Electric Stove with Incorporated

Camera and Weight Scale

 

 

INTRODUCTION

            Throughout the years in which the concept of the modern household has existed there have been many appliances that are considered standard. For instance, a stove, sink, refrigerator, and more. These appliances have served their basic purpose in the past, however, there is always a question asked by engineers and designers of how this technology can be taken further. When cooking it is important to understand the properties of the ingredients for the purpose of culinary accuracy. Additionally, it is important to understand the contents of the food being consumed for dietary purposes. This is where a new era of the stove begins. With our rendition of the modern stove there is a camera to scan the item being included in the meal or stored to keep track of nutritional value. Along with this is a scale for the purpose of weighing the items scanned. With this stove comes an app that tracks the items scanned in order to track food information and consumption. This piece of technology makes it easier to keep track of health in the location where you select and cook your food. This stove can help people with serious conditions pertaining to food intake such as diabetes, high cholesterol, etc. This will allow for accurate food tracking to regulate these illnesses. Additionally, this product pertains to health enthusiasts and even the casual consumer. All in all, it will improve the quality of life of the stove giving it more purpose than just cooking food.

 

HISTORY

Thousands of years ago there was no such thing as a stove available that could be used to cook the food. In order to cook and heat the food man would use the same open fire that was used to warm up, to do so. Later on, as technology advanced stoves were invented and at first their sole purpose was not only to cook the food but also to heat the house. The earliest stove recorded was made of brick tile and cement and it was built in 1490 in Alsace, France. Then, came wood-burning stoves and one of its earliest inventions was invented in 1735 by Francois Curillies. This stove was also called the Castor stove or stew stove and it was able to “completely contain the fire and had several openings covered by iron plates with holes” (Bellis, 2020). Around 1800, Benjamin Franklin Thompson invented the iron stove also called Franklin stove and originally known as the Pennsylvania Fireplace. Franklin’s purpose was to build a smaller stove that would deliver heat more efficiently and use less wood, therefore, releasing less smoke. According to Samuel Edgerton (1990), this invention did not work very well due to the smoke having to pass through a cold flu that was set in the floor so then the smoke could enter the chimney; this led to the smoke cooling too much and not having a good draft. Benjamin’s invention did not achieve many sales until his invention was improved by David Rittenhouse by adding an exhaust pipe and chimney in the end of the 1780’s. Later, coal and kerosene stoves were invented. The first Kerosene sootless oven was invented by Frans Wilhelm Lindqvist. It was not until 1833 that the first practical coal oven was invented by Jordan Mott. This invention was “cylindrical and was made of heavy cast iron with a hole in the top, which was then enclosed by an iron ring” (Bellis, 2020). In 1826, James Sharp patented the first “semi-successful” gas. One advantage of this oven was that it was more efficient for domestic use than other stoves and relatively cheaper, however, it was not until 1880 that it became a commercial success (Snodgrass, 2004). Later, after electricity was made available at homes electric stoves were invented. In 1892, Thomas Ahearn made possible the first electric stove model. In 1896, William Hadaway received the first electric stove patent and it was not until the late 1920’s that electric stoves started competing with gas stoves. They were less expensive, faster, and easier to clean than gas stoves (n.d, 1892).

All these inventions have gone a step further and improved the past invention into making it more efficient and comfortable for our use. Our invention goes even further with the purpose of helping us improve our quality of life by creating an awareness on the food we consume because at the end of the day we are what we eat. We intend to do this by incorporating a kitchen scale into the electric stove in order to measure the amount of food intended to be consumed so then, this information can be sent to an app that will tell us all the nutritional values and calories that the food contains.

 

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION

Figure 1. Technical drawing of the top view of the outer part of the stove with part names and measurements.

Figure 2. Technical drawing of the top view of the inner part of the stove with parts labeled.

1. Power supply

A 9000-watt power supply is located on a dedicated circuit board inside the case of the stove. It can deliver up to 500 volts of energy to power components of the stove. It is connected to a set of voltage regulators, diodes, fuses and wires to power up each component of the stove. There are two main paths for which power is supplied, the system of coils and the electronic display system. The voltage regulator limits and adjusts the amount of power being delivered to each component including the coils for which the power delivered will vary based on the setting it is at. Diodes and fuses protect the circuit from damage by preventing current flow in wrong directions and opening the circuit in case it is malfunctioning.

1. Printed circuit board (PCB)

            The printed circuit board (PCB) is the brain of the stove. It has a processing unit that is connected to and controls every component of the stove. It receives inputs from load cells, temperature sensors, camera, and touchscreen display to perform certain functions. Input from the camera allows the stove to recognize what food is being used and measured quickly. It has an arithmetic logic unit that calculates the nutritional information of the food based on the weight measured by the load cells. It is also capable of connecting to the internet and access an extensive database with the nutritional values for a large number of foodstuffs. Based on the inputs received from the touchscreen display, the PCB is capable of turning on or off the coils and adjusting the power output to adjust the heat. Temperatures measured by the temperature sensors are used to regulate the heat output of the coils as well. If the temperature measured at a cooking surface reaches a dangerous level, signals will be sent to the digital display to warn the user and in the worst-case scenario, the PCB is capable of sending signals to the power supply unit to completely shut down the stove.

1. Temperature sensors

            There are temperature sensors located at the center of the coil of each cooking site for safety purposes. Each sensor consists of a probe that is connected to the main PCB and a fuse. The probe measures the temperature of each cooking site and sends it to the PCB which will display it on the digital display. If the stove reaches dangerous temperatures, the fuse will open the circuit that powers the coil, causing the cooking site to stop delivering heat.

1. Load cells

            Under each cooking surface, there is a strain gauge load cell. These load cells are transducers that convert force into an electrical signal which gives a numeric value. They are in charge of measuring the weight of objects that are put on top of the cooking surface. The load cells are made of a stainless steel alloy with chromium and nickel in order to prevent magnetic currents from heating it up. These load cells have also been heat treated so that they can withstand high temperatures that may come from the heated cookware. These load cells are connected to the PCB and can measure weights up to 50 kilograms (~110 pounds).

1. Induction Coils

            There are three cooking surfaces on the stove, one large, one medium ,and one small surface. Under each surface, there is a coil made of copper wire that is wound so that a circular shaped surface is made. Electric currents run through each of these coils which then create a magnetic current throughout the cookware which produces heat. The coil of the large cooking surface consists of 21 turns of copper wire, making it cover a larger surface area allowing it to transfer heat to larger cookware. The medium coil has 17 turns and the small coil has 13 turns, making them more suitable for smaller cookware.

Since the coils rely on a magnetic current that is induced on the cookware to produce heat, the stove only works with ferromagnetic cookware, meaning that a cooking pan must contain ferromagnetic material such as iron. Otherwise, the cookware will not heat up. Each coil can heat up a cooking pan to a maximum of 700 °F. In addition, only the cookware is heated by induction. The cooking top may be heated as a result of being in contact with the cookware, but it will not burn a person if they touch it only with their hands.

1. Camera

            The camera is located right above the touchscreen display. It is a high definition camera capable of 1080p resolutions at 60 frames per second. It is connected to the PCB which helps in the recognition of foodstuffs that are placed within the camera’s field of view.

1. Touchscreen display

The touchscreen display is where the controls of the stove will be accessed by users. It has a glass screen that is sensitive to touch and is connected to the PCB. On this screen, information such as the food recorded, the weights measured, nutritional values, temperature levels, warnings, date and time, and others are displayed. Users can control the heat setting of each cooking surface of the stove through this touchscreen display. To start recording meals and measuring their nutritional values, users can select the function of starting a cooking session. During a session, users will be prompted to show the ingredients to the camera one by one which will automatically recognize the food and record it. After an ingredient is detected, it should be placed on top of the cooking surface of the user’s choice to measure its weight. As the weight is recorded, an extensive database is referenced, and nutritional values are calculated for the specific weight measured. Records for each meal are stored in an online database that can be accessed through the touchscreen display of the stove or by the mobile app on a device linked to the stove.

1. Mobile Application

This stove has a mobile application that it is associated with. It can be downloaded on Apple and Android devices. Through this application, users can link their mobile devices to their stove by using the serial number of their stove. The application can access the records of the foods eaten by the user and the specific nutritional information calculated for each meal at any time and date. Users can also set up a specific diet which the application will reference to give advice on what kinds of food to cook and warnings on what kinds of food to avoid based on the meals that have been recorded by the stove. In addition, this app can track foods which may affect pre-existing health conditions of the consumer allowing for a safe and optimized experience.

 

COST AND TIME

There are two cost factors. One is whether or not by purchasing the stove, you also have access to the camera, scale and app, or if those would be separate charges. Another cost factor is if the stove color or design will change the price of the stove. In order to make the innovation beneficial to the consumer, there will be no additional costs to the innovation nor the app that comes with it. The scale and camera will also be initially inserted into the stove so that the owner does not have to worry about implementing the scale themselves and therefore saving them more money and time. This is a crucial part for selling the innovation, giving the product its own identity and making sure that the consumer feels that they are getting the best return on their investment. Regardless of these savings, it is also important to take into consideration that the innovation gives profits by making the cost more than the cost of manufacturing. Given its similarity to the already expensive electric stove which ranges from 660 to 700 dollars on average, and the improvements that are innovated into it, the price range could go from 1000 to 1300 dollars. This is to ensure there is a comfortable amount of profit given that there are no additional costs for the innovation after purchasing it. In terms of time the innovation would not take too long to be built compared to the original electric stove. This is because they are similar and they both have the same functions, the only difference that would affect the time is the implementation of both the scale and the camera into the electric stove. Overall, it should not take more than a few hours to manufacture one of our stoves, this can vary with different factors, like the amount of people working on the stove and their speed with the manufacturing.

 

 

 

LABOR-POWER

For any new invention, the labor-power is an important part of manufacturing, giving people additional information about the product. Our scale and camera will be inserted into an already made electric stove by a couple of people which shouldn’t take more than a few hours for one stove. Before it is made available to the general public, it will be reviewed by engineers to make sure that the design is correct and not flawed. This is to ensure customers get a high-quality product. The innovation will be made in the United States in a location inside of New York. This will make the innovation easily available for American customers.

 

CONCLUSION

            This innovation is a necessary step for the modern stove. It will inspire health and accuracy in every meal being prepared. The stove in the future can hold specific apps and features using wifi to further unify and simplify the health tracking experience. It will provide a user interface that is easy to use and track what is being eaten. It will fundamentally evolve the way the modern stove is viewed and will open up boundaries for new additions benefitting the users’ health and convenience. Overall it will mark a future where appliances are multitools that can help shift your entire lifestyle and cooking experience simultaneously. This shift is similar to smartphones making the stove more capable of other functions outside of its specific description. One of the key aspects of the future is versatility, this stove is more closely associated with this concept more than ever and can be improved on to go even further in the future. From here design can be built off of more than necessity but accelerated convenience for the consumer.

REFERENCES

Bellis, Mary. (2020, August 26). History of the Oven from Cast Iron to Electric. Retrieved from

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-oven-from-cast-iron-to-electric-1992212

“Gas vs Electric Stove – Pros, Cons, Comparisons and Costs.” Fixr.com, 21 Apr. 2020,

www.fixr.com/comparisons/gas-vs-electric-stove.

Samuel Y. Edgerton, Jr., “Supplement: The Franklin Stove” in I. Bernard Cohen, Benjamin

Franklin’s Science (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1990) , pages 204–206.