Today we went to look at rice cookers with the intention to buy one. We saw prices ranging from 75 bucks to 1000, with a lot of models in the upper half of that range. I got into researching and discovered a heap of interesting things.
It turns out that models above 100-150 bucks use Fuzzy Logic for cooking control. I dislike realizing that there’s something in the world that I can’t explain, so I went googling about Fuzzy Logic, apparently I missed this topic in Computer Science back in the day. The idea is that it’s a rule-based system, where the rule inputs and outputs aren’t just 1/0, but states described by a float number from 0 to 1. Each manufacturer has their own know-how on which curves (or segmented lines) are used for setting the rules, what sensors provide data, and which rules are applied. The rules, for example, determine when to turn on the heat, with what intensity, and when to turn it off. Everything is covered with sensors, and data from these sensors are used in the rules. You might find this interesting too – I found a rice cooker emulator on GitHub. https://github.com/illtemperedklavier/Virtual-Rice-Cooker. A lot can be understood from the code. And here’s more material, very clear –
Overall, I figured it out. And we didn’t buy a rice cooker after all.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 