METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SUGGESTING MEALS BASED ON TASTES AND PREFERENCES OF INDIVIDUAL USERS

• US 20090077007A1
• Filed: 05/09/2008
• Published: 03/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Humana Innovation Enterprises, Inc. (Humana Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Sensei, Inc.
• Inventors: Dion, Tinothy J., Schwarzberg, Robert, Zabinski, Marion, Melton, Rene
• Granted Patent: US 8,326,646 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

A system and method for generating meal suggestion messages using an expert system and then pushing those suggestions to users. Meal suggestions are tailored to users based on their tastes and preferences. Users specify preferences related to a diet plan, food preferences, meal time preferences, and meal preparation preferences. An expert system considers each user'"'"'s preferences and nutritional data to generate meal suggestion messages consistent with the user'"'"'s preferences and dietary goals. Meal suggestions are pushed to the user according to the user'"'"'s preferred time for eating each meal. The user can accept or reject the suggested meal or one or more foods within a suggested meal. For rejected meal suggestions, a meal substitution message is generated and sent. The expert system uses accepted and rejected meal suggestions to determine if certain foods or entire meals should no longer be recommended to individual users or to system users as a whole.

Claims

1. A method for providing meal suggestions to a user consistent with said user'"'"'s dietary preferences, comprising:

(a) receiving from a user personal and dietary preference data, said personal data comprising contact information and said dietary preference data comprising a diet plan selection, food preferences, meal time preferences, and meal preparation preferences for said user;

(b) accessing a database comprising dietary and nutritional data for a plurality of foods and recipes to identify foods for a meal consistent with said user'"'"'s diet plan selection, food preferences, and meal preparation preferences;

(c) generating a meal suggestion message for said user, said meal suggestion message consistent with said user'"'"'s diet plan selection, food preferences, and meal preparation preferences;

(d) determining said user'"'"'s meal time preference for eating said meal; and

(e) sending said meal suggestion message to said user using said contact information, said meal suggestion message sent according to said user'"'"'s meal time preference for eating said meal.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising (f) receiving from said user a response to said meal suggestion message.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein receiving from said user a response to said meal suggestion message comprises receiving a positive response.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein receiving from said user a response to said meal suggestion message comprises receiving a negative response.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

(g) generating a meal substitution message, said meal substitution message consistent with said user'"'"'s diet plan selection, food preferences, and meal preparation preferences; and

(h) sending said meal substitution message to said user.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said meal substitution message comprises a suggested substitution for a food item in said meal suggestion message.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein said meal substitution message comprises a suggested substitution for an entire meal in said meal suggestion message.

8. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

(g) recording said response to said meal suggestion message; and

(h) updating said food preferences for said user based on said response to said meal suggestion message.

9. A system for providing meal suggestions to users consistent with said users'"'"' dietary preferences, comprising:

a first database comprising personal and dietary preference data for a plurality of users, said personal data for said plurality of users comprising contact data for sending messages to said users and said dietary preference data comprising diet plan selections, food preferences, meal time preferences, and meal preparation preferences for each of said plurality of users;

a second database comprising dietary and nutritional data for a plurality of foods and recipes;

an expert system for analyzing dietary preference data for said plurality of users from said first database and dietary and nutritional data from said second database and for generating meal suggestion messages for each of said plurality of users based on analysis of said diet plan selections, food preferences, and meal preparation preferences for each of said plurality of users and said dietary and nutritional data; and

a server connected to said expert system for;

(a) sending said meal suggestion messages to said plurality of users, wherein said server sends said meal suggestion messages according to said meal time preferences specified by each of said plurality of users; and

(b) receiving from said plurality of users acceptance or rejection responses to said meal suggestion messages;

wherein said expert system analyzes said acceptance or rejection responses to update said food preferences for said plurality of users and generates additional meal suggestion messages for said plurality of users consistent with said updated food preferences for said plurality of users.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein said meal suggestion messages are delivered 15 minutes in advance of each of said plurality of users'"'"' preferred meal time.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein said additional meal suggestion messages are meal substitution messages.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein said meal substitution messages comprise suggested substitutions for food items in said meal suggestion messages.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein said meal substitution messages comprise suggested substitutions for entire meals in said meal suggestion messages.

14. The system of claim 11 further comprising a meal suggestions application at said server for use by said users to review a plurality of meal suggestions and to complete modifications to said meal suggestions.