Kitchen Appliance And System Therefor

Abstract

A kitchen appliance has a control arrangement arranged to receive sound commands and to operate the appliance in response to the sound commands; a microphone arranged to receive sound comprising a sound command and to provide the sound to the control arrangement; and at least one acoustic filter configured to supress from the sound provided to the control arrangement background noise created by operation of the kitchen appliance.

1 . A kitchen appliance having:
 a control arrangement arranged to receive sound commands and to operate the appliance in response to the sound commands;   a microphone arranged to receive sound comprising a sound command and to provide the sound to the control arrangement;   a motor for driving a food processing tool;   at least one acoustic filter configured to supress from the sound provided to the control arrangement background noise created by operation of the motor; and   a sensor for sensing at least one of: speed; torque; current; and direction of the motor, wherein the acoustic filter is configured to vary the suppression of background noise in dependence on the sensor output: and,   wherein the acoustic filter is an active and/or passive noise cancellation system, and wherein the acoustic filter comprises: an analogue signal filter, a digital signal filter, a high pass filter, a bandpass filter, and/or a pop screen.   
     
     
         2 . The kitchen appliance according to  claim 1 , wherein the motor is one selected from the group comprising brushless motors and reluctance motors. 
     
     
         3 . The kitchen appliance according to  claim 1 , wherein the microphone is sensitive to sound between 20 Hz to 20 kHz. 
     
     
         4 . The kitchen appliance according to  claim 1 , wherein the microphone, and preferably the acoustic filter, comprises a liquid-tight cover, wherein the cover is formed of or coated with a low-friction, hydrophobic and/or oleophobic material, preferably PTFE. 
     
     
         5 . The kitchen appliance of  claim 1 , wherein the microphone is provided proximate to a location where food is processed in the kitchen appliance. 
     
     
         6 . A system for controlling a kitchen appliance that is operable by means of sound commands, the system comprising:
 a microphone;   a processor for processing sound from the microphone so as to identify an instruction from the sound command; and   a kitchen appliance comprising a controller configured to receive the instruction from the processor and to control the kitchen appliance in dependence on the instruction, wherein of the microphone and the processor are arranged as part of a mobile communication device separate from the kitchen appliance.   
     
     
         7 . A system for controlling a kitchen appliance that is operable by means of sound commands, the system comprising:
 a microphone;   a processor for processing sound from the microphone so as to identify from the sound a sound command and a quality relating to the sound command, and to provide an instruction in dependence upon the command and the quality; and   a kitchen appliance comprising a controller configured to receive the instruction from the processor and to control the kitchen appliance in dependence on the instruction, wherein the processor is configured for speech recognition, where the sound command is in the form of a voice command from a user, and wherein the quality is the identity of the user, and the controller is arranged to control the kitchen appliance in dependence on the identified user, further comprising a database for storing data relating to identified users or appliances, wherein the processor is configured to retrieve, from the database, data relating to a given user or appliance once the user or appliance has been identified.   
     
     
         8 . The system according to  claim 7 , wherein the controller is configured to control the kitchen appliance in dependence on at least one of: time of day; ambient light levels;
 and weather, and/or wherein the controller is configured to control the kitchen appliance so as to output information relating to a proposed food processing operation.   
     
     
         9 . The system according to  claim 7 , wherein the microphone is activated by a device other than the kitchen appliance, and/or wherein the kitchen appliance comprises a wireless transceiver for communicating with the processor and/or microphone. 
     
     
         10 . The system according to  claim 7 , further comprising a memory configured for storing a location and/or distance of a source of sound for use in noise cancellation, and configured to delete a stored location and/or orientation of a sound source if sound has not been detected from that sound source for a predetermined time.