Food intake controlling devices and methods

• US 9,881,518 B2
• Filed: 11/19/2014
• Issued: 01/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Inventors: Kuwahara, Noriaki, Miyasato, Tsutomu, Kadobayashi, Rieko, Nakayama, Koichi, Mitsunaga, Noriaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Yip, Jack
• Application Number:
  US14/547,703
• Publication Number:
  US 20160140869A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,168 Days
• Field of Search: 434127, 600301, 382110, 705 15
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/02 Food
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/68 Food, e.g. fruit or vegetables
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0092 Nutrition
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/00 Electrically-operated educational appliances working with questions and answers G09B7/00; simulators G09B9/00; advertising or displaying in general G09F
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/00 ICT specially adapted for therapies or health-improving plans, e.g. for handling prescriptions, for steering therapy or for monitoring patient compliance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets

Abstract

Technologies are generally described for controlling food intake. Example devices/systems described herein may include an image sensor, a dietary information identifier, a dietary management unit, and an image display unit. The image sensor may capture an image of a dish or a menu. The dietary information identifier may identify the dish or menu from the image and provide meal dietary information based on the identified dish or menu. The dietary management unit may store personal dietary information and determine combined dietary information based on the personal dietary information and the meal dietary information. The image display unit may process the captured image based on the combined dietary information in such a manner that a part of the captured image is hidden on an image display unit or a part of color or text information of the captured image is changed on the image display unit.

Claims

1. A food intake controlling device comprising:

an image sensor configured to capture a captured image of at least one of a dish or a menu;

a global positioning system (GPS) sensor configured to detect a location of the food intake controlling device;

a dietary information identifier configured to;

identify the at least one of the dish or the menu from the captured image based on the location of the food intake controlling device, and

provide meal dietary information based on the identified at least one of the dish or the menu,

wherein the meal dietary information includes a meal calorie value;

a dietary management unit configured to store personal dietary information, wherein the personal dietary information includes a previously consumed calorie value and to determine combined dietary information based on the personal dietary information and the meal dietary information,

wherein the dietary management unit is further configured to determine a combined calorie value of the combined dietary information by adding the meal calorie value to the previously consumed calorie value; and

an image display unit configured to;

determine whether the combined calorie value of the combined dietary information exceeds a parameter allowance value,

process the captured image to display a processed image based on the combined calorie value by processing the captured image such that at least a part of the captured image becomes less visible on the image display unit based on a determination that the combined calorie value exceeds the parameter allowance value, and

project an augmented future physical appearance of a user when the user continues to consume the dish from the less visible part of the processed image.

2. The device of claim 1, further comprising an accelerometer configured to detect at least one of an arm movement or a head movement,

wherein the dietary information identifier is further configured to identify the at least one of the dish or the menu from the captured image based on the detected at least one of the arm movement or the head movement.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the dietary information identifier is further configured to identify the at least one of the dish or the menu from the captured image based on color or text information of the captured image.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the image display unit is further configured to, when the combined calorie value of the combined dietary information exceeds the parameter allowance value, process the captured image such that at least the part of the captured image is hidden on the image display unit.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the image display unit is further configured to, when the combined calorie value of the combined dietary information exceeds the parameter allowance value, process the captured image such that at least part of color or text information of the captured image is changed on the image display unit.

6. The device of claim 1,

wherein the dietary management unit is further configured to update the previously consumed calorie value based on an activity calorie value.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the dietary management unit is configured to receive an activity signal from an activity sensor, and to determine the activity calorie value from the activity signal.

8. The device of claim 6, wherein the image display unit is further configured to, when the combined calorie value of the combined dietary information exceeds the parameter allowance value, process the captured image such that at least a hidden part of the captured image is reconstructed on the image display unit based on the activity calorie value.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the device is at least one of smartglasses, a tablet computer, or a smartphone.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the dietary information identifier is further configured to transmit, to an external cloud server, the identified at least one of the dish or the menu;

and receive, from the external cloud server, the meal dietary information that is generated based on the identified at least one of the dish or the menu.

11. A method to control food intake under control of a device, the method comprising:

capturing, by an image sensor, a captured image of at least one of a dish or a menu;

detecting, by a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, a location of the device;

identifying the at least one of the dish or the menu from the captured image based on the detected location of the device;

generating meal dietary information based on the identified at least one of the dish or the menu in the captured image;

determining, combined dietary information based on the meal dietary information and personal dietary information related to previous meals,

wherein the meal dietary information includes a meal calorie value and the personal dietary information includes a previously consumed calorie value, and

wherein the determination of the combined dietary information comprises determining a combined calorie value by adding the previously consumed calorie value to the meal calorie value;

determining whether the combined calorie value of the combined dietary information exceeds a parameter allowance value; and

processing, by an image display unit, the captured image to display a processed image based on the combined calorie value such that at least a part of the captured image becomes less visible on the image display unit based on the determination that the combined calorie value exceeds the parameter allowance value, and

projecting, by the image display unit, an augmented future physical appearance of a user when the user continues to consume the dish from the less visible part of the processed image.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

detecting, by an accelerometer, at least one of an arm movement or a head movement, wherein identifying the at least one of the dish or the menu comprises identifying the at least one of the dish or the menu from the captured image based on the detected at least one of the arm movement or the head movement.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein identifying the at least one of the dish or the menu comprises identifying the at least one of the dish or the menu from the captured image based on color or text information of the captured image.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein processing the image comprises, when the combined calorie value of the combined dietary information exceeds the parameter allowance value, processing the captured image by the image display unit such that at least the part of the captured image is hidden on the image display unit.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein processing the image comprises, when the combined calorie value of the combined dietary information exceeds the parameter allowance value, processing the captured image by the image display unit such that at least part of color or text of the captured image is changed on the image display unit.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

updating the personal calorie value based on an activity calorie value that is determined based on an activity signal received from an activity sensor.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein processing the image comprises, when the combined calorie value of the combined dietary information exceeds the parameter allowance value, further processing the captured image by the image display unit such that at least a hidden part of the captured image is reconstructed on the image display unit based on the activity calorie value.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

transmitting the at least one of the dish or the menu to an external cloud server; and

receiving, from the external cloud server, the meal dietary information that is generated based on the at least one of the dish or the menu.