliance of claim 8 , wherein the first cooling fan is arranged at an edge of a first electric chamber among the plurality of electric chambers, the edge being connected to a third electric chamber among the plurality of electric chambers, and the first cooling fan discharges air toward the camera arranged at the third electric chamber.
10 . The cooking appliance of claim 2 , wherein the inner casing comprises an inner side plate, an inner rear plate, and an inner upper plate, the outer casing comprises an outer side plate, an outer rear plate, an outer upper plate, and an outer lower plate, a first electric chamber among the plurality of electric chambers is provided between the inner upper plate and the outer upper plate, a second electric chamber among the plurality of electric chambers is provided between the heat source and the outer lower plate, and a third electric chamber among the plurality of electric chambers in which the camera is arranged is arranged between the inner rear plate and the outer rear plate.
11 . The cooking appliance of claim 1 , wherein the mountinginclined flat surface is inclined to face a bottom surface of the cavity.
12 . The cooking appliance of claim 1 , comprising an insulation space formed at a front surface of the camera mounting part by being recessed toward the inner rear plate, the front surface facing the inside space of the cavity, and the insulation space is shielded by a cover.
13 . The cooking appliance of claim 1 , wherein the camera comprises: a camera housing arranged at the camera mounting part, and having a lens through hole opened to the capture opening; and a camera substrate coupled to the camera housing, and to which a camera lens is mounted and exposed through the lens through hole.
14 . The cooking appliance of claim 13 , wherein the camera housing comprises a substrate holding hook to hook an edge of the camera substrate.
15 . The cooking appliance of claim 13 , wherein the camera mounting part has a fixing hole, and the camera housing has a camera mounting hook hooked to the fixing hole, or wherein the camera housing has an elastic arm protruding toward the camera mounting part, and the elastic arm fixes to a mounting surface of the camera mounting part by elastic deformation.
16 . The cooking appliance of claim 1 , wherein the heat source comprises: a first heat source arranged at a side surface of the casing, to emit microwaves toward the cavity; a second heat source arranged at a bottom surface of the casing, to emit magnetic fields toward the cavity; and a third heat source arranged at an upper portion of the casing, to generate radiant heat toward the cavity.
17 . A cooking appliance comprising: a casing having a cavity therein, of which a front surface has an air inlet part and an air outlet part at different heights; a door provided at the casing, to open and close the cavity; a heat source arranged inside the casing, to heat an inside space of the cavity; a cooling fan arranged at a first electric chamber provided behind the air inlet part, to transfer suctioned air into a second electric chamber provided behind the air outlet part; and a camera arranged in a third electric chamber connecting the first electric chamber to the second electric chamber, to capture the inside space of the cavity, wherein the casing comprises an inner casing comprising an inner rear plate and an outer casing comprising an outer rear plate, the third electric chamber being provided between the inner rear plate and the outer rear plate, wherein a camera mounting part is formed on the inner rear plate and protrudes toward the outer rear plate, and wherein the camera mounting part has an inclined flat surface provided with a capture opening, and the camera is arranged behind the inclined flat surface to capture the cavity through the capture opening.
18 . A cooking appliance comprising: an inner casing comprising an inner side plate, an inner rear plate, and an inner upper plate, the inner casing having a cavity therein; an outer casing arranged outside the inner casing, and comprising an outer side plate, an outer rear plate, an outer upper plate, and an outer lower plate; a heat source arranged in an electric chamber provided between the inner casing and the outer casing, to heat an inside space of the cavity; a camera mounting part provided at the inner rear plate and protruding toward the outer rear plate, the camera mounting part having an inclined flat surface provided with a capture opening; and a camera arranged behind the inclined flat surface, to capture the inside space of the cavity through the capture opening.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2021-0146152, filed on Oct. 28, 2021, and Korean Patent Application No. 10-2022-0001814, filed on Jan. 5, 2022, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present disclosure relates generally to a cooking appliance Description of the Related Art Various types of cooking appliances are used to heat food at home or in restaurants. For example, such cooking appliances may include microwave ovens, induction heating electric ranges, and grill heaters. A microwave oven heats food by using molecules in a high-frequency electric field vibrating strongly to generate heat. The microwave oven can heat food evenly in a short time. An induction heating electric range is a cooking appliance that uses electromagnetic induction to heat an object to be heated. Specifically, when high-frequency power of a predetermined size is applied to a coil, the induction heating electric range generates eddy currents in the object to be heated, which is made of a metal substance, using a magnetic field generated around the coil, and thus heating the object to be heated. A grill heater is a cooking appliance that heats food by radiating or convection of infrared heat. The grill heater allows infrared heat to pass through the food, so that the food can be cooked evenly throughout. Accordingly, as the cooking appliances using various types of heat sources are released, the number and types of cooking appliances provided to users have increased, and there is a problem in that the cooking appliances occupy a large volume in the living space. Accordingly, there is increased demand i for a composite cooking appliance having a plurality of heating modules. In addition, it is necessary to develop a cooking appliance that simultaneously uses a plurality of heating methods so that food in the object to be heated is cooked more uniformly and quickly. U.S. Pat. No. 6,987,252 B2 (related art 1) disclosed the cooking appliance configured to cook food by using microwaves, radiant heat, and convection heat, and Korean Patent No. 10-2018-0115981 (related art 2) disclosed the cooking appliance including a heat source using microwaves, and a heat source using radiant heat and a heat source generating convection heat. Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2021-0107487 (related art 3) disclosed a cooking appliance for using microwave and induction heating heat sources at the same time in one device. Meanwhile, recently, in order to improve user friendliness, various functions may be added to cooking appliances and, for example, various parts, such as a temperature sensor and a camera sensor, may be installed to the cooking appliances so as to measure an environment inside a cavity thereof. However, in the cooking appliances including the various heat sources as described in the related arts, there is a problem of insufficient space for mounting the parts such as the temperature sensor, the camera sensor, etc. Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2002-0036478 (related art 4) disclosed the microwave including a camera. In the related art 4, the inside space of a cooking room can be observed by the camera, and since the camera is installed horizontally, it is difficult for the camera to capture images of a bottom of the cooking room on which food is placed. In order to solve the problems, when the camera is installed in an inclined direction, a filming hole that has a long-hole shape or a large diameter must be formed on a side wall of the cooking room so as to secure a view angle. As described above, when the size of the filming hole is formed large, there is a problem in that noise is generated in the camera due to influence of microwaves and quality of capturing is deteriorated. Furthermore, when a plurality of heat sources is used, a temperature inside the cooking room increases, and there is a risk that a camera sensor is damaged due to high temperature heat. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present disclosure has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the related arts, and an objective of the present disclosure is to provide a cooking appliance having a plurality of heat sources in which a camera module is installed without interference with a camera module. Another objective of the present disclosure is to realize an view angle of a camera inclined toward the bottom of a cavity (cooking room), and to limit a size of a filming hole minimally, the filming hole being open on an inner wall of the cavity. A further objective of the present disclosure is to prevent a camera module from being damaged due to high temperature of heat in a cavity. According to features of the present disclosure for achieving the above-described objectives, the cooking appliance of the present disclosure may include a casin