Nutrient Content Identification via Unit Conversion
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods require users to manually retrieve and calculate nutritional contents from recipe ingredients, which can be difficult due to vague or missing quantities, especially for foods like 'one apple' or 'cooking spray', making it challenging to accurately determine nutritional information.
Innovation Solution
A fitness management system that parses text information from recipes to identify food ingredients and quantities, matches them with a database, converts units of measurement, and calculates nutrient content information, using a cascading matching system and unit substitution tables to provide accurate nutritional data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual retrieval and calculation of nutritional contents is used, then users can obtain nutritional information, but the process becomes difficult and time-consuming when ingredient quantities are vague or missing
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service by automatically parsing recipe text, identifying ingredients, matching them with database entries, and calculating nutritional content without requiring manual intervention. The computer vision system autonomously handles the entire process from image input to nutritional output.
Solution Approach 2:
A database of food ingredients and nutritional information serves as an intermediary between the recipe input and the final nutritional calculation. The system matches parsed ingredients against this database to retrieve accurate nutritional data, bridging the gap between vague recipe descriptions and precise nutritional information.
2Loss of information
If manual calculation of nutritional contents is required, then nutritional information can be obtained, but the process becomes difficult when ingredient quantities are vague or missing
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-processing and storing comprehensive food ingredient data and nutritional information in a database during system setup. This preliminary preparation enables the system to quickly match and retrieve information during actual recipe analysis without complex real-time calculations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical processes of ingredient measurement and nutritional calculation with an automated computer vision and information processing system. The system uses image recognition to identify ingredients and automated database querying to calculate nutritional content, substituting manual operations with computational processes.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods for calculating nutrient content information. In one embodiment, the methods comprise: receiving a recipe having a list of ingredients and quantities, for each of the ingredients a corresponding record is found within a database of known records, the records are associated to quantities and nutritional values. The units of measurement of the recipe ingredients and the identified record are compared. When the units are the same, no conversion is performed. When the units are different, the units of the known record are converted using a conversion factor derived from a relationship between the differing units of measurement. In one variant, the conversion factor may be identified from a table of conversion factors relating various units of measurement to one another. Finally, the converted or the known nutritional values are multiplied by a ratio of the quantity of the ingredient in the recipe to the quantity of the known record.