MICROWAVE OVEN THAT RECOGNIZES POSITION OF FOOD ITEM WITHIN CAVITY FOR COOKING AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE SAME

A microwave oven (10) includes a controller (66) in communication with an infrared sensor (60) and a human-machine interface (52), the controller (66) configured: (i) to determine a temperature at each position (50n) of a cavity (12) as a function of the output of each pixel (62n) of the infrared sensor (60); (ii) to recognize a rise and fall in the temperature at one or more positions (50a, 50b, ... 50n) within the cavity (12); (iii) to estimate the position (50n) or positions (50a, 50b, ... 50n) within the cavity (12) that a food item (34) occupies as a function of the one or more positions (50a, 50b, ... 50n) within the cavity (12) where the controller (66) recognized the rise and fall in temperature occurred; and (iv) to determine whether the position (50n) or positions (50a, 50b, ... 50n) that the food item (34) is estimated to occupy is adequate for the controller (66) to determine accurately a temperature of the food item (34) during an automatic heating operation that utilizes the infrared sensor (60).