FOOD DESCRIPTION PROCESSING METHODS AND APPARATUSES

• US 20160071431A1
• Filed: 09/08/2014
• Published: 03/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Myfitnesspal Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Myfitnesspal Incorporated
• Inventors: Jain, Aadhar, Lee, Chul, Levine, Bryan
• Granted Patent: US 10,559,223 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0092 Nutrition

Abstract

Disclosed embodiments include apparatuses, methods and storage media associated with standardization or normalization of a food description. In embodiments, an apparatus may include one or more processors and a food data pre-processing engine. The food data processing engine may, when operated by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to receive a description of a food item, process the description to generate a standardized or normalized description for the food item, and store the standardized or normalized description in a food record in a food data storage arrangement of a fitness management system. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a food data pre-processing engine, which, when operated by the one or more processors, causes the system to;

receive a description of a food item;

process the description to generate a standardized or normalized description for the food item; and

store the standardized or normalized description in a food record in a food data storage arrangement of a fitness management system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein to process comprises one or more of the group consisting of:

removal of punctuation from the description;

removal of usernames from the description;

removal of a country name from a food name contained within the description;

or

standardize capitalization of the description.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the pre-processing engine, when operated by the one or more processors, further causes the system to:

extract a brand name from the description;

process the brand name to generate a standardized and normalized brand name; and

store the standardized and normalized brand name in a brand name field of the food record.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein to process the extracted brand name further causes the system to:

remove special characters from the brand name to generate a standardized brand name; and

identify a normalized brand name, from a list of normalized brand names, that is above a predefined threshold of similarity to the standardized brand name as the standardized and normalized brand name.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the pre-processing engine is further to replace the extracted brand name with a descriptive name associated with the brand name.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the description includes nutritional information associated with the food item.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein food includes beverage.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the description of the food item is a crowd-sourced description of the food item.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises the food data storage arrangement.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the food data storage arrangement comprises a cloud data storage arrangement.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein to store the standardized or normalized description comprises:

determine whether a duplicate food record exists in the food data storage arrangement; and

store the standardized or normalized description is based on a result of the determine.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein to store the standardized or normalized description comprises:

determine whether the description of the food item is above a threshold of similarity to an existing food record; and

merge the standardized or normalized description with the existing food record based on a result of the determination.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein to store the standardized or normalized description comprises:

determine whether the description of the food item is above a threshold of similarity to an existing food record; and

save the standardized or normalized description as a new food record based on a result of the determination.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein to store the standardized or normalized description comprises:

determine whether the description of the food item is above a threshold of similarity to an existing food record; and

add the standardized or normalized description as a new food record to a cluster associated with the existing food record.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein to add the standardized or normalized description as a new food record to a cluster comprises:

determine a score associated with the standardized or normalized description;

save the standardized or normalized description as a new food record of the cluster; and

designate the new food record as a new candidate record of the cluster based on a result of the determination.

16. A method comprising:

receiving, by a food data pre-processing engine of a fitness management system, a description of a food item;

processing, by the food data pre-processing engine, the description to generate a standardized or normalized description for the food item; and

storing, by the food data pre-processing engine, the standardized or normalized description in a food record in a food data storage arrangement of the fitness management system.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein to process comprises one or more of:

removing punctuation from the description;

removing usernames from the description;

removing a country name from a food name contained within the description;

or

standardizing capitalization of the description.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

extracting, by the pre-processing engine, a brand name from the description;

processing, by the pre-processing engine, the brand name to generate a standardized and normalized brand name; and

storing, by the preprocessing engine, the standardized and normalized brand name in a brand name field of the food record.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

removing, by the pre-processing engine, special characters from the brand name to generate a standardize brand name; and

identifying, by the pre-processing engine, a normalized brand name, from a list of normalized brand names, that is above a predefined threshold of similarity to the standardized brand name as the standardized and normalized brand name.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the description includes nutritional information associated with the food item.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein food includes beverage, and wherein the description of the food item is a crowd-sourced description of the food item.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein storing the standardized or normalized description further includes determining, by the pre-processing engine, whether a duplicate food record exists in the food data storage arrangement and storing the standardized or normalized description is based on a result of the determining.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein storing the standardized or normalized description further includes determining whether the description of the food item is above a threshold of similarity to an existing food record and either merging the standardized or normalized description with the existing food record or saving the standardized or normalized description as a new food record based on a result of the determining.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein storing the standardized or normalized description comprises:

determining whether the description of the food item is above a threshold of similarity to an existing food record; and

adding the standardized or normalized description as a new food record to a cluster associated with the existing food record.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein adding the standardized or normalized description as a new food record to a cluster comprises:

determining a score associated with the standardized or normalized description;

saving the standardized or normalized description as a new food record of the cluster; and

designating the new food record as a new candidate record of the cluster based on the score.

26. One or more computer-readable storage media having instructions embodied thereon, which, when executed by a processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:

receive a description of a food item;

process the description to generate a standardized or normalized description for the food item; and

store the standardized or normalized description in a food record in a food data storage arrangement of a fitness management system.

27. The computer-readable storage media of claim 26, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the computing device to:

remove punctuation from the description;

remove usernames from the description;

remove a country name from a food name contained within the description;

or

standardize capitalization of the description.

28. The computer-readable storage media of claim 26, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the computing device to:

extract a brand name from the description;

process the brand name to generate a standardized and normalized brand name; and

store the standardized and normalized brand name in a brand name field of the food record.

29. The computer-readable storage media of claim 28, wherein the instruction, when executed by the processor, further cause the computing device to:

remove special characters from the brand name to generate a standardize brand name; and

identify a normalized brand name, from a list of normalized brand names, that is above a predefined threshold of similarity to the standardized brand name as the standardized and normalized brand name.

30. The computer-readable storage media of claim 26, wherein the description includes nutritional information associated with the food item.

31. The computer-readable storage media of claim 26, wherein food includes beverage, and wherein the description of the food item is a crowd-sourced description of the food item.

32. The computer-readable storage media of claim 26, wherein the instructions that cause the computing device to store the standardized or normalized description further cause the computing device to determine whether a duplicate food record exists in the food data storage arrangement and to store the standardized or normalized description is based on a result of the determination.

33. The computer-readable storage media of claim 26, wherein the instructions that cause the computing device to store the standardized or normalized description further cause the computing device to determine whether the description of the food item is above a threshold of similarity to an existing food record and to either merge the standardized or normalized description with the existing food record or save the standardized or normalized description as a new food record based on a result of the determination.

34. The computer-readable storage media of claim 26, wherein the instructions that cause the computing device to store the standardized or normalized description further cause the computing device to determine whether the description of the food item is above a threshold of similarity to an existing food record;

and add the standardized or normalized description as a new food record to a cluster associated with the existing food record.

35. The computer-readable storage media of claim 34, wherein the instructions that cause the computing device to add the standardized or normalized description as a new food record further cause the computing device to determine a score associated with the standardized or normalized description;

save the standardized or normalized description as a new food record of the cluster; and

designate the new food record as a new candidate record of the cluster based on a result of the determination.