Nutrient Content Identification Method and Apparatus

• US 20160188563A1
• Filed: 07/22/2015
• Published: 06/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Myfitnesspal Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Under Armour Incorporated
• Inventors: Radcliffe, Paul, Berket, Karlo, Xu, Jiang, Levine, Brian, Subramaniam, Karthik, Lee, Chul, Allen, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 9,805,021 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing

Abstract

Techniques are provided for calculating nutrient content information. A server that hosts a fitness management application receives text information that describes food recipe information. The serer parses the text information to identify relevant food information. The relevant food information includes a first text portion that corresponds to food ingredient information and a second text portion that corresponds to food quantity information. The server matches the food ingredient information to the first text portion with a known food ingredient in a database of food ingredient information. The server converts the food quantity information in the second text portion to a known food quantity type. The server calculates nutrient content information of the food ingredient information using nutritional information of the known food ingredient and the known food quantity type.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at a server device that hosts a fitness management application, receiving text information that describes a food recipe;

at the server, parsing the text information to identify relevant food information including a first text portion that corresponds to food ingredient information and a second text portion that corresponds to food quantity information;

at the server, matching the food ingredient information in the first text portion with a known food ingredient in a database of food ingredient information;

at the server, converting the food quantity information in the second text portion to a known food quantity type; and

at the server, calculating nutrient content information of the food ingredient information using nutritional information of the known food ingredient and the known food quantity type.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein matching comprises matching the food ingredient information with the known food ingredient information by performing a cascading series of searches of food ingredient information in the database, wherein the cascading series includes levels of comparisons of the food ingredient information with selected possibilities of matches in the database.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising ordering results of the cascading series of searches by a confidence accuracy.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising rearranging, adding or removing the levels of comparisons depending on the food ingredient information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein converting comprises converting a measure of the food quantity information to a known unit of measure.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein converting comprises converting a measure of the food quantity information to a substitute unit of measure.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the nutrient content information to a client device;

receiving corrective instructions from the client device, wherein the corrective instructions include instructions on modifying the nutrient content information; and

modifying the nutrient content information based on the corrective instructions.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a communication unit;

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the communication unit and the memory and configured to;

receive, via the communication unit, text information that describes a food recipe;

parse the text information to identify relevant food information including a first text portion that corresponds to food ingredient information and a second text portion that corresponds to food quantity information;

match the food ingredient information in the first text portion with a known food ingredient in a database of food ingredient information;

convert the food quantity information in the second text portion to a known food quantity type; and

calculate nutrient content information of the food ingredient information using nutritional information of the known food ingredient and the known food quantity type.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to match the food ingredient information with the known food ingredient information by performing a cascading series of searches of food ingredient information in the database, wherein the cascading series includes levels of comparisons of the food ingredient information with selected possibilities of matches in the database.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to order results of the cascading series of searches by a confidence accuracy.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to rearrange, add or remove the levels of comparison depending on the food ingredient information.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to convert a measure of the food quantity information to a known unit of measure.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to convert a measure of the food quantity information to a substitute unit of measure.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to:

send, via the communication unit, the nutrient content information to a client device;

receive, via the communication unit, corrective instructions from the client device, wherein the corrective instructions include instructions on modifying the nutrient content information; and

modify the nutrient content information based on the corrective instructions.

15. A computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium having computer executable instructions and when the instructions are executed operable to:

receive text information that describes a food recipe;

parse the text information to identify relevant food information including a first text portion that corresponds to food ingredient information and a second text portion that corresponds to food quantity information;

match the food ingredient information in the first text portion with a known food ingredient in a database of food ingredient information;

convert the food quantity information in the second text portion to a known food quantity type; and

calculate nutrient content information of the food ingredient information using nutritional information of the known food ingredient and the known food quantity type.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions that are operable to match comprise instructions operable to match the food ingredient information with the known food ingredient information by performing a cascading series of searches of food ingredient information in the database, wherein the cascading series includes levels of comparisons of the food ingredient information with selected possibilities of matches in the database.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions that are operable to order results of the cascading series of searches by confidence accuracy.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions that are operable to convert comprise instructions that are operable to convert a measure of the food quantity information to a known unit of measure.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions that are operable to convert comprise instructions that are operable to convert the measure of the food quantity information to a substitute unit of measure.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions operable to:

send the nutrient content information to a client device;

receive corrective instructions from the client device, wherein the corrective instructions include instructions on modifying the nutrient content information; and

modifying the nutrient content information based on the corrective instructions.