kitchen of the future

[gusl]

Someone was recently telling me about a vision system that can read barcodes (was it you, gfish?)

It would be neat to make a website where users can scan their food, and add nutritional information. When you throw it in the garbage, it automatically marks it as "eaten" on your medical record. (I live alone, and I eat almost 100% of what I buy...)

This wouldn't capture all the information, of course. That would require vision systems that can see your entire house... and wouldn't record the food that you eat outside the house. The definitive solution would be to implant a wireless sensor into your stomach... except that this would need to work based on chemical sensing (I don't imagine a camera could distinguish foods well enough, even if it had a flash^*).

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^{* - food-powered, of course}

Comments

[afanesvoltaje.livejournal.com]

I've seen discussions of at least a prototype for something sort of like this - I can't remember how real a product it actually is at this point. But, it's being worked on... (the angle was that you scan everything as it comes in and out and it's the basis for a meal planning system for a busy family, reminding you what's been used up that you need to replace vs what you don't need to grab for that recipe because it's already at home)

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Sure, there are systems for that. There are special 2D barcodes designed to be read by cellphone cameras, even. Printing in ads to take you to the product's website, etc. Popular in Japan, I believe.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

There's an RI grad student out here working on diabetes management, who's been working on a cell phone app that has you take a picture of your meal before you eat it and then tag stuff. That seems like a good direction, too, particularly for those of us in multiperson households who don't eat everything that goes in the trash. :-)