Patent Application
20150302160
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The present invention relates in general to the field of electronics and nutrition, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for monitoring diet and activity.
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Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with nutrition. One of the main purposes of dietary assessment is to evaluate usual food and nutrient intakes of population groups relative to dietary recommendations. The usual intake reflects the long-run average of daily intake, yet reliable estimations based on short-term dietary assessment methods continue to be an important challenge. The U.S. Department of Agriculture 5-pass method, 24-hour dietary recall is considered to be the gold standard for all dietary assessment associated with research activity. [1,2] This is a 5-step dietary interview that includes multiple passes through the 24 hours of the previous day, during which respondents receive cues to help them remember and describe foods they consumed. In large samples food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) are usually used to assess dietary intake over a specified time period due to low cost and ease of administration. [3] Furthermore due to its self-report nature, it is recognized that under-reporting of dietary intake is fairly common, particularly in individuals who are overweight, [4-7] have diabetes, [7] and are wanting to reduce their weight. [4] FFQs have been used to show significant differences in energy intake across a 12-month period in randomized conditions that received different dietary prescriptions. [8] Other research suggests that while self-reported energy intake from FFQs may contain errors, macronutrient reporting, particularly that adjusted for energy intake (i.e., percent energy from macronutrients or gram intake of macronutrients per 1000 kcal), may be less prone to reporting-error. [9] This suggests that the findings of changes in relative intake of macronutrients may be more accurate than changes in absolute energy intake. All self-report methods are challenging because people do not commonly attend to the foods they have eaten; nor remember everything consumed. They often do not know the contents of the foods eaten and cannot estimate portion sizes accurately or consistently. Additionally accuracy appears to be associated with gender and body size. [10] A long history of technological innovation in the design and development of diet assessment systems has evolved over time to address the accuracy of dietary intake assessment that can lead to improved analytical and statistical interpretations. Computers and related technology have facilitated these initiatives. Food intake computer software systems, cell phones with camera capability and voice recognition linked to food-nutrient databases, and wearable data recording devices have been designed and implemented in an attempt to meet some of the challenges of dietary assessment. Successful development of these projects will further enhance the accuracy, reduce cost, and minimize respondent burden of existing diet assessment systems. [11]
Current non-intrusive solutions for monitoring exercise activity and dietary intake include systems like Sensecam, SCiO—molecule sensors, Healbe GoBe—calorie intake measurement watch, Tellspec—chemical composition analyzer, and mobile phone apps that use the built-in camera. The Sensecam system does not record user exercise activity or vital signals. It continuously records user action and requires the user to select the image or image sequence that contains food consumed. This post-process can be time consuming and irregular based on the user. Also, privacy issues are involved due to the continuous recording of the surroundings. Fitbits, Jawbone UPs, and Nike FuelBands accounted for 97 percent of all smartphone-enabled activity trackers sold in 2013. Fitness and wellness devices such as Fitbit, only monitor exercise activity and some devices monitor heart rates. Calorie intake and expenditures are done using their software tool, which requires inordinate time for data input and is inaccurate because of user memory lapses between the times of consumption and data input. The SCiO and Tellspec systems use near infrared wavelength sensing to determine the composition of the food, but cannot determine food quantity and multi-food calorie intake. The Healbe GoBe system uses infrared techniques to measure calorie intake through the skin.
This present invention merges the missing link between the different lines of products discussed above. The present invention combines the functionality of monitoring daily exercise activity and nutritional or dietary intake using a single device. Automatic classification of food consumed and determining calorie intake is a daunting task and can be only done using expert systems. Therefore, the present invention captures the quantity of food consumed, determines the different types of food and portion of food and estimates the quantity. Food quality estimates can also be determined. The nutritional data, such as calories, will be estimated based on the automatic classification of food based on images, near infrared spectroscopy sensors, and/or audio and text inputs to augment the type of food and fat content intake. As a result, the present invention provides a device and method that enables diabetic and in general other weight watchers to monitor their exercise activities, sleep patterns, and food/calorie intake more efficiently and non-intrusively. The device can be interfaced with application software for extracting and visualizing collected data.
More specifically, the present invention provides an apparatus that includes a portable device housing, a microcontroller or processor disposed within the portable device housing, a memory disposed within the portable device housing and communicably coupled to the processor, a display and user input module disposed on the portable device housing and communicably coupled to the processor, a camera disposed on the portable device housing and communicably coupled to the processor, a near infrared spectroscopy sensor or module disposed on the portable device housing and communicably coupled to the processor, and one or more communication modules disposed on or within the portable device housing and communicably coupled to the processor. The processor is configured to capture one or more images of the one or more foods using the camera and near infrared spectroscopy data of the one or more foods using the near infrared spectroscopy module, determine a food type and a food amount for each of the one or more foods using the one or more images and near infrared spectroscopy data, perform a dietary analysis of the one or more foods based on the food type and food amount determined from the one or more images and near infrared spectroscopy data, determine the set of nutritional data for the one or more foods based on the dietary analysis, and provide the set of nutritional data for the one or more foods to the memory, the display and user input module or the one or more communication module.
In addition, the present invention provides a computerized method for providing a set of nutritional data for one or more foods that includes the steps of providing a portable device, capturing one or more images and spectroscopy data of the one or more foods using a camera and micro spectroscopy module, determining a food type and a food amount for each of the one or more foods using the one or more images and the spectroscopy data, performing a dietary analysis of the one or more foods based on the food type and food amount determined from the one or more images and spectroscopy data, determining the set of nutritional data for the one or more foods based on the dietary analysis, and providing the set of nutritional data for the one or more foods to a memory, a display and user input module or one or more communication modules. The portable device includes the memory, the display and user input module, the camera and micro spectroscopy module and one or more communication modules communicably coupled to the processor.
For a more complete understanding of the features and advantages of the present invention, reference is now made to the detailed description of the invention along with the accompanying figures and in which:
While the making and using of various embodiments of the present invention are discussed in detail below, it should be appreciated that the present invention provides many applicable inventive concepts that can be embodied in a wide variety of specific contexts. The specific embodiments discussed herein are merely illustrative of specific ways to make and use the invention and do not delimit the scope of the invention.
To facilitate the understanding of this invention, a number of terms are defined below. Terms defined herein have meanings as commonly understood by a person of ordinary skill in the areas relevant to the present invention. Terms such as “a”, “an” and “the” are not intended to refer to only a singular entity, but include the general class of which a specific example may be used for illustration. The terminology herein is used to describe specific embodiments of the invention, but their usage does not delimit the invention, except as outlined in the claims.
The device, which is similar to a wristwatch, monitors and tracks exercise activity, sleep patterns, and heart-rate using embedded electronics and is equipped with a camera and near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy sensor or module to capture dietary intake. The device can be equipped with low power Bluetooth module (BLE) for communication and a micro USB interface for battery charging and configuration purpose. An application captures nutritional information of food intake and a dietary analysis of the food captured in images from the camera and NIR spectroscopy module along with the information on exercise and sleep.
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Components and modules described herein can be communicably coupled to one another via direct, indirect, physical or wireless connections (e.g., connectors, conductors, wires, buses, interfaces, buffers, transceivers, etc.). For example, the microcontroller or processor 102 can be connected and communicate with the following components and modules through a high speed bus 118: memory 104; display and user input module 106; camera module 108; sensor(s) 114; microphone and speaker module 116; and communication module 110.
The apparatus 100 may also include one or more sensors 114 (e.g., accelerometer, a heart rate monitor, a thermometer, etc.) disposed on or within the portable device housing and communicably coupled to the processor 102 such that the processor 102 is configured to monitor one or more biological indicators of a user (e.g., an exercise activity, a sleep pattern, a stress level, a temperature, etc.) using the one or more sensors 114. The processor 102 can also be configured to analyze the one or more biological indicators and provide a result of the analysis of one or more biological indicators to the memory, the display and user input module or the one or more communication modules. In addition, the apparatus 100 may include a microphone, speaker or tone generator 116 communicably coupled to the processor 102, a global positioning module disposed within the portable device housing and communicably coupled to the processor 102, and/or a power supply recharger (e.g., recharging port connected to a battery, a battery recharger connected to a battery that recharges the battery using electromagnetic fields, motion or solar energy, etc.).
The processor 102 can also be configured to store the one or more images and spectroscopy data, store the set of nutritional data, confirm the food type and/or the food amount, request an additional information from a user, or any other desired functionality. Note that the processor 102 can be configured to transmit the one or more images and spectroscopy data to a remote device (e.g., a portable computing device, a desktop or laptop computer, a mobile phone, an electronic tablet, a server computer, etc.) for processing and analysis, and receive the set of nutritional data from the remote device. The processor 102 may also have a clock function, a timer function or both.
In addition, the apparatus may include a flash, a laser, an infrared proximity sensor disposed on the portable device housing and communicably coupled to the processor 102 or the camera 102. The display and user input module 106 may include one or more displays, one or more buttons, one or more touch screen, or a combination thereof. The one or more communication modules 110 may include a wireless communication module, an infrared communication module, a cable connector, or a combination thereof.
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One or more applications running on a computer, mobile phone, electronic tablet or other suitable device can be used to collect, store and visualize data. The application will extract data through Bluetooth communication protocol. The application will be able to collect data and configure the device. A commercial software tool will contain features to store and retrieve the hardware-captured data from the cloud. The software can include advanced image processing algorithms to identify plates and cups, and determine the size of the plate, amount of food, different types of food, size of the cups. The user will be prompted with a series of simple options to determine the calorie intake.
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Other steps may also be performed based on the configuration of the portable device, such as: monitoring one or more biological indicators of a user using the one or more sensors; analyzing the one or more biological indicators, and providing a result of the analysis of one or more biological indicators; storing the set of nutritional data; confirming the food type and/or the food amount; requesting an additional information from a user; or other desirable functionality.
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It will be understood that particular embodiments described herein are shown by way of illustration and not as limitations of the invention. The principal features of this invention can be employed in various embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, numerous equivalents to the specific procedures described herein. Such equivalents are considered to be within the scope of this invention and are covered by the claims.
All publications, patents and patent applications mentioned in the specification are indicative of the level of skill of those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains. All publications and patent applications are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.
The use of the word “a” or “an” when used in conjunction with the term “comprising” in the claims and/or the specification may mean “one,” but it is also consistent with the meaning of “one or more,” “at least one,” and “one or more than one.” The use of the term “or” in the claims is used to mean “and/or” unless explicitly indicated to refer to alternatives only or the alternatives are mutually exclusive, although the disclosure supports a definition that refers to only alternatives and “and/or.” Throughout this application, the term “about” is used to indicate that a value includes the inherent variation of error for the device, the method being employed to determine the value, or the variation that exists among the study subjects.
As used in this specification and claim(s), the words “comprising” (and any form of comprising, such as “comprise” and “comprises”), “having” (and any form of having, such as “have” and “has”), “including” (and any form of including, such as “includes” and “include”) or “containing” (and any form of containing, such as “contains” and “contain”) are inclusive or open-ended and do not exclude additional, unrecited elements or method steps.
The term “or combinations thereof” as used herein refers to all permutations and combinations of the listed items preceding the term. For example, “A, B, C, or combinations thereof” is intended to include at least one of: A, B, C, AB, AC, BC, or ABC, and if order is important in a particular context, also BA, CA, CB, CBA, BCA, ACB, BAC, or CAB. Continuing with this example, expressly included are combinations that contain repeats of one or more item or term, such as BB, AAA, AB, BBC, AAABCCCC, CBBAAA, CABABB, and so forth. The skilled artisan will understand that typically there is no limit on the number of items or terms in any combination, unless otherwise apparent from the context.
All of the compositions and/or methods disclosed and claimed herein can be made and executed without undue experimentation in light of the present disclosure. While the compositions and methods of this invention have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, it will be apparent to those of skill in the art that variations may be applied to the compositions and/or methods and in the steps or in the sequence of steps of the method described herein without departing from the concept, spirit and scope of the invention. All such similar substitutes and modifications apparent to those skilled in the art are deemed to be within the spirit, scope and concept of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
This application claims priority to and is a non-provisional patent application of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/982,165, filed Apr. 21, 2014, the contents of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61982165 | Apr 2014 | US |
