Towards an Autonomous Temperature Feedback Microwave Oven with Thermal Imaging

摘要

When food is warmed in a microwave oven, the user guesses the estimated time for the heating. This cognitive process of guessing can be incorrect - resulting the final food temperature to be too hot or still cold. In this research, a novel closed-loop temperature feedback microwave oven is designed. The proposed microwave takes the target food temperature from the user and then stops the heating automatically when the food temperature reaches the target temperature. The temperature is sensed using a non-contact infrared temperature sensor grid and no physical contact with the food is necessary. The microwave contains a graphical liquid crystal display (LCD) with touchscreen and it shows the colored thermal image of the food while heating. A prototype of the proposed microwave is developed using a microcontroller based system and tested.