App allows user to count calories by simply taking a photo
With the ever growing pictures of meals and food on social media, Google has decided to create an app that allows users to count the calories of their food by simply taking a photo. Im2Calories and was announced at Rework Deep Learning Summit in Boston by Google research scientist Kevin Murphy. The app uses deep learning algorithms to count calories in pictures of food.
The programme analyses the pixels to determine the nutritional information in the food and relies on image-processing technology to discover the items in the photo. For improvement, the app allows the user to correct it. Google are also looking into a dietary tool to give users an estimate of how much energy they need to burn off to get rid of the calories.
The programme does not only analyse what food is on the plate but how much, determining a more accurate calorie count. The app is currently in development.