Samsung patents oven camera that sees past the heating coils
Samsung describes an oven design where the heating coils are shaped with specific curves and gaps to avoid blocking the view of an internal camera. This allows a camera placed above the heater to clearly photograph the food inside the cooking chamber without the metal wires getting in the way. The design also positions lights on either side of the camera to illuminate the food without the heater blocking the light.
In the filing’s own words
A cooking device includes a main body, a cooking chamber inside the main body, a grill heater provided in an upper portion of the cooking chamber and including a plurality of straight sections arranged in parallel and a plurality of curved sections connecting the plurality of straight sections, a camera module disposed above the grill heater and configured to photograph the inside of the cooking chamber, and first and second lighting modules disposed on both sides of the camera module above the grill heater and configured to radiate light toward the inside of the cooking chamber. Portions of at least some of the plurality of straight sections and portions of at least some of the plurality of curved sections are detour sections bypassing a photographing area of the camera module, a light irradiation area of the first lighting module, and a light irradiation area of the second lighting module so that the grill heater does not interfere with the photographing area of the camera module, the light irradiation area of the first lighting module, and the light irradiation area of the second lighting module.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A cooking device comprising: a main body; a cooking chamber inside the main body; a door provided in a front portion of the main body to open and close the cooking chamber; a grill heater provided in an upper portion of the cooking chamber to heat an inside of the cooking chamber; and a camera module disposed above the grill heater and having a photographable photographing area that widens downwards to photograph the inside of the cooking chamber, wherein the grill heater comprises: a pair of first straight sections each extending in a front-back direction and being spaced apart from each other in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the front-back direction, and a pair of first detour sections respectively extending from the pair of first straight sections so as to bypass a photographing area at a height corresponding to the grill heater, each first detour section of the pair of first detour sections including: a curved section extending from a first straight section among the pair of first straight sections in a direction angled from the front-back direction in which the pair of first straight sections extend, and a second straight section extending from the curved section in a direction parallel to the front-back direction in which the pair of first straight sections extend, and at least one of the first straight sections extends in a direction that passes through the photographing area that is bypassed by the pair of first detour sections.
Facts
- Company
- Samsung (Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.)
- Official title
- Cooking device for heating food by using a grill heater
- Patent number
- US12771915B2
- Application number
- 18528034
- Filed
- Dec 4, 2023
- Granted
- Oct 20, 2026
- Inventors
- 5
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
H04N 23/52 Electricity & electronicsF24C 15/008 Mechanical engineeringF24C 7/067 Mechanical engineeringH04N 23/56 Electricity & electronicsMore from Samsung in Phones & computers
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.