Diabetics often need to know how much of particular foods they’ve eaten. Now they don’t have to guess.
Nutrition is central to health. Imbalance causes many of today’s common diseases. These were virtually unknown during previous eras when people ate in healthier ways.
To maintain a balance, tracking intake has become common. For this, consumers use various reference sources, including phone apps.
The key parameter is usually quantity. Diabetics in particular need this information, relating to carbohydrates, to calculate the amount of insulin they must inject. Yet, quantities can be difficult to estimate. Inaccuracies lead to miscalculation and potentially severe health consequences.
The solution is to weigh everything. Although possible at home, this is difficult or impossible elsewhere.
To make things easier, the EU-funded YuScale project developed a paired portable scale and phone app that together calculate quantities. The study examined and validated the company’s business model, plus revised the prototype product according to consumer needs.
At the table
The process is simple. First the user weighs a dish, including plate, using the project’s portable scale. This is the size of a slim mobile phone, and conveniently attaches to the back of a special phone case. Using YuScale’s linked phone app, AutoNutri, the user takes two photos of the food. The app analyses them, using a point cloud, to determine the respective volumes of the meal’s constituents.
The user helps to identify the components by choosing from a database. Then they eat the meal, finally weighing the plate again. The app calculates how much was consumed and provides the nutritional breakdown of that amount. The weighing process takes about a minute and can be done discreetly.
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