Universal Calorie Counter
The tech market has been flooded with activity trackers and apps that
allow you to account for your daily food intake. However, with all of
this new technology, you still have to log in what and how much you eat,
in order to get an accurate estimate of calorie consumption. There is
nothing on the market that can automatically give you a calorie estimate
of a meal. However, researchers from GE may give you that product
sooner than you think.
Matt Webster, a senior scientist at GE’s labs in New York, along with a team of GE researchers set out to create a device that could automatically determine the caloric intake of any sort of meal you place inside. He started by sorting through a food database that holds the nutritional information for 6,500 foods.
GE Calorie Counter
From there, came what I assume to be black magic–or a combination of a few equations and advanced electronics and sensors. In the simplest terms, Webster developed an equation that can estimate calories in food with just three measurements: weight, fat content and water content. Now they’re developing a device that will shoot microwaves through food to determine those measurements (microwaves can detect fat and water, because the two interact with microwaves differently) and thus have the ability to determine calorie content.
Webster believes that they’re close to developing this device, and he thinks it will be able to connect with your devices so that you may one day be able to get an automatic caloric intake estimate. Check out the video below for more on this innovation and keep your eye out for a Universal Calorie Counter in the near future.
Source: GE
