Device and method for monitoring dietary intake of calories and nutrients

• US 6,283,914 B1
• Filed: 10/13/1998
• Issued: 09/04/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Jean-Pierre Kocher
• Original Assignee: Jean-Pierre Kocher
• Inventors: Kocher, Jean-Pierre A., Mansfield, Elizabeth A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Winakur, Eric F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ASTORINO, MICHAEL C
• Application Number:
  US09/170,098
• Time in Patent Office: 1,057 Days
• Field of Search: 600/300-301, 128/897-898, 128/920-921, 128/903-904, 434/127, 235/375, 705/2-3
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/025 adapted to a specific application
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/92 Computer assisted medical diagnostics
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/921 Diet management

Abstract

A portable, autonomous electronic device consisting of a barcode scanner, an updatable nutrition facts database, user memory to store product records of products eaten, and an integral readout display is disclosed that will allow a user to scan barcodes on food items consumed and keep a cumulative total of calories and other nutrients. Prepared packaged foods may have their barcodes read directly, while foods that are used in cooking or preparing other foods may be referenced by scanning from a printed generic foods barcode list provided with the device. Serving sizes can be adjusted to accurately reflect the intake of given food items. Daily cumulative totals of calories and several other nutrients can be displayed as bar graphs, and the incremental increase that would result from consuring a scanned item can be displayed with reference to what has already been consumed. Weekly calorie totals broken down by day can be displayed in order to give an estimation of how successfully the user has adhered to diet goals over a dietarily significant span of time. Barcode numbers of food items input into the device along with date and serving size consumed can be stored in user memory and downloaded to another device, for example a computer or printer, via an interface. Diet strategies can be personalized with respect to any one of or combination of several nutritional categories, such as calories, fat, etc.

Claims

1. A portable consumable intake monitor comprising:

(a) a barcode scanner for inputting product identification of a consumable intended to be consumed at the time of consumption;

(b) a mode selector for selecting between a plurality of operating modes;

(c) a parameter selector for selecting between a plurality of parameters associated with each of said plurality of operating modes;

(d) a general database memory storing a database comprising a comprehensive set of barcode-sorted consumable product information including nutrition facts and other product-specific information;

(e) a personal database memory storing a database comprising barcode-sorted consumable product information of items entered by a user;

(f) a data transfer module for transferring said barcode-sorted product information from said general database to said personal database;

(g) a user memory for storing user-input operational parameters;

(h) a processor under the control of a prestored program for retrieving data from said databases, performing computations on retrieved data and administering adjustment and storage aspects of input data; and

(i) a display for displaying product records and data derived from computations described in said program.

2. The portable monitor as in claim 1, wherein said memories are provided by removable read/writable memory cards.

3. The portable monitor as in claim 1, wherein said database memories are updatable by downloading data from an external device using a communication interface.

4. The portable monitor as in claim 2, wherein said databases can be updated by inserting new memory in which a new database is stored.

5. The portable monitor as in claim 1, wherein inputted products, their nutrition facts information and input time and date are accumulated in said user memory for long-term tracking of eating habits.

8. The portable monitor as in claim 1, wherein said plurality of operating modes consist of time/date setting mode, diet strategy setting mode, input mode, display mode, correction mode, data transfer mode, and interface mode.

9. The portable monitor as in claim 8, wherein said diet category strategy setting mode includes setting diet limits of calories, fat, carbohydrates, sodium, saturated fat, cholesterol, protein, and fiber.

10. The portable monitor as in claim 8, wherein mode selector is a six position switch wherein each position corresponds to each of said plurality of operating modes.

11. The portable monitor as in claim 1, wherein said parameter selector is a rotary input device.

12. The portable monitor as in claim 1, wherein said parameter selector is a switch.

13. The portable monitor as in claim 1, further comprising a palm-sized unitary housing containing all of the above mentioned components adapted to be transported and used in a hand of the user.

14. The portable monitor as in claim 1, further comprising a real time clock connected to said processor for maintaining date records and for delimiting 24 hour periods.

15. The portable monitor as in claim 1, further comprising a communication interface for exchanging information between said monitor and external devices.

16. The portable monitor as in claim 15, wherein said communication interface is a serial, parallel, or infrared communications interface.

17. The portable monitor as in claim 1, further comprising an alarm for alerting the user.

18. The portable monitor as in claim 17, wherein said alarm produces an auditory warning.

19. The portable monitor as in claim 1, wherein said barcode-sorted consumable product information includes brand-specific nutritional facts found on nutritional facts labels of commercial food products.

20. The portable monitor as in claim 1, wherein said product identification is a Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode.

21. The portable monitor as in claim 1, wherein said product identification is a barcode in a printed publication listing a multiplicity of food items.

6. A method for monitoring dietary intake of nutrients over defined temporal periods, comprising steps of:

(a) selecting a diet strategy based on cumulative daily totals of one or more nutrients;

(b) entering product identification by scanning a product barcode;

(c) selecting serving size to be consumed;

(d) relating barcode identification to prestored nutrition facts database, said nutrition facts database including a global barcode-sorted nutrition facts database and a personal barcode-sorted nutrition facts database;

(e) displaying the prospective increase of nutrients with comparison to the selected diet strategy limits;

(f) validating said product and serving size choice and correcting undesired products or serving sizes;

(g) performing computations on nutrient values of entered products and storing results of said computations in memory;

(h) displaying results of computations.

7. The method as in claim 6, wherein barcodes are scanned from a printed publication listing a multiplicity of food items.

22. The method as in claim 6, wherein said personal barcode-sorted nutrition facts database is automatically built from said global barcode-sorted nutrition facts database by scanning barcodes of purchased items and copying records of scanned items from global to personal barcode-sorted nutrition facts databases.

23. The method as in claim 6, wherein said nutrition facts database includes brand-specific nutritional facts found on nutritional facts labels of commercial food products.

24. The method as in claim 6, wherein said product identification is a Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode.