Coded Weight Scale for Privacy Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional weight scales can be triggering for individuals with eating disorders or those who feel anxious, as they display weight values directly, and existing 'blind' scales are often expensive and unreliable.
Innovation Solution
A coded weight scale that converts weight measurements into symbols like letters, numbers, or QR codes, allowing users to share their weight without directly displaying it, using a scale with a weight sensor, electronic display, and communication methods like mobile apps or text messages to decode the symbols.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If traditional weight scales display the user's weight directly on a screen, then the weight measurement is clearly visible and accessible, but the user experiences privacy loss and psychological stress
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary coding system that translates weight measurements into non-weight identifying symbols (letters, numbers, images, or QR codes). This mediator layer preserves the actual weight data while preventing direct visual exposure, thus protecting privacy while maintaining measurement accuracy. The code acts as a buffer between the raw weight data and the user's visual perception.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies visual transformation by converting numerical weight values into different visual representations such as colored symbols, images, or QR codes. This transformation changes the visual appearance of the weight display from direct numerical values to coded symbols, maintaining information accessibility while preventing direct weight identification and reducing psychological impact.
2Loss of information
If existing blind or numberless scales are used to protect privacy, then weight privacy is improved, but the device becomes expensive and unreliable
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a reliable coding system that generates consistent, decodable symbols from weight measurements. Instead of relying on expensive specialized hardware, the system uses standard scale components combined with a software-based coding algorithm that produces reliable, reproducible code representations of weight data that can be accurately decoded later.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the weight measurement parameter into a different parameter space by converting numerical weight values into coded symbols through mathematical or algorithmic transformation. This parameter change allows the system to maintain measurement reliability while presenting the data in a privacy-protecting format that is easily generated and decoded using standard computing devices.
3Loss of information
If a coded weight scale system is implemented, then privacy and user comfort are improved, but the device complexity increases due to additional conversion and communication components
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the scale system universal by designing it to work with multiple types of devices and communication methods. The coding system can be implemented on various platforms (mobile apps, web applications, text message services) and can generate multiple types of codes (alphanumeric, images, QR codes). This multi-functionality allows the same basic scale to serve privacy-conscious users without requiring specialized proprietary hardware.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of determining a blind weight of a user with a specialized scale that includes the steps of providing a weight scale with a weight sensor operably configured to ascertain a weight of an object supported on the upper surface, convert the weight to one of a plurality of non-weight identifying electronic symbols uniquely associated with the weight and operably configured to display the non-weight identifying electronic symbol to the electronic display and measuring a user weight from the user with the weight scale, converting the user weight to the one of the plurality of non-weight identifying electronic symbols uniquely associated with the user weight, and displaying the symbol on the electronic display of the weight scale. Next, the process includes electronically communicating symbol to a secondary electronic computing device 500 for decoding.