METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING POLICY DRIVEN MEAL PLANS

• US 20080052001A1
• Filed: 08/25/2006
• Published: 02/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Watt, Stephen James, Bodin, William Kress, Masterson, Michael Lee
• Granted Patent: US 8,226,414 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/921 Diet management

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and computer usable program product for generating meal plans based on a set of nutritional policies. The process determines nutritional requirements specified by a set of nutritional policies in response to receiving a request for a set of meal plans for a set of users. The set of nutritional policies correspond to the set of users. The process identifies a set of potential meal plans in response to determining the nutritional requirements specified by the set of nutritional policies. Each potential meal plan in the set of potential meal plans satisfies all nutritional requirements for the set of nutritional policies. The process generates a listing of ingredients required by the selected meal plan that is unavailable in a current inventory in an amount required by the selected meal plan, in response to receiving a selection of a potential meal plan to form a selected meal plan.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for generating meal plans, the computer implemented method comprising:

responsive to receiving a request for a set of meal plans for a set of users, determining nutritional requirements specified by a set of nutritional policies, wherein the set of nutritional policies correspond to the set of users;

identifying a set of potential meal plans in response to determining the nutritional requirements specified by the set of nutritional policies, wherein each potential meal plan in the set of potential meal plans satisfies all nutritional requirements for the set of nutritional policies; and

responsive to receiving a selection of a potential meal plan to form a selected meal plan, generating a listing of ingredients required by the selected meal plan that is unavailable in a current inventory in an amount required by the selected meal plan.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to receiving a selection for meal plans to be prepared from a current inventory, displaying a set of suggested meal plans from the set of potential meal plans, wherein all ingredients required to prepare each suggested meal plan in the set of suggested meal plans are available in a current inventory of a set of storage units.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein a current inventory is an inventory of items available in a set of storage units, and wherein each storage unit in the set of storage units is selected from a group consisting of a refrigeration unit, a pantry, a cupboard, a set of shelves, and a cabinet.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3 wherein the current inventory is determined based on a mass data and item identifier for each item stored inside each storage unit in the set of storage units.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying the set of potential meal plans for selection by a user.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying a recipe and nutritional information associated with the selected meal plan.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 2 further comprising:

receiving a selection of a recommended meal plan to form a selected meal plan, wherein a recipe and nutritional information associated with selected meal plan is displayed.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

ordering all ingredients from the listing of ingredients required by the selected meal plan from a food delivery service provider for delivery to a user.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8 wherein the ingredients from the listing of ingredients are ordered in an amount specified by the selected meal plan.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the set of potential meals are identified from a plurality of updateable meal plans.

11. An apparatus for generating meal plans, the apparatus comprising:

a user interface;

a tag reader; and

a controller, wherein the controller further comprises;

a bus;

a storage device connected to the bus, wherein the storage device contains a computer usable program product; and

a processor unit, wherein the processor unit executes the computer usable program product to determine nutritional requirements specified by a set of nutritional policies in response to receiving a request for meal plans for a set of users, wherein the set of nutritional policies correspond to the set of users;

identify a set of potential meal plans in response to determining the nutritional requirements specified by the set of nutritional policies, wherein each potential meal plan in the set of potential meal plans satisfies all nutritional requirements for the set of nutritional policies; and

generate a listing of ingredients required by a selected meal plan that is unavailable in a current inventory in an amount required by the selected meal plan, responsive to receiving a selection of a potential meal plan to form a selected meal plan.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the in executing the computer usable program code, the processor unit further executes the computer usable program code to execute the computer usable program product to display a set of suggested meal plans from the set of potential meal plans, wherein all ingredients required to prepare each suggested meal plan in the set of suggested meal plans are available in a current inventory of a set of storage units, in response to receiving a selection for meal plans to be prepared from a current inventory.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein a current inventory is an inventory of items available in a set of storage units, and wherein each storage unit in the set of storage units is selected from a group consisting of a refrigeration unit, a pantry, a cupboard, a set of shelves, and a cabinet.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein a current inventory is determined based on a mass data and item identifier for each item stored inside each storage unit in the set of storage units.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the in executing the computer usable program code, the processor unit further executes the computer usable program code to display a recipe and nutritional information associated with the selected meal plan.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the in executing the computer usable program code, the processor unit further executes the computer usable program code to determine whether all ingredients required to prepare a selected potential meal plan are available in the amount required by the selected meal plan, wherein an ingredient required to prepare the selected meal plan that is not available in the amount required is a needed ingredient.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the in executing the computer usable program code, the processor unit further executes the computer usable program code to display all needed ingredients in a list of needed ingredients, responsive to determining that all ingredients required to prepare a selected potential meal plan are not available in the required amount of an ingredient specified by the selected potential meal plan.

18. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein in executing the computer usable program product to display the list of needed ingredients, the processor unit executes the computer usable program code to order all ingredients from the listing of ingredients required by the selected meal plan from a food service provider for delivery.

19. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code for generating meal plans, the computer program product comprising;

computer usable program code for determining nutritional requirements specified by a set of nutritional policies in response to receiving a request for meal plans for a set of users, wherein the set of nutritional policies correspond to the set of users;

computer usable program code for identifying a set of potential meal plans in response to determining the nutritional requirements specified by the set of nutritional policies, wherein each potential meal plan in the set of potential meal plans satisfies all nutritional requirements for the set of nutritional policies; and

computer usable program code for responsive to receiving a selection of a potential meal plan to form a selected meal plan, generating a listing of ingredients required by the selected meal plan that is unavailable in a current inventory in an amount required by the selected meal plan.

20. A system for generating meal plans, the system comprising:

a control unit, wherein the control unit determines nutritional requirements specified by a set of nutritional policies corresponding to a set of users, in response to receiving a request for meal plans for the set of users; and

identifies a set of potential meal plans in response to determining the nutritional requirements specified by the set of nutritional policies, wherein each potential meal plan in the set of potential meal plans satisfies all nutritional requirements for the set of nutritional policies; and

a set of mass sensor shelves, wherein the mass sensor shelves determine a current amount of each ingredient in a listing of ingredients required by a selected meal plan, in response to receiving a selection of a meal plan, and wherein the control unit generates a listing of ingredients required by the selected meal plan that is not available in the current inventory in an amount required by the selected meal plan.