[doh]

I know this is maybe completely out there, but could focused ultrasound be used to heat up food? The current issue with microwaves is that they heat up food very unevenly. I am sure the current cost is quite prohibitive and all. I'm more interested in the science part itself.

[acjohnson55]

I've got a cyclonic inverter microwave, and maybe it's all just hype, but I'm pretty sure it cooks more evenly. I also usually choose a lower power level, which helps a lot. The power level button is highly underrated.

[doh]

I am not expert, but my understanding of cyclonic inverters is that they are able to lower power output and thus achieving more even cooking. That also implies slower time. I am more interested in precision while retaining the speed. But it's something I looked into myself too.

[Kirby64]

Seems like the challenge would be heating the right places. How would you know what food to heat more or less?

Also, ultrasonic transducers today, as far as I know, require essentially direct contact to impart energy. You probably don't want to dip something into your leftovers just to heat it.

[doh]

Rather than heating food more or less, I care about equally. Couldn’t combination of thermal camera and ultrasonic transducer achieve the goal?

If they indeed need a contact with the object, then obviously that wouldn’t work. But I am not sure why the air molecules couldn’t carry it.

[cloudripper]

Impedance mismatch and attenuation. The impedance difference between air and the piezoelectric elements of the transducer is too great - this will cause soundwaves to reflect on contact (and thus never leave the element). If some transducer innovation changed that variable, then attenuation would be the next hurdle.

In general a form of couplant (water, oil, some form of gel, etc) is necessary to eliminate air between the transducer and a material in order for soundwaves to pass.

[doh]

Thanks for the context. That seems to invalidate the idea.

[chris_va]

Solid state microwave ovens (that avoid standing waves/dead zones) do exist, they are just very expensive.

Dumping kWs of ultrasound into food would be a bit tricky.

[doh]

Thanks for putting me on this topic. Will do much more research.

[serf]

it feels like (as an uneducated outsider) that a microwave could use some kind of spatial awareness (lidar/sonar/whatever) along with beam-forming and array style transmitters to evenly cook something while sampling temperatures remotely.

the size/shape/cost/performance of such a device is left as an exercise to those better suited to execute that kind of artistry than I am.

[doh]

I keep thinking about this topic for a couple of years now (hence my question). I wonder if combination of new technology could be made into much more useful microwave, even if the cost was not suitable for personal use (at least initially).

The dream is a microwave with "single button" (start/stop) and a temperature scale (lukewarm, warm, hot, boiling) that consistently heats up food correctly and doing so within very short period of time (below 3 min).

[macgyverismo]

There is work done one this. search for: software defined microwave (SDC)

[doh]

Super cool. Thanks for the suggestion found this [0] but there appears to be more out there.

[0] https://www.hcii.cmu.edu/news/software-defined-cooking-using...

[sneak]

I think an air fryer or toaster oven solves 80% of your problem using off the shelf tools.

[doh]

The issue is time. They absolutely work better than microwaves, but microwaves are popular precisely because they are just much faster.

[mensetmanusman]

Does slapping a chicken count?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LHFhnnTWMgI