GB2414844A

GB2414844A - Nutritional advise apparatus which reads barcodes

Info

Publication number: GB2414844A
Application number: GB0412491A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Beverley Elizabeth Alexan Ward
Original assignee: HAZARD SAFETY PRODUCTS Ltd
Current assignee: HAZARD SAFETY PRODUCTS Ltd
Priority date: 2004-06-04
Filing date: 2004-06-04
Publication date: 2005-12-07
Also published as: GB0412491D0

Abstract

A handheld portable apparatus (100) that can scan barcodes of a product (114) and retrieve data concerning the product (114) from a database. Based upon one or more predetermined nutritional requirements, the product is categorised using the data retrieved into one of more than two categories, for example: low, medium and high risk foods. The resultant category can be displayed for example by means of coloured lights (LEDs).

Description

NUTRITIONAL ADVICE APPARATUS AND METHOD THEREFOR

The present invention relates to a nutritional advice apparatus of the type, for example, that is in the form of a hand-held device capable of scanning barcodes affixed to product and communicating information relating to the product to a user.

In the field of portable electronic nutritional assistants, hand-held devices having barcode scanners are known. The barcode scanner is used to scan a barcode of a product, for example a container of a foodstuff, such as a tin of beans. The barcode is translated into data identifying the product, the data being referenced in a database in : e.

order to retrieve data about the product, for example ingredients. The device then #ace cross-references the retrieved data against stored nutritional requirements in order to determine if, for example, the user of the device cannot consume one of the ingredients of the product. . . . .. #

However, the nutritional information to be communicated to the user of the device cannot always be communicated as one of two mutually exclusive possibilities, for example, acceptable or unacceptable.

Alternatively, some devices simply "read" barcodes and provide the user with large amounts of technical nutritional data about the product. However, large quantities of technical nutritional data are not easily comprehended by a lay-user, nor can a particular item of nutritional information be easily extracted from a large quantity of technical information.

One solution to relieve the user of handling large amounts of information that is unintelligible to the lay-user is to make the device determine whether the presence of one or more ingredient is too high in view of the nutritional requirements of the user possessed by the device, but again, this approach is simply reverting to providing one of two mutually exclusive results. In this respect, very few foodstuff products have nutritional parameters that fall neatly into the category of "too high" or "low enough".

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nutritional advice apparatus, comprising: an input device capable of receiving, when in use, data associated with a product having a nutritional value; an output device capable of generating information in relation to the product; and a processing unit capable of .

. accessing data corresponding to the data received by the input device, the processing .e unit being coupled to the input device and the output device; wherein the processing unit is arranged to categorise, based upon the data retrieved, the product into one of more than two categories relating to a nutritional requirement, and control the output device to communicate, when in use, the result of the categorization, thereby providing a coarse indication as to the nutritional desirability of consuming the product.

Preferably, the one of more than two categories is related to a lower threshold associated with the nutritional requirement and/or an upper threshold associated with the nutritional requirement. More preferably, the one of more than two categories is related to another lower threshold associated with another nutritional requirement and/or another upper threshold associated with the another nutritional requirement.

The nutritional requirement and/or the another nutritional requirement may be related to a human being.

Preferably, the one of the more than two categories is any one of: high, medium or low.

The one of the more than two categories may relate to degrees of risk.

Preferably, the output device is capable of emitting red, amber and green coloured light.

Preferably, the input device is a barcode scanner.

Preferably, the processing unit is capable of accessing a database comprising data relatingto the product. ë c .e

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is also provided, a . ë nutritional advice system comprising a server capable of communicating with an apparatus as set forth above in relation to the first aspect of the present invention. . .* e.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is also provided, a method of providing automated nutritional advice, the method comprising the steps of: receiving data associated with a product having a nutritional value; accessing data corresponding to the data received; categorizing, based upon the data retrieved, the product into one of more than two categories relating to a nutritional requirement; and communicating the result of the categorization, thereby providing a coarse indication as to the nutritional desirability of consuming the product.

It is thus possible to provide a useful apparatus capable of providing concise, yet useful advice regarding a product being considered for purchase by a consumer. Simple advice relating to the general "healthiness" of foodstuffs in relation to a particular dietary strategy of a consumer can therefore be provided to the consumer without controlling consumption of the foodstuffs in a strict manner, for example, through a meal plan.

At least one embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus constituting an embodiment of the invention; and Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a system employing the apparatus of Figure :- 1. . ë

Referring to Figure 1, a nutritional advice apparatus 100 comprises a Personal Digital *.

Assistant (PDA) 102 having a barcode scanner module 104 coupled to an interface 106 thereof. The PDA 102 can, of course, be replaced with any other computing device . comprising or capable of interfacing with an input device such as the barcode scanner - module 104. However, for user convenience, a handheld computing device is described in this example.

The PDA 102 comprises a processing unit 108 coupled to the barcode scanner module 104 and to a display, for example, a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) 110. The PDA 102 possesses an operating system, for example Palms OS or Windows CE in order to support applications, for example a nutritional advice application (not shown) described later herein. In this example, the PDA 102 is also coupled to a storage device, for example a microdrive (not shown), the micro-drive storing a database of nutritional data relating to a large number of foodstuff products, and a file of nutritional thresholds.

The file of nutritional thresholds comprises data relating to thresholds for a plurality of nutritional parameters, for example salt content, calorific value, or some other ingredient or nutritional value. The PDA 102 also stores a file containing data corresponding to nutritional requirements of a person, for example, a user of the apparatus 100.

The file containing the nutritional requirements of the user is generated, in this example, by a nutritional profiling application resident on the PDA 102. The nutritional profiling application asks the user a series of nutrition-related questions, and processes the answers to yield the file containing the nutritional requirements of the user.

Alternatively, the nutritional profiling application can be executed on a Personal Computer (PC) and downloaded onto the PDA 102 using, for example, a docking station (not shown) coupled to the PC (also not shown). As a further alternative, a web-based set of questions can be provided to the user, via a web browser, and the it. resulting file containing the nutritional requirements of the user communicated to the PDA 102. The nutritional requirement can relate to something as simple as a seasonal desire to lose weight by the user, for example prior to a vacation, or a festive season.

In operation, the user uses the barcode scanner module 104 to scan a barcode 112 on a container 114 for a product. The product is a foodstuff being considered for purchase by the user. However, it should be appreciated that the user can be considering purchasing the foodstuff on behalf of another person and an appropriate setting of the nutritional advice application can consequently be used. . Upon scanning the barcode 112, the barcode scanner module 104 generates an electrical signal that is received by the processing unit 108 of the PDA 102 and translated into an identification code for the product. The processing unit 108 then accesses the database stored on the micro-drive and retrieves nutritional data corresponding to the identification code corresponding to the barcode 112. Nutritional data can include, but is not limited to, nutritional values or information relating to the ingredients of the product and/or the ingredients themselves. The processing unit 108 also accesses the micro-drive to retrieve the file containing the data constituting nutritional requirements of the user, and the file containing the nutritional thresholds based upon established nutritional knowledge.

The nutritional advice application analyses the nutritional data retrieved in the light of the nutritional requirement data for the user and, using the nutritional threshold data retrieved, categorises the product into one of three categories in the following way: :. .

Firstly, the processing unit 108 identifies the thresholds from the file of nutritional thresholds that are relevant to the nutritional information and/or ingredient data . retrieved from the database relating to the product. Of course, as an alternative, instead of nutritional thresholds the micro-drive can store a file of basic nutritional *, information and the processing unit 108 can calculate the thresholds. An example of a set of thresholds relating to salt content per serving are shown in Table I below: Category Lower Threshold Upper Threshold

_

Low X, mg Y. mg Medium X2 mg Y2 mg High X3 mg Y3 mg

Table I

The processing unit 108 then determined, based upon the nutritional requirements of the user, for example a medium or low salt content diet, whether the product falls with a low, medium or high category with respect to the user. The categories relate to the suitability of the product to the user from the perspective of consumption. However, it should be appreciated that other categorization schemes can be employed, for example a scale between 1 and 10.

Of course, one parameter, namely salt content may not be the only parameter to consider when categorising the product based upon the nutritional value and/or ingredients of the product, and so the nutritional advice application comprises a suitable algorithm to take into account one or more nutritional requirement of the user, a when categorising the product into one of the three categories described above. For . example, calorific value of the product can also be important to some users and so ë..

calorific value threshold data relating to the product can also be retrieved from the file of nutritional thresholds and used is combination with the above salt content thresholds . . to determine the suitability of the product. However, it should be appreciated that any suitable nutritional calculation(s) can be implemented by the algorithm.

The nutritional requirements file can also include data relating to allergies of the user and used to override any assessment of the product in the event that the product contains allergen. Other dietary requirements can also be taken into account, such as religious dietary requirements.

The category that the processing unit 108 selects in the light of the nutritional requirements of the user are communicated to the user via the display 110, using a traffic-light scheme, i.e. a red circle 116 indicated that the product is unsuitable for consumption by the user, an amber circle 118 indicates that the product can be consumed by the user, but in moderation, and a green circle 120 indicates that the product is suitable for the user to consume. If desired, the processing unit 108 can keep track of the number of red, amber and green circles communicated to the user in relation to products that the user has chosen to purchase. In this example, the PDA 102 also displays the name of the product in order to assist the user.

Alternatively, a simplified device can be constructed comprising a simplified computing device comprising a barcode scanner and three Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs): a red LED, an amber LED and a green LED.

The PDA 102 can also be equipped with a wireless communications module (not . .- a shown), for example a cellular telecommunications data module having an antenna 111 enabling the PDA 102 to communicate with remote computers. In another embodiment e.

. (Figure 2), instead of storing the database and the nutritional threshold file on a micro drive, a remote server can store the database and the nutritional threshold file. The . .

. server 200 is connected to a communications network, for example the Internet 202. -

As the PDA 102 is wireless-capable, the PDA 102 is capable of communicating with a base station 204 supporting a cell (not shown) within which the PDA 102 is located.

The base station 204 is coupled to the Internet as well and so the PDA 102 is capable of communicating with the server 200.

When the PDA 102 needs to retrieve the nutritional threshold file, the PDA 102 downloads the file from the server 200 via the Internet 202. Similarly, when the PDA needs to query the database, a query is transmitted to the server 200 and the server transmits the results of the query back to the PDA 102.

Whilst in the above embodiments, the nutritional threshold data is stored separately to the database, the nutritional threshold data can be integrated into the database and nutritional threshold data retrieved with a query for nutritional data and/or ingredients from the database.

Alternative embodiments of the invention can be implemented as a computer program product for use with a computer system, the computer program product being, for example, a series of computer instructions stored on a tangible data recording medium, such as a diskette, CD-ROM, ROM, or fixed disk, or embodied in a computer data signal, the signal being transmitted over a tangible medium or a wireless medium, for example, microwave or infrared. The series of computer instructions can constitute all or part of the functionality described above, and can also be stored in any memory device, volatile or non-volatile, such as semiconductor, magnetic, optical or other memory device. . I. .

Claims

1. A nutritional advice apparatus, comprising: an input device capable of receiving, when in use, data associated with a product having a nutritional value; an output device capable of generating information in relation to the product; and a processing unit capable of accessing data corresponding to the data received by the input device, the processing unit being coupled to the input device and the output device; wherein A. the processing unit is arranged to categorise, based upon the data retrieved, e.

. the product into one of more than two categories relating to a nutritional requirement,

and control the output device to communicate, when in use, the result of the e . categorization, thereby providing a coarse indication as to the nutritional desirability of consuming the product. . .*..CLME:

2. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the one of more than two categories is related to a lower threshold associated with the nutritional requirement and/or an upper threshold associated with the nutritional requirement.

3. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the one of more than two categories is related to another lower threshold associated with another nutritional requirement and/or another upper threshold associated with the another nutritional requirement.

4. An apparatus as claimed in Claims 1 or Claim 2 or Claim 3, wherein the nutritional requirement and/or the another nutritional requirement are/is related to a human being.

5. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the one of the more than two categories is any one of: high, medium or low.

6. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the one of the more than two categories relate to degrees of risk.

:.'

7. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the output A. . device is capable of emitting red, amber and green coloured light. ë .

.

8. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the input device is a barcode scanner. .e . -

9. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the processing unit is capable of accessing a database comprising data relating to the product.

10. A nutritional advice system comprising: a server capable of communicating with the apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims.

11. A method of providing automated nutritional advice, the method comprising the steps of: receiving data associated with a product having a nutritional value; accessing data corresponding to the data received; categorizing, based upon the data retrieved, the product into one of more than two categories relating to a nutritional requirement; and communicating the result of the categorization, thereby providing a coarse indication as to the nutritional desirability of consuming the product.

12. A nutritional advice apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. e. . e ë . e ë : ë he -e e