Apple invention uses RFID tags, Apple Watch to track food nutrition
As Apple wades further into health industry waters with products like Apple Watch, the company on Tuesday was granted a patent for technology that would allow food vendors to embed nutritional information in device-readable RFID tags. The solution presents a unique and partially automated solution to calorie counting, one of the more laborious aspects of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Source: USPTO
Granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Apple's U.S. Patent No. 9,640,088 for "Electronic tag transmissions of custom-order nutritional information" describes a method of encoding RFID tags with details regarding one or more food items. The tags then transmit nutritional variables, such as caloric value, fat content, sugar content and more, to a waiting NFC-capable device like iPhone or Apple Watch.
Importantly, the invention allows retailers, or electronic vending machines, to assign nutritional information on a per-item basis, meaning users can mix and match foods as part of a larger order.
For example, a user might order a hamburger with extra cheese and no mayonnaise, a small order of fries and large soda. In some embodiments, the electronic vendor device is capable of combining nutritional variables for said hamburger -- bread, meat, cheese, lettuce, ketchup, mayonnaise and other condiments -- to generate an RFID tag. The process can be further refined by assigning nutritional variables to particular ingredients.
Once the tag is generated, an employee places it on a food order package or receipt, which is then read by an Apple Watch or iPhone.
Illustration from Apple's related U.S. Patent No. 9,396,369, of which the '088 patent is an extension.
With the nutritional data stored on a user device, specific metrics can be applied to a health monitoring app responsible for maintaining user-assigned variables like a daily calorie budget. In some examples, the assigned nutritional value is deducted from a daily allowance, better informing users of what they should eat at their next meal.
Going further, Apple's invention also specifies techniques of estimating whether a user consumed part or all of a particular food item. An app might poll onboard motion sensors to determine whether a user moved their arm to their mouth, for example. Alternatively, data from biometric sensors measuring a user's heart rate might indicate that they were eating.
The technology presents an ideal alternative to current app-based solutions that rely on static databases of commonly consumed foods. Some systems also estimate the nutritional value of generic meals, while others require users to input metrics manually.
Whether Apple intends to include the invention as part of a future value-added service remains unclear, though the company would have to overcome substantial hurdles to implementation. Like any new service technology, wide adoption would be a major concern for a fledgling nutritional tracking product. Restaurants, grocers and other purveyors would have to invest not only in Apple's RFID technology, but also in the maintenance of a food nutrition database, employee training and other considerations.
As it stands, the invention smacks of technology Apple might roll out for employees at its campus, perhaps at an Apple Park cafeteria or restaurant.
Apple's interest in health technology has steadily increased over the past few years. Starting with the introduction of HealthKit, then biometric hardware on Apple Watch, Apple has pushed deep into the sector and now positions Apple Watch Series 2 as a dedicated fitness wearable.
Aside from shipping products, Apple has long been rumored to market a full-fledged health-tracking device, and those whispers gathered steam last year. Moving far beyond Apple Watch's heart rate monitoring functionality, Apple is purportedly developing hardware capable of tracking changes in user blood sugar levels. Specifically, a report last month claimed the company has for the past five years been working on noninvasive glucose monitoring sensors, widely considered a "holy grail" of modern medical technology.
Apple's RFID-based food nutrition tracking system patent was first filed for in April 2015 and credits Todd Whitehurst, Zachury Minjack, Zachery Kennedy, Dennis Park, Dylan Edwards and Anton Davydov as its inventors.
Source: USPTO
Granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Apple's U.S. Patent No. 9,640,088 for "Electronic tag transmissions of custom-order nutritional information" describes a method of encoding RFID tags with details regarding one or more food items. The tags then transmit nutritional variables, such as caloric value, fat content, sugar content and more, to a waiting NFC-capable device like iPhone or Apple Watch.
Importantly, the invention allows retailers, or electronic vending machines, to assign nutritional information on a per-item basis, meaning users can mix and match foods as part of a larger order.
For example, a user might order a hamburger with extra cheese and no mayonnaise, a small order of fries and large soda. In some embodiments, the electronic vendor device is capable of combining nutritional variables for said hamburger -- bread, meat, cheese, lettuce, ketchup, mayonnaise and other condiments -- to generate an RFID tag. The process can be further refined by assigning nutritional variables to particular ingredients.
Once the tag is generated, an employee places it on a food order package or receipt, which is then read by an Apple Watch or iPhone.
Illustration from Apple's related U.S. Patent No. 9,396,369, of which the '088 patent is an extension.
With the nutritional data stored on a user device, specific metrics can be applied to a health monitoring app responsible for maintaining user-assigned variables like a daily calorie budget. In some examples, the assigned nutritional value is deducted from a daily allowance, better informing users of what they should eat at their next meal.
Going further, Apple's invention also specifies techniques of estimating whether a user consumed part or all of a particular food item. An app might poll onboard motion sensors to determine whether a user moved their arm to their mouth, for example. Alternatively, data from biometric sensors measuring a user's heart rate might indicate that they were eating.
The technology presents an ideal alternative to current app-based solutions that rely on static databases of commonly consumed foods. Some systems also estimate the nutritional value of generic meals, while others require users to input metrics manually.
Whether Apple intends to include the invention as part of a future value-added service remains unclear, though the company would have to overcome substantial hurdles to implementation. Like any new service technology, wide adoption would be a major concern for a fledgling nutritional tracking product. Restaurants, grocers and other purveyors would have to invest not only in Apple's RFID technology, but also in the maintenance of a food nutrition database, employee training and other considerations.
As it stands, the invention smacks of technology Apple might roll out for employees at its campus, perhaps at an Apple Park cafeteria or restaurant.
Apple's interest in health technology has steadily increased over the past few years. Starting with the introduction of HealthKit, then biometric hardware on Apple Watch, Apple has pushed deep into the sector and now positions Apple Watch Series 2 as a dedicated fitness wearable.
Aside from shipping products, Apple has long been rumored to market a full-fledged health-tracking device, and those whispers gathered steam last year. Moving far beyond Apple Watch's heart rate monitoring functionality, Apple is purportedly developing hardware capable of tracking changes in user blood sugar levels. Specifically, a report last month claimed the company has for the past five years been working on noninvasive glucose monitoring sensors, widely considered a "holy grail" of modern medical technology.
Apple's RFID-based food nutrition tracking system patent was first filed for in April 2015 and credits Todd Whitehurst, Zachury Minjack, Zachery Kennedy, Dennis Park, Dylan Edwards and Anton Davydov as its inventors.
Comments
And, we need to do more of this in conjunction with Apple's new(er) Research Initiative because: We have an epidemic of lifestyle (i.e., diet & exercise) related chronic diseases like: heart disease, diabetes, various cancers and dementias. And, it is estimated that 80% of our $3trillion in annual healthcare spending goes to treat those chronic diseases -- that were caused mostly by poor diets and sedentary lifestyles.
Yet, when somebody tries to research those causes, they are dismissed saying that studies based on user recall are not valid. Apple's research initiative is the single best way to overcome that argument and track lifestyle behaviors real time.
Plus us most Americans eat too much (we're a fat people) and could use the data to get a handle on
the behavior. If calories are out of sight they're out of mind, clearly. We are too fat and it's costly to our healthcare system.
As for one person buying, and another eating -- well it's unlikely any solution will cover every use case. But a very common one is a person taking a packaged item and then consuming it. If we can cover that, that's major. MyFitnessPal serves this use case but it's based on visual scanning of barcodes which are looked up in a database. This data is mostly accurate but not always. But it allows you to scan ingredients as you combine them into a recipe and then generate per-serving nutritional info, which you can even share with others. It's pretty versatile.
What happens when you go shopping? Is it going to count everything you pick up? 200,000 calorie day.
The only sensible option is to scan the unique bar code and have a database of contents for each item. It'll be easier, quicker and available as soon as they add a camera to the watch.
I try to use cash as much as possible until it is taken away by congress at the bequest of their corporate sponsors. If you are an adult you should be skilled enough to ready about nutrition and make informed decisions regarding what you eat and how much of it you eat. Here's a tip: don't eat processed foods. Avoid products with more than 3-4 ingredients, don't eat late or within 3-4 hours of going to bed. Use your brain and don't depend on your phone or watch to save you from obesity and bad health.
* Yeah, the system could be smart enough to reflect, coupons, rewards, discounts, mix-and-match margins, etc.
Then the buyer has all the info needed for tracking spending, budgeting, comparison shopping, and things like diet, nutrition analysis, etc.
A database needs to be created/maintained that contains all the info for each unique, universal bar code.
Pie in the sky, you say:
http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/18/technology/ballmer-usafacts/index.html
I think that most big sellers will resist providing these electronic, itemized receipts... But, some will see the advantage and customers will be incentivized to shop at these sellers.
Boom!
I really don't see the usefulness of this invention, especially for people like me who go to the grocery store and buy fresh foods to prepare family meals at home.
I don't think any released system would be so stupid as to think a person ate all the food they bought at the store. Solvable problems.
Don't need no QR Codes, RFID Tags...
Say, I want to set up a tete-a-tete with mon ami Jaques at the local supermarket...
This:
along with this:
gets info from the store's db that is used to print a receipt...
So, the store already has the UPC and Price for each item (among other things).
Send that digitally to the customer's iPhone -- Printed Receipt Optional -- Paperless?
iPhone or Mac App (or web browser app) scans the UPC Database giving this:
So, the infrastructure already exists at the seller:
Then, at the user's convenience, he can use the digital receipt to query the Public online UPC db for item details...
What's missing is the nutritional information in the Public online UPC db.
And...
Most sellers with UPC Scanners already have the means to communicate with your iPhone -- so software is needed at the checkout terminal and the iPhone to exchange the digital receipt and store it in iCloud.
The Public online UPC db would need to be updated to include the nutritional info for each UPC.
Then an app, like Numbers, could access the Public online UPC db and get the nutritional info -- and much more... No change needed to the Sellers' UPC db!
BooYah!
Pull yerself up by the bootstraps, yada yada. Great advice but impractical in reality. Do you use a calculator, despite knowing how to do math? Why? Oh yeah, because it's easier. Same thing.