Abstract: A microwave oven includes a cooking unit for cooking a food according to a cooking program and a memory slot to which a first type of external memory and a second type of external memory are detachably attached. These memories respectively store main cooking information and sub-cooking information. Each main cooking information is related to at least one sub-cooking information.

Abstract: A microwave oven includes a cooking unit for cooking food according to a cooking program for specifying cooking procedure, a cooking control data memory for storing cooking control data for controlling cooking, a selecting device for selecting one of the cooking programs and providing it to the cooking unit in response to operation by an operator, a use frequency memory for storing frequency of selection of each cooking program, a device for grouping cooking programs into groups corresponding to their frequencies of use, and a display device for displaying information related to the number of cooking programs which belong to each of the groups. The conditions of use of the cooking programs can be known easily.

Abstract: A microwave oven has a control unit with a memory to control heat cooking process according to a cooking program for a menu name selected The control unit includes a liquid crystal display on which character data or image data are displayed as cooking information in plural display areas and a transparent electrode switch sheet in which are arranged plural transparent electrode switches. Keys of the control unit are formed by overlaying the transparent electrode switch sheet to the liquid crystal display such that each electrode switch of the overlaid transparent electrode switch sheet corresponds to the position of one of the plural display areas of the liquid crystal display. In the display area of each key is displayed the character information or image information stored as cooking information in the memory.

Abstract: A microwave oven has a build-in microcomputer and a memory for cooking information so that heating can be controlled according to a cooking program selected from the cooking information stored in the memory. Also, the microwave oven has a cooking category selector used to select a specific cooking category based on the cooking information stored in the memory, a cooking category display which displays the cooking category selected by the cooking category selector, a menu display which displays a specific number of menu names contained in the specific cooking category selected by the cooking category selector based on the cooking information stored in the memory, and a menu selector used to select a desired menu name from among the multple menu names displayed on the menu display.

Abstract: A microwave oven has a detachable function unit which is comprised of cooking information memory, two material inputting device, a cooking information retrieving device, an image display, an image switching device, a cooking program lock, and a cooking program transmitter. The function unit can select a desired cooking program among many cooking programs, thus enabling easy selection and input of a cooking program into a controlling part of the microwave oven.

Abstract: A control unit for a heating system such as a microwave oven comprises a RAM into which cooking programs of many menus are transferred from one of a plurality of available external memory modules. Data related to the cooking programs are displayed in a display window sequentially or in small units and the user can operate input keys to select a desired menu. The number of times each menu has been selected is stored and can be displayed.

Abstract: A microwave oven has an oven main body with a built-in heater unit and a remote controller which includes a bar code reader for reading a bar code of mutually related multiple data, memory for storing a plural sets of the multiple data read by the bar code reader, a display device for displaying the multiple data; a transmitting device for sending to the oven main body the data selected from the plural sets of the multiple data stored in the memory; and a control unit for data selection and transmission.

Abstract: A microwave oven including an oven main body having a heater, and a function unit removably attachable to a front portion of the main body is provided. The function unit includes an optical reader for reading cooking data, an input device for entering restriction data as to restriction requirements for cooking, a memory for storing the cooking data entered by the reader and the restriction data entered by the input device, a calculator-controller for comparing and matching the cooking data and restriction data retrieved from the memory and selecting at least one menu fulfilling the restriction requirements from the cooking data, a device for operating the heater according to the selected cooking data when the function unit is attached to the main body, and a display for presenting data when the restriction data is entered and output. By a simple procedure, the desired menu is selectable which satisfies various cooking restriction requirements contemplated by the chef.