Screen Cuisine: New App To Count Calories Via Food Photos

If you're like most of the cyber-connected world, chances are that you've photographed and shared an image of some interesting food at one point or another.  Don't worry, it's normal, especially when you encounter a turducken in the wild.  Now, a new app may be able to not only show off your culinary crusades, but also inform you of just how many calories that triple-decker bacon cake contains...

"According to Im2Calories, you should probably only eat the letter 'A' today."  -your phone, soon.
(Image courtesy negharfonooni.com.)

According to mashable.com, the ever-ingenious Google is working on an app that can assess images for the caloric content contained.  The project, which was introduced at Boston's Rework Deep Learning Summit last week, is called "Im2Calories."

As stated in a report by Popular Science, the app "marries visual analysis — in this case, determining the depth of each pixel in an image — with pattern recognition" to achieve its weight-watching wonders.  The algorithms are likely to improve over time, using "deep learning" AI to develop more accuracy in the calorie counting.

No word on if Im2Calories will have "trainer" mode to demand that you eat vegetables.
(Image courtesy splendidtable.com.)

Until the algorithms are more exact, the Im2Calories idea is just just an experiment, albeit one with patents attached.  The data gleaned from users of the app could enable "population-level" feedback on dietary habits, which researchers could then analyze by various demographic factors to determine trends and assess public health issues.

So next time you take a picture of a perfect pie, or a resplendent rack of ribs, just remember that soon enough, technology might come along to fat-shame you.  However, considering that a third of America is already obese, that tech might show up just in time to turn some lives around.

Because if you don't track the snacks, you can't attack the snacks.
 Im2Calories could raise awareness of over-fattening foods everywhere.
(Image courtesy shutterstock.com.)