RAPID IR TOASTER
I designed a control system for this patent-pending Rapid IR Toaster, that uses a camera to determine the toasting-level of bread and automatically eject it at the user’s designated level of doneness.
US Patent Number: US20230117879A1
Working with a team at mHUB, I designed a prototype control system from a client concept, and wrote image analysis firmware for the two cameras.
This project had some interesting challenges in image acquisition, the conditions of a toaster are subpar for cameras both from heat and the infrared lighting from heating elements.
Here’s an early testing rig, basically just a camera pointing into a standard toaster to see what we can capture
After plenty of testing and prototyping, we created a working rig. To reduce the effect of heat on the cameras, we used heat shields that would block the camera when not acquiring images.
Ring lights were installed to keep the image consistent, and folding shutters on the toaster also helped reduce any heat loss during the toasting process.