With so many people snapping pictures of their food these days, it’s no surprise that Google decided it wants to count the calories in those photos. Just last week at a tech conference in Boston, the tech giant unwrapped plans for Im2Calories, a research project that uses deep learning algorithms to count calories in pictures of food.
How many calories are in those fries? Im2Calories will tell you.
By relying on image-processing technology, the software will be able to spot the individual items on your plate, and by analyzing the pixels, the app will create a final tally based on the nutritional information available for those dishes. In case it doesn’t properly guess what you’re eating, you’ll be able to correct it yourself, and improve the system over time. Google would also like to set this dietary tool to give you an estimate of how much energy you’ll have to burn off to shed a certain amount of calories.
Since Google just very recently filed a patent on the technology behind Im2Calories, there are no immediate release plans. Eventually this technology could become a staple feature of health apps that help balance your food and exercise habits. The good news for now is you can still post delicious images of mouth-watering desserts to Instagram without feeling guilty afterwards.
Story via Engadget.
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