Meal finder

• US 20080147611A1
• Filed: 12/15/2006
• Published: 06/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Oath Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bennett, Jeffery
• Application Number:
  US11/640,069
• Publication Number:
  US 20080147611A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce

Abstract

Method and system for searching for a meal using the Internet are disclosed. The method includes receiving a user request to search a meal on the Internet, presenting one or more pictures of food dishes to the user, where each picture of a food dish is associated with metadata describing characteristics of the food dish, receiving a user selection, analyzing the user selection according to the characteristics of each food dish presented, and providing additional information to the user according to the user selection.

Claims

1. A method for searching for a meal using the Internet, comprising:

receiving a user request to search a meal on the Internet;

presenting one or more pictures of food dishes to the user, wherein each picture of a food dish is associated with metadata describing characteristics of the food dish;

receiving a user selection;

analyzing the user selection according to the characteristics of each food dish presented; and

providing additional information to the user according to the user selection.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each food dish represents a category of food dishes.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristics of each food dish comprises at least one of the following characteristics:

saltiness, sourness, sweetness, bitterness, savoriness, spiciness, astringency, leanness fattiness, tingly numbness, hotness, and coldness.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristics of each food dish further comprises at least one of the following information:

composition of carbohydrate, protein, and fat;

composition of vitamins; and

composition of minerals.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing comprises:

analyzing characteristics of one or more food dishes that are selected by the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing further comprises:

analyzing characteristics of previously presented food dishes that are not selected by the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing comprises:

recommending one or more food items to complement the user selection.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing further comprises:

presenting one or more alternative food dishes based on the user selection.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing further comprises at least one of the following items:

linking the user to restaurants;

linking the user to recipe descriptions; and

linking the user to food markets.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

presenting updated pictures of food dishes to the user in response to a first request for additional pictures of food dishes; and

presenting previously presented pictures of food dishes to the user in response to a second request for previously presented pictures of food dishes.

11. A computer program product for searching for a meal using the Internet, comprising a medium storing executable program code, the computer program product comprising:

code for receiving a user request to search a meal on the Internet;

code for presenting one or more pictures of food dishes to the user, wherein each picture of a food dish is associated with metadata describing characteristics of the food dish;

code for receiving a user selection;

code for analyzing the user selection according to the characteristics of each food dish presented; and

code for providing additional information to the user according to the user selection.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein each food dish represents a category of food dishes.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the characteristics of each food dish comprises at least one of the following characteristics:

saltiness, sourness, sweetness, bitterness, savoriness, spiciness, astringency, leanness fattiness, tingly numbness, hotness, and coldness.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the characteristics of each food dish further comprises at least one of the following information:

composition of carbohydrate, protein, and fat;

composition of vitamins; and

composition of minerals.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the code for analyzing comprises:

code for analyzing characteristics of one or more food dishes that are selected by the user.

16. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the code for analyzing further comprises:

code for analyzing characteristics of previously presented food dishes that are not selected by the user.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the code for providing comprises:

code for recommending one or more food items to complement the user selection.

18. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the code for providing further comprises:

code for presenting one or more alternative food dishes based on the user selection.

19. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the code for providing further comprises at least one of the following items:

code for linking the user to restaurants;

code for linking the user to recipe descriptions; and

code for linking the user to food markets.

20. The computer program product of claim 11 further comprising:

code for presenting updated pictures of food dishes to the user in response to a first request for additional pictures of food dishes; and

code for presenting previously presented pictures of food dishes to the user in response to a second request for previously presented pictures of food dishes.