The present disclosure relates to devices for holding food products at desired temperatures while they are waiting to be served to a customer. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to devices and associated methods utilized in a hot food holding cabinet to allow operators to easily select which food product from within a family of food products with common attributes is to be stored at the specified location.
Hot holding cabinets are used in restaurants to store a plurality of cooked food products when the cook time for a product is longer than the customer expectation for wait time. This allows the restaurant to prepare food ahead of time to meet the customer's expectation of receiving a food product immediately or shortly after ordering. These holding cabinets have storage slots for food product trays, a heat source to keep the food product and their trays at a desired serving temperature, and a product tracking system to perform specific functions such as time tracking, product type identification, product status indications, process indications, audible feedback and alarm generation and display. Cabinets are supplied with prepared food products from a cooking device (e.g., a grill) and are generally capable of holding between 1 to 20 individual trays.
On these holding cabinets' control systems it is common that each food product holding location is programmed to accept a single product at any point in the day. This does not provide any level of flexibility to the user. Changing what product is to be stored and timed at a given location in the holding cabinet is generally a complex change involving, at a minimum, several button presses to move into a settings or menu configuration screen and can be even more complicated and cumbersome requiring computer based applications for changing food product locations which generally require saving and uploading the new menu files back into the hot food holding cabinets. There are some central based systems that send out menu information to many holding cabinets, however, they are generally equally as complicated to change.
Accordingly, there is a need to address these disadvantages of currently available systems.
A system for storing food products at heated temperatures is provided that includes a cabinet, a storage bin in the cabinet for receiving a tray, a temperature control device in thermal communication with the tray, and a controller displaying via a user interface a food product timer button that can be swiped to a side to change to a different food product timer button that is displayed on the user interface.
The system for storing food products at heated temperatures also can provide a controller that has criteria so that only similar products can be grouped in the predetermined grouping.
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In the shown embodiment, cabinet 10 is a cabinet with ten bins 12, in a five row by two wide arrangement where the two wide refers to a specific industry standard pan. Each bin 12 can have space for one or two trays 14. In the embodiment shown in
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Cabinet has a user interface 102. User interface 102 is a touch screen as is known in the art. One example of a touch screen that is used for user interface 102 is a glass-front projected capacitive touch screen display, for example, manufactured by ThreeFive Corp.
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Heater 20 is in electrical communication with a temperature control controller 107. Temperature control controller 107 has a temperature control board 108. Temperature control board 108 has a temperature control processor 108a and temperature control memory 108b. Temperature control controller 107 control the state (on/off) and optionally the amount of power supplied to heater 20 as needed, to keep any food products in tray 14 warm. Temperature control processor 108a monitors and controls the temperature of individual bins 12 with heaters 20. Temperature set points can be sent from interface processor 106a, and additional heater on-time or reduced power or reduced heater on-time can be supplied to heaters 20 as needed. Optionally, the temperature values of heated surfaces 20 can be reported from temperature control processor 108a back to interface processor 106a. Temperature could also be managed by a simple algorithm, which adjusts the percentage of time the heater is powered on and off relative to what temperature setting is set in the control. Thus, in this embodiment, interface processor 106a can be an aggregator of the data collected by the other processors including temperature control processor 108a. Interface controller 105, temperature control controller 107, and heater 20 are all in electrical communication with one another.
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To cancel first timer 606, section 504 is tapped again so that a reset screen is displayed in section 504. If finger 602 taps a reset icon, first timer 606 is stopped and product identifier 522 is displayed with the grey/ready state indicator in section 504. It is determined if another timer of the same product identifier is still active, that will then display that timer with first indicator 604 as the First Out state. If finger 602 taps a cancel icon, first timer 606 continues counting for the product identifier 522 selected with first indicator 604 displayed in section 504.
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Accordingly, a swiping touch of finger 602 can change product identifier 522 displayed in section 514 according to a predetermined order of a predetermined grouping with criteria that allows only similar products to be grouped in the predetermined grouping. Similar products, for example, are products that are held at the same temperature, in the same width tray, and with the same lid type if needed. Accordingly, user interface 102 displays each product identifier 522 of a plurality of products defined in the predetermined grouping to be held in one bin 12 so that product identifier 522 of each of the plurality of products to be held in the bin 12 is selectable via user interface 102 in one of a corresponding sections 502, 504, 506, 508, 510, 512, 514, 516, 518, 520.
User interface 102 displays on the touchscreen a screen divided into a x by y matrix of discrete sections 502, 504, 506, 508, 510, 512, 514, 516, 518, 520. Each of sections 502, 504, 506, 508, 510, 512, 514, 516, 518, 520 can be set up to manage one individual food product, for example, section “Product 6” could instead read “Bacon” for section 508, or a section, for example, section 514 can represent a group of similar products such as “Breakfast Meats” including first product identifier 806 where “Product 2” could instead read “Bacon”, second product identifier 804 where “Product 4” could instead read “Sausage”, and third product identifier 1102 where “Product 12” could instead read “Ham”. Additionally, another product identifier could be included such as “Canadian Bacon”. In general use, when the timer, for example, timer 1202, is pressed, timer 1202 begins to count down to expiration or “0:00”. However, in the case that a group of products is being used the user can swipe or arrow left or right to select from the multiple products in the group, for example, first product identifier 806, second product identifier 804, third product identifier 1102. This gives obvious, simple, intuitive flexibility to the user who can now select any product from the “Breakfast Meats” group without having to do any reprogramming. As a different item is selected, the timing, alarm, and other options for the said location will change. For instance, finger 602 tapping first product identifier 806 for “Bacon” activates timer 1202 for 30 minutes with 5 minute cook more alarm and a three beep expired alarm but finger 602 tapping second product identifier 804 for “Sausage” activates timer 1202 for 60 minutes with 10 minute cook more alarm and a 5 beep expired alarm. By swiping or arrow selecting the different products identifiers 522 within the same one of sections 502, 504, 506, 508, 510, 512, 514, 516, 518, 520, cabinet 10 can be flexible to multiple hold times, cook more times, alarm types. Cook more times allow the user to input, for example, tap the touchscreen when prompted, to extend a timer for a predetermined period of time, namely, cook more time. Selecting the different products identifiers 522 may alternatively communicate from interface controller 105 to temperature control controller 107 to increase or decrease temperature of heater 20. Accordingly, a selection of each of different product identifiers 522 within the same one of sections 502, 504, 506, 508, 510, 512, 514, 516, 518, 520, controls user interface 102 according to predetermined operations associated with the selected of product identifiers 522, for example, a type of alarm, a time period for timer 606, 706, 1202, a temperature to be communicated to temperature control controller 107, and any combination thereof.
The significant advantage of the present disclosure allows the user to select from multiple menu items, easily, within one second, without having to reprogram anything in cabinet 10. This functionality is a key advantage with customers who demand flexibility in what food products are held in their cabinet on a day-to-day basis. As an example, a store may be selling an unexpectedly high volume of sausage patties and very few bacon items. One of the bacon holding locations could easily be changed to sausage without having to do any reprogramming. This solution allows for multiple products, having similar holding attributes such as holding temperature and lid type to be grouped and selected with ease, without the need to reprogram cabinet 10. This is also a significant advantage when restaurants are changing over between different menus, such as from breakfast to lunch. As an example, a group could contain both hash browns (breakfast) and French fries (lunch) and the user would not need to change the configuration on cabinet 10.
A key process to the present disclosure is to be able to select from a plurality of food items in one of sections 502, 504, 506, 508, 510, 512, 514, 516, 518, 520 without having to do any reprogramming of interface controller 105. While we envision this in its easiest form as a swipe left or right on a touchscreen, alternative options could include left and right, or up and down arrows for the selected bin 12 where a press-and-hold method could be used. For instance, press and hold a button for a few seconds, then use the up or down arrow to select from different products.
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Method 1300 proceeds from step 1304 to step 1306. In step 1306, the matrix of the user interface is displayed on the touchscreen showing a product identifier, for example, product name, like “Bacon”, abbreviation of a product name like “BACN” to identify bacon, a picture of a bacon strip, or even and icon that looks like a cartoon piece of bacon, for each section or timer, for example, first timer 606. Method 1300 proceeds from step 1306 to step 1308. In step 1308, it is determined if a product identifier has been selected by tapping one of the sections. If no product identifier has been selected, method 1300 proceeds from step 1308 to step 1310. In step 1310, it is determined if one of the sections has been swiped. If one of the sections has not been swiped, method 1300 returns to step 1306. If one of the sections has been swiped, method 1300 proceeds from step 1310 to step 1312. In step 1312, if swipe direction is right to left, display next product identifier in predetermined order or loop back to the first product identifier in the predetermined order for that section that has been swiped, if swipe direction is left to right, show previous product identifier in predetermined order, or loop back to the last product identifier in the predetermined order for that section that has been swiped. After step 1312, method 1300 returns to step 1306.
If a product identifier has been selected, method 1300 proceeds from step 1308 to step 1314. In step 1314, it is determined if the product identifier selected for the tapped section is the same product identifier as another section that has a commenced timer. If another section does not have a commenced timer, method 1300 proceeds from step 1314 to step 1316. In step 1316, a timer, first timer 606, starts counting down from a predetermined time for the product selected and displaying in the tapped section on the touchscreen the timer and an indication of first out, first indicator 604. Method 1300 proceeds from step 1316 to step 1318.
In step 1318, it is determined if the tapped section of the product identifier selected has been tapped again. If the tapped section has been tapped again, method 1300 proceeds from step 1318 to step 1320. In step 1320, a reset screen is displayed in the tapped section. Method 1300 proceeds from step 1320 to step 1322. In step 1322, it is determined if reset has been selected. If reset has been selected, method 1300 proceeds from step 1322 to step 1324. In step 1324, the timer is stopped for the product selected and the product identifier is displayed in grey/ready state in the tapped section. Method 1300 proceeds from step 1324 to step 1326. In step 1326, it is determined if another timer of the same product identifier is still active, that will then display that timer as the First Out state. Method 1300 proceeds from step 1326 to repeat step 1306. In step 1322, if reset has not been selected, method 1300 proceeds from step 1322 to step 1328. In step 1328, the timer continues counting down from the predetermined time for the product identifier selected with the indication of first out displayed in the tapped section.
In step 1318, if the tapped section has not been tapped again, method 1300 proceeds from step 1318 to step 1328. In step 1328, the timer continues counting down from the predetermined time for the product identifier selected with the indication of first out displayed in the tapped section. Method 1300 proceeds from step 1328 to step 1330, it is determined if timer has counted down to zero. If timer has not counted down to zero, method 1300 proceeds to repeat step 1318. If timer has counted down to zero, method 1300 proceeds to from 1330 to step 1332. In step 1332, an alert is displayed including the tapped section displaying timer as red. Method 1300 proceeds to from 1332 to step 1334. In step 1334, it is determined if tapped section has been tapped again. If tapped section has not been tapped again, method 1300 proceeds to from 1334 to repeat step 1332. If tapped section has been tapped again, method 1300 proceeds to from 1334 to step 1336. In step 1336, product identifier is displayed in grey/ready state in the tapped section. Method 1300 proceeds to from 1336 to repeat step 1306.
In step 1314, if another section does have a commenced timer, method 1300 proceeds from step 1314 to step 1338. In step 1338, timer, second timer 706, is started counting down from a predetermined time for product identifier selected displaying on the touchscreen in the tapped section, section 514, the timer and an indication of not first out, second indicator 704. Method 1300 proceeds from step 1338 to step 1340. In step 1340, it is determined if the tapped section of the product selected has been tapped again. If the tapped section has been tapped again, method 1300 proceeds from step 1340 to step 1342. In step 1342, a reset screen is displayed in the tapped section. Method 1300 proceeds from step 1342 to step 1344. In step 1344, it is determined if reset has been selected. If reset has been selected, method 1300 proceeds from step 1344 to step 1346. In step 1346, the timer is stopped for the product selected and the product identifier is displayed in grey/ready state in the tapped section. Method 1300 proceeds from step 1346 to repeat step 1306.
If the tapped section has not been tapped again in step 1340, method 1300 proceeds from step 1340 to step 1350. In step 1350, it is determined if the product identifier selected of the tapped section is the same as the product identifier selected for one or more of other sections and determine if the timer for the tapped section has a value that is, older, or less than, the value of the timers of the one or more other sections. If the product identifier selected of the tapped section is the same as the product identifier selected for one or more of other sections and if the value is older, method 1300 proceeds from step 1350 to step 1352. In step 1352, timer continues to counting down from the predetermined time for product selected changing the indication to first out displayed in the tapped section. Method 1300 proceeds from step 1352 to step 1354. In step 1354, it is determined if timer has counted down to zero. If timer has not counted down to zero, method 1300 proceeds from step 1354 to repeat to step 1318. If timer has counted down to zero, method 1300 proceeds from 1354 to repeat step 1332.
In step 1350, if the product identifier selected of the tapped section is not the same as the product identifier selected for one or more of other sections or if the value is not older, method 1300 proceeds from step 1350 to step 1356. In step 1356, the timer counting down from the predetermined time for product selected is continued displaying on the touchscreen in the tapped section the timer and an indication of not first out. Method 1300 proceeds from step 1356 to step 1358. If timer has not counted down to zero, method 1300 proceeds from step 1358 to repeat to step 1340. If timer has counted down to zero, method 1300 proceeds from 1358 to repeat step 1332.
If reset has not been selected in step 1344, method 1300 proceeds from step 1344 to step 1356.
Method 1300 continues while user interface 102 is being operated.
Interface controller 105 includes user interface 102, processor 106a and memory 106b. Interface controller 105 may be implemented on a general-purpose microcomputer. User interface 102 will generally include a keyboard or a touch screen for entering user input.
Although interface controller 105 is represented herein as a standalone device, it is not limited to such, but instead can be coupled to other devices (not shown) via a network, for example, the internet.
Processor 106a is configured of logic circuitry that responds to and executes instructions.
Memory 106b stores data and instructions for controlling the operation of processor 106a to perform the functions, generate the displays and provide the display features discussed above. Memory 106b may be implemented in a random access memory (RAM), a hard drive, a read only memory (ROM), or a combination thereof. One of the components of memory 106b is a program module.
The program module contains instructions for controlling processor 106a to execute the methods described herein, for example, method 1300.
The term “module” is used herein to denote a functional operation that may be embodied either as a stand-alone component or as an integrated configuration of a plurality of sub-ordinate components. Thus, the program module may be implemented as a single module or as a plurality of modules that operate in cooperation with one another. Moreover, although the program module is described herein as being installed in memory 106b, and therefore being implemented in software, it could be implemented in any of hardware (e.g., electronic circuitry), firmware, software, or a combination thereof.
User interface 102 includes an input device, such as the touchscreen, a keyboard or speech recognition subsystem, for enabling a user to communicate information and command selections to processor 106a. User interface 102 also includes an output device such as a display or a printer. A cursor control such as the touchscreen, a mouse, track-ball, or joy stick, allows the user to manipulate a cursor on the display for communicating additional information and command selections to processor 106a.
Processor 106a outputs, to user interface 102, a result of an execution of the methods described herein. Alternatively, processor 106a could direct the output to a remote device (not shown) via network.
While the program module is indicated as already loaded into memory 106b, it may be configured on a storage medium for subsequent loading into memory 106b. The storage medium can be any conventional storage medium that stores the program module thereon in tangible form. Examples of the storage medium include a floppy disk, a compact disk, a magnetic tape, a read only memory, an optical storage media, universal serial bus (USB) flash drive, a digital versatile disc, or a zip drive. Alternatively, the storage medium can be a random access memory, or other type of electronic storage, located on a remote storage system and coupled to interface controller 105 via network.
It will be understood that the disclosure may be embodied in a computer readable non-transitory storage medium storing instructions of a computer program which when executed by a computer system results in performance of steps of the method described herein. Such storage media may include any of those mentioned in the description above.
The system and method of the present disclosure allows changing what product is to be stored and timed at a given location in the holding cabinet without a complex change involving several button presses to move into a settings or menu configuration screen which can be even more complicated and cumbersome requiring computer based applications for changing food product locations which generally require saving and uploading the new menu files back into the hot food holding cabinets. The system and method of the present disclosure allows control systems of holding cabinets to have each food product holding location programmed to accept multiple products at any point in the day, which provides flexibility to the user.
The present disclosure having been thus described with particular reference to the preferred forms thereof, it will be obvious that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/456,200, filed Feb. 8, 2017. The contents of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/456,200, filed Feb. 8, 2017, are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety
Number | Date | Country | |
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62456200 | Feb 2017 | US |