NUTRITIONAL INTAKE TRACKER

• US 20080296380A1
• Filed: 05/29/2007
• Published: 12/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Karkanias, Chris Demetrios, Hodges, Stephen Edward
• Application Number:
  US11/754,543
• Publication Number:
  US 20080296380A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/462.01
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0092 Nutrition
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets

Abstract

A system that facilitates tracking of nutritional intake by an individual is disclosed. The innovation employs the notion of establishing a strategy to compress nutritional information into an identifying indicia (e.g., two-dimensional barcode) that can be processed (e.g., scanned) by a wide array of devices (e.g., mobile phone, personal data assistant). In operation, the ability to inject this information into a health strategies system enhances the usability while minimizing the effort needed to capture information into the system.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates tracking of nutritional information, comprising:

an indicia management component that incorporates nutritional information into an identifying indicia; and

a communication component that conveys the nutritional information to a target.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the identifying indicia is one of a one-dimensional (linear) or two-dimensional barcode.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising an information aggregation component that gathers nutritional information, wherein the nutritional information represents a plurality of items consumed during an event.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising an indicia selection component that chooses a type of the identifying indicia from a plurality of available indicia types.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the indicia selection component chooses the type as a function of one of user or device context or capability.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising an indicia generation component that establishes the identifying indicia that makes the nutritional information available to the target.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising an indicia analysis component that evaluates the identifying indicia and determines an effective method of rendering the identifying indicia.

8. The system of claim 6, further comprising a rendering component that delivers the identifying indicia to the target.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising a protocol selection component that chooses a protocol type by which to deliver the identifying indicia.

10. The system of claim 8, the protocol type is at least one of instant message, email, short message service (SMS), Bluetooth transfer, peer-to-peer or infrared transfer.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a nutritional information access component that employs an indicia processing component that obtains the nutritional information by way of the identifying indicia.

12. The system of claim 11, the indicia processing component is at least one of a scanner, radio frequency information tag reader, magnetic card reader, or browser.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising an information access component that enables access to supplemental nutritional information based at least in part upon context of the processed identifying indicia.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising a log framework component that formats, categorizes and maintains the nutritional information.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a machine learning and reasoning component that employs at least one of a probabilistic and a statistical-based analysis that infers an action that a user desires to be automatically performed.

16. A computer-implemented method of tracking nutritional information, comprising:

gathering nutritional information related to an event;

incorporating the nutritional information into an identifier; and

communicating the identifier to a user upon completion of the event.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising determining the nutritional information by way of analyzing the identifier.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, further comprising scanning the identifier to access the nutritional information, wherein the identifier is a barcode.

19. A computer-executable system comprising:

means for analyzing an identifying indicia that represents nutritional information related to a plurality of foodstuff items consumed during an event; and

means for extracting the nutritional information from the identifying indicia.

20. The computer-executable system of claim 19, further comprising:

means for gathering the nutritional information;

means for incorporating the nutritional information into the identifying indicia; and

means for transferring the identifying indicia to a user.