The use of technology to improve health is on the rise, and many players have turned their attention to one particular sector of this trend: the food diary.
Many people keep track of what they eat, in order to assess their intake of calories, sugars and other nutrients.
Improving an existing product
It is in this context that Microsoft has obtained a patent in the United States to enable it to use artificial intelligence to identify a dish, its components, the size of the portion and, consequently, the benefits for the person eating it, based on a photograph.
Microsoft already has a “food logging” application, and this feature could well enhance it by making it easier for users to record what they eat. As the patent specifies, it could also use geo-location to select a more specific data model. In this way, theAI could have a knowledge base specific to the restaurant in which the user is located.
A patent not limited to smartphones
In this patent, Microsoft is careful not to limit itself to smartphones, and points out that such a method could also be applied to glasses equipped with one or more cameras.
