Weight-Based Food Terminals for Automatic Nutrition Tracking
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
There is a lack of technology to effectively monitor and track the nutritional value of meals with minimal effort for users, particularly in food service settings like hotels, hospitals, and healthcare facilities, where customers need to manage their nutritional intake.
Innovation Solution
A nutrition tracking system utilizing weight-based food offering terminals connected to a cloud-based server, which collects and processes data on food consumption to generate individual nutritional information, allowing customers to access their dietary intake history through inquiry terminals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If manual nutrition tracking methods are used, then users can obtain nutritional information, but the effort and time required from users increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables automatic nutrition tracking without requiring user intervention. Weight-based food offering terminals automatically detect food consumption through weight changes, and the cloud-based server automatically calculates and stores nutritional information, allowing the system to serve itself rather than requiring manual user input
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical tracking methods with automated electronic systems. Weight sensors detect food consumption automatically, and cloud-based servers perform automated data processing and nutritional calculation, substituting the need for manual user effort with automated technological systems
2Measurement precision
If detailed nutrition tracking is implemented, then nutritional monitoring accuracy improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cloud-based server acts as an intermediary that handles the complex computational tasks of nutritional analysis. Instead of embedding complex nutritional databases and calculation algorithms in each terminal device, the server performs centralized processing, simplifying the terminal devices while maintaining high tracking accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The system divides the nutrition tracking function into separate modules: weight-based food offering terminals for data collection, cloud-based server for processing and analysis, and inquiry terminals for information retrieval. This segmentation allows each component to focus on a specific task, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining precision
3Productivity
If automated nutrition tracking system is deployed, then user effort is minimized, but initial setup and infrastructure requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The weight-based food offering terminals serve multiple functions: they act as both food dispensing devices and nutrition tracking data collection points. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate dedicated tracking devices, simplifying deployment infrastructure while maintaining high tracking efficiency
Data Source
AI summary
A nutrition tracking system comprises a nutrition tracking server, a plurality of weight-based food offering terminals, and one or more nutrition and meal information inquiry terminals. Multiple weight-based food offering terminals may be equipped on a food service cart. Each weight-based food offering terminal may be initialized to offer a type of food. The weight-based food offering terminal automatically measures the weight of food taken by a customer or for a customer, calculates the cost of food, and shows the weight and the cost on the display in real time. When the food is paid, the weight-based food offering terminal automatically reports the vending information to the nutrition tracking server. The nutrition tracking server maintains a database for customer meal information and a database for customer nutrition information. Customers may inquire their meal history and nutrition information using the nutrition and meal information inquiry terminals.