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A cooking device and method heats a removable vessel with heaters of a cooking capsule, which includes a separator wall between the heaters and vessel. The heaters mount to the separator wall. The capsule is fixed in a housing, which also mounts a motor that rotates the vessel. The housing tiltably

A cooking device and method heats a removable vessel with heaters of a cooking capsule, which includes a separator wall between the heaters and vessel. The heaters mount to the separator wall. The capsule is fixed in a housing, which also mounts a motor that rotates the vessel. The housing tiltably mounts on a base. Accessories can be fixed to the vessel or a lid secured to the housing, so the accessories can rotate with the vessel or remain stationary with respect to the vessel as it rotates. A locking mechanism that secures the lid to the housing prevents lid detachment when the vessel counter-rotates and an accessory is fixed to the lid. A heat sink wall reflects heat toward the vessel and fins draw heat from the heat sink wall away from the housing and out vent holes. Computer hardware and software control power to the motor and heaters.

대표청구항 ▼

1. A device for cooking and/or stirring internal contents, comprising: a vessel for containing the contents, the vessel having a center axis, a proximal end and the vessel defining a formed opening at a distal end, wherein the vessel is rotatable about its center axis;a cooking capsule capable of re

1. A device for cooking and/or stirring internal contents, comprising: a vessel for containing the contents, the vessel having a center axis, a proximal end and the vessel defining a formed opening at a distal end, wherein the vessel is rotatable about its center axis;a cooking capsule capable of receiving the vessel thereinto, wherein the cooking capsule is stationary with respect to the vessel as the vessel rotates about its center axis;wherein the cooking capsule includes one or more heater components for radiating heat toward the vessel; andwherein the device further comprises a electronic controller system configured to control application of power to a means for rotating the vessel and to the heater components, wherein the electronic controller system can control application of power for rotating the vessel about its axis independently from application of power to the heater components. 2. The device of claim 1 wherein the cooking capsule includes a separator wall between the one or more heater components. 3. The device of claim 2 wherein the heater components are attached to the separator wall that provides support for the vessel and separates the one or more heater components and the vessel. 4. The device of claim 1 wherein the cooking capsule includes a heat sink wall that surrounds the heater components and reflects heat there from toward the vessel when the vessel is located in the capsule. 5. The device of claim 2 wherein the heater components include one or more electrical heating elements disposed approximately concentrically with respect to the separator wall and approximately concentrically with respect to the center axis of the vessel when the vessel has been received into the cooking capsule. 6. The device of claim 1 further comprising: a base;a housing coupled with the cooking capsule, the housing being tiltably coupled to the base and the housing having a motor mounted thereto, the motor adapted to rotate the vessel about the center axis thereof when the vessel in the capsule and is rotatably coupled to the motor via a transmission which passes through a transmission opening of the cooking capsule, wherein the motor composes the means for rotating the vessel about its axis, wherein the housing has a retainer proximate the distal end of the vessel when the vessel has been received into the cooking capsule; wherein the device further comprises a lid having retainer tabs capable of cooperative engagement with one or more corresponding retainers to retain engagement between the lid and housing during operation of the device, and wherein the electronic controller is configured to receive a lid open signal and to cause the motor to suspend rotating the vessel about its axis if the lid open signal indicates that the lid is open. 7. The device of claim 1, wherein the vessel includes one or more stabilizer ribs that facilitate steady resting of the vessel on a flat surface outside of the device. 8. A device for cooking and/or stirring internal contents, comprising: a vessel for containing the contents, the vessel having a center axis, a proximal end and the vessel defining a formed opening at a distal end, wherein the vessel is rotatable about its center axis;a base;a housing being tiltably coupled to the base and the housing having a motor mounted thereto;a cooking capsule capable of receiving the vessel there into, wherein the cooking capsule remains stationary with respect to the vessel as the vessel rotates about its center axis, wherein the cooking capsule includes one or more heater components for radiating heat toward the vessel, wherein the capsule includes a transmission opening at a proximal end;a transmission which passes through the transmission opening;wherein the motor motivates rotation of the vessel about the center axis thereof when the vessel is located in the capsule and is rotatably coupled to the motor via the transmission andwherein the device further comprises a tilt drive mechanism coupled to the motor, which also motivates automatic tilting of the vessel. 9. The device of claim 8 wherein the vessel includes one or more stabilizer ribs and one or more transmission keys at the proximal end, wherein the transmission keys cooperate with the one or more stabilizer ribs to facilitate stability of the vessel when it rests on a flat surface. 10. The device of claim 9 wherein the transmission includes a transmission hub coupled to the motor, the transmission hub adapted to engage the one or more transmission keys to transmit torque from the motor to the vessel. 11. The device of claim 8 further comprising: a computer device having control software running thereon, the computer device being coupled to drive circuitry that provides power to the motor, the tilt drive mechanism, and supply circuitry that provides power to the heaters; anduser interface means coupled to the computer device for transferring desired cooking information to the control software such that the control software instructs the drive circuitry to operate the motor, the tilt drive mechanism, and the supply circuitry to supply power to the heaters in response to desired cooking information. 12. The device of claim 11 wherein the control software includes preset values corresponding to a variety of parameters, the present values and parameters stored in a memory of the computer device, and power to the heaters and motor is controlled according to the preset values. 13. The device of claim 11 wherein the computer device is located within the base. 14. The device of claim 11 further including a power supply mounted to the base and that is coupled to the motor drive circuitry and coupled to the supply circuitry of the one or more heaters. 15. The device of claim 14 wherein the power supply couples to household current. 16. The device of claim 14 wherein the power supply includes batteries capable of providing enough energy to operate the device for a predetermined amount of time. 17. A method for cooking food using a device for cooking and/or stifling internal contents, comprising: providing a computer server that facilitates downloading software over a communication network, the software including control instructions for configuring a computerized control of the device for automatically cooking and/or stirring the internal contents of the device, wherein the control instructions cause the computerized control to control drive circuitry of the device to operate a motor for rotating a vessel of the device about an axis of the vessel, operate a tilt mechanism for tilting the vessel with respect to a housing of the device, and operate supply circuitry that supplies power to heaters of the device that radiate heat toward the vessel within the housing; andproviding the software over the communication network in response to a user requesting the software from the server. 18. The method of claim 17 wherein the software instructions, when running on the computerized control of the device, cause operation of the rotating of the vessel, the tilting of the vessel, and supply of power to the heaters according to a recipe. 19. The method of claim 18 wherein the recipe optimizes cook times, heat, rotation and tilt of the vessel, based on capabilities of the device. 20. the method of claim 19 wherein the capabilities include size of the vessel and a heat transfer rate between the vessel and other parts of the device.