Food Knowledge Graph for Easier Consumable Record Search
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing health tracking systems lack robust information about food items, limiting user interaction to basic text searching and making it cumbersome to find foods and beverages in large databases.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a food knowledge graph that stores descriptive labels and relationships between them, enabling more informative and efficient user interactions by associating consumable records with these labels, and providing enhanced search and recommendation capabilities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If a large crowdsourced database of foods and beverages is used to track food consumption, then the quantity of food records is increased, but the ease of operation deteriorates because user interaction is limited to basic text searching and it becomes cumbersome to find foods
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the food database by introducing a hierarchical classification system with multiple categories (e.g., food groups, meal types, dietary preferences). This segmentation allows users to navigate through organized categories rather than searching through the entire database, making it easier to find specific foods while maintaining the comprehensive quantity of records.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary classification layer between the user and the food records. This intermediary system uses structured categories and tags that act as mediators, translating user needs into efficient database queries and presenting results in an organized manner, thereby improving ease of operation without reducing database size.
2Device complexity
If only basic user-generated text description and nutritional content information is stored, then the device complexity is reduced, but the loss of information increases because robust information about foods is lacking
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments food information into multiple structured fields including nutritional content, dietary preferences, allergens, meal types, and descriptive attributes. This segmentation allows the system to maintain comprehensive information while organizing it in a manageable structure that doesn't excessively increase device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds another dimension to the database structure by introducing hierarchical categorization and multiple attribute dimensions beyond basic nutritional information. This allows rich food information to be stored in an organized multi-dimensional structure that remains computationally efficient and manageable.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of operating a health tracking system is disclosed. The method comprises: storing a food knowledge graph having a plurality of labels describing consumable items and a plurality of relationships between pairs of labels, some of the labels being generic names for consumable items; receiving a data record having a descriptive string regarding a consumable item from a first health tracking device; matching the descriptive string to at least one label in the plurality of labels; and updating one or more information fields of the data record to associate the data record with the at least one label to which the descriptive string was matched. In some embodiments, the method further includes receiving a request for data records from a health tracking device and matching the request to the plurality of labels to provide an improved response to the request for data records.