DESC:[001] PRIORITY CLAIM
[002] This application claims priority from the provisional application numbered 4813/CHE/2013 filed with Indian patent Office, Chennai on 25th October, 2013 entitled “Remote Controlled Induction Cook Top”, the entirety of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference.
[003] Preamble to the Description
[004] The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.
[005] Technical field of the invention
[006] The present invention relates to a remote controlled induction cook top. In particular, the present invention relates to a Radio Frequency (RF) remote controlled induction cook top in which a remote control unit and an induction cook top unit is paired using a pre-qualifier to prevent cross communication between them.
[007] Background of the invention
[008] Induction cook tops have been in use since a long time. Induction cook tops use electric current to generate heat. Instead of using the resistivity of the conductor to generate heat, an induction cook top uses the magnetic properties of metal to generate heat. Nowadays, the usage of induction cook tops has gained popularity. In many households, it often happens that food gets overcooked, charred, spilt or spoilt as the person who is cooking, is unable to reach the stove for stirring the food in time or for switching off the cook top after food is cooked. Many times, after keeping the food to be cooked on the cook top, the person who is cooking the food may usually engage oneself with some other activity. This might cause the person either forget or be unable to reach the stove in time to check whether the food is cooked properly or not. Also, it is a hassle to remember the fact that food is being cooked and to keep monitoring the cooking process so that the food does not get over cooked.
[009] The US patent application US8598497B2 titled “Cooking temperature and power control” discloses a cookware, which comprises a wireless transmitting device connected to the one or more temperature sensors to receive sensed temperature data there from. Transferring data representative of a cookware temperature from the cookware to an external device such as induction cooking system to allow the data to be further employed. In one implementation, device may be an RF enabled microcontroller that communicates via RF with RF transceiver. Power can be provided to device using coil that is connected to wireless transmitter. Coil is inductively coupled to and derives power from the electromagnetic field that is output by induction coil. When such an energy pick-up coil is used, it may be physically located closer to induction coil. Physical proximity accomplishes better coupling. However, the invention does not disclose the prevention of the cross communication to the induction cooking system.
[0010] The US patent application US20130056379A1 titled “Cookware with RF detection function and cookware system” discloses that the cooking time and the cooking temperature can be monitored by the time module and the temperature module. Once the cooking time of the cookware reaches the pre-set time, a time alarming signal for alerting the user is sent by the RF device to the external receiver; and once the cooking temperature reaches the predetermined over boiling temperature, a temperature alarming signal for alerting the user is sent to the receiver so that the user can take corresponding actions to prevent occurrence of an accident, thus improving the safety in use of the cookware. Furthermore, the cooking time and the cooking temperature may also be monitored periodically by the time module, the temperature module and the RF device, so it is unnecessary for the user to stand beside the cookware; rather, the user can keep track of the cooking time and the cooking temperature by means of a display screen of the receiver (e.g., a remote controller). This makes it convenient for the user to fully and effectively monitor the cooking process from a long distance, and also saves much time for the user to deal with other things in the house. The drawback of this patent is that it doesn’t disclose about preventing the cross communication using pre-qualifier between the remote control unit and the induction cook top unit.
[0011] Hence, there is need for a remotely controlled induction cook top, which prevents the cross communication between the remote control unit and the induction cook top.
[0012] Summary of the invention
[0013] The present invention provides a Radio Frequency (RF) remotely controlled induction cook top, which comprises a remote control unit and an induction cook top unit. In the present invention, the remote control unit and the induction cook top unit are uniquely paired to prevent cross communication. The communication between the remote control unit and the induction cook top unit is established with a Sub-Giga Hertz Radio Frequency link of 433MHz [Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) Band].
[0014] According to the present invention, the pairing is done with a data pre-qualifier that is stored in a non volatile memory of the remote control unit and the non volatile memory of the induction cook top. The remote control unit and the base induction cook top checks the pre-qualifier and the communication between the remote control unit and the base induction cook top is established when the data pre-qualifier matches. The communication is ignored if there is a mismatch of pre-qualifier between the remote control unit and the base induction cook top.
[0015] It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as described in the detailed description.
[0016] Brief description of the drawings
[0017] The foregoing and other features of embodiments will become more apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to like elements.
[0018] Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of the remote controlled induction cook top in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention.
[0019] Figure 2 illustrates the block diagram of the remote control unit in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[0020] Detailed Description of the Invention
[0021] In order to more clearly and concisely describe and point out the subject matter of the claimed invention, the following definitions are provided for specific terms, which are used in the following written description.
[0022] The term ‘Radio Frequency’, means a rate of oscillation in the range of around 3 kHz to 300 GHz, which corresponds to the frequency of radio waves.
[0023] The term ‘Induction Cook Top’, means cooking vessel with induction heating, instead of infrared radiation from electrical wires or a gas flame as with a traditional cooking stove.
[0024] The invention discloses a remote controlled induction cook top, hereinafter referred as induction cook top. The induction cook top includes at least one microcontroller unit for controlling various functions of induction cook top. The induction cook top further includes a Light Emitting Diode (LED) panel to display various functions. The induction cook top further includes at least one input unit for providing input to the induction cook top regarding various cooking options. In some embodiments, the input unit may be a touch key panel. The induction cook top has at least one induction heating (IH) power system and a memory unit to store pairing data and at least one communication unit.
[0025] The invention also discloses a remote control unit for controlling the above described cook top. The remote control unit includes at least one microcontroller unit, which includes a memory unit for storing pairing data for being remotely controlled. The remote control unit further includes a display unit and an input unit. The remote control unit also includes a communication unit, through which the induction cook unit is controlled remotely. According to an embodiment, the display unit may be a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) display whereas the communication unit may be RF communication unit.
[0026] Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of the remote controlled induction cook top in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention. The induction cook top (100) includes a microcontroller unit (101) and a base controller (102). The induction cook top (100) also includes a communication unit known as RF communication unit (103), which utilizes radio frequency technology. The microcontroller unit (101) acts as an interface between the RF communication unit (103) and the base controller (102) of the induction cook top (100). The induction cook top (100) further includes a seven segment LED (107) and an input unit, known as a touch key panel (106). Through this input unit, user may give various directions to the induction cook to induction cook top (100) regarding the operations including temperature, time period and so on. The induction cook top (100) also has an induction heating (IH) power system (105) and an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) Non-Volatile memory (104) to store the pairing data in order to communicate with the remote control through the RF communication unit (103). The control signal coming from the remote control unit reaches the RF communication unit (103) and controls the induction cook top (100) through the base controller (102).
[0027] Figure 2 illustrates the block diagram of the remote control unit in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. In the most preferred embodiment, the remote control unit (200) mainly comprises at least one microcontroller unit (201), at least one Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) non-volatile memory (205) for storing pairing data, a display unit (202) and a keyboard (203), which act as an input unit to input one or more control commands and a RF communication unit (204). In one embodiment, the microcontroller unit (201) acts as an interface between the display unit (202), the keyboard (203) and the RF communication unit (204). In one embodiment, the microcontroller unit (201) encodes/decodes data for transmitting and receiving sequence respectively. In one embodiment, the microcontroller (201) buffers the data for the RF communication device. The display unit (202) may be a liquid crystal display (LCD).
[0028] In one embodiment, Sub-Giga Hertz Radio Frequency link is used for the communication between the RF communication unit (204) of the remote control unit (200) and RF communication unit (103) of the induction cook top (100). In one embodiment, communication between the remote control unit (200) and the induction cook top (100) is established with a 433MHz (ISM Band). In one embodiment, RF carrier and packet data is exchanged between the remote control unit (200) and the induction cook top (100).
[0029] According to an embodiment, each remote control unit and an induction cook top unit is paired to avoid cross communication. The pairing is done with a data pre-qualifier that is stored in a non volatile memory of the remote unit (205) and the non volatile memory of the induction cook top (104).
[0030] According to an embodiment, the remote control unit (200) and the base induction cook top (100) check the pre-qualifier. The communication between the remote control unit and the base induction cook top is established when the data pre-qualifier matches and the communication is ignored if there is a mismatch
[0031] The remote controlled induction cook top (100) is useful in domestic kitchens for cooking and also provides rapid heating with thermal efficiency. The remote controlled induction cook top (100) also has an advantage of automatically controlling the operation parameters such as temperature, power, time etc.
[0032] It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only. Changes may be made in the details, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.

,CLAIMS:[0033] Claims
We claim:

1. A remote controlled induction cook top (100) comprising:
i) a Radio Frequency (RF) communication unit (103);
ii) a microcontroller unit (101) to provide an interface between the RF communication unit (103) and a base controller (102);
iii) an input unit having a touch key panel (106) to provide one or more directions to the operation of the induction cook top;
iv) an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) non-volatile memory (104) to store the pairing data for communication with a remote control unit (200) through the RF communication unit (103); and
v) a base controller (102) to control the induction cook top based on one or more control signals received from the remote control unit (200) through the RF communication unit (103).
vi) a remote control unit (200) further comprising:
a) a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) unit (202) to display the temperature, power level and time of an induction cook top;
b) an input keyboard device (203) to input one or more control commands in the remote control unit (200);
c) a Radio Frequency (RF) communication unit (204) to carry out communication with the induction cook top (100);
d) a microcontroller unit (201) to act as an interface between the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) (202), the input keyboard device (203) and the Radio Frequency (RF) communication unit (204); and,
e) an EEPROM non-volatile memory (205) to store the pairing data.

2. The induction cook top as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication between the remote control unit (200) and the induction cook top unit (100) is established using a Sub-Giga Hertz Radio Frequency link of 433MHz (ISM Band).

3. The induction cook top as claimed in claim 1, wherein the remote control unit (200) and the induction cook top unit (100) are paired using a data pre-qualifier to avoid cross communication.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the remote control unit (200) and the base induction cook top unit (100) check the pre-qualifier for signal matching and the communication is established in case of match and ignored in case of mismatch.

5. The induction cook top as claimed in claim 1, wherein the remote control unit (200) allows the adjustment of time, power, temperature optimum for the operation of the induction cook top.