Meet WearSens - The Necklace That Tracks Your Nutrition

From smartwatches to fitness trackers, in this era of era of wearables, researchers from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have designed WearSens to track nutrition and food intake. Researchers at UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science are working on WearSens, a necklace-like device, an innovative wearable for nutrition monitoring system. Users can WearSens can track and improve their dietary habits, fight obesity, heart diseases, diabetes and other problems arising due to inappropriate diet. The team working on wearable has devised an algorithm that takes data from necklace as input for analysis.

WearSens-to-track-nutrition

The team comprises of Majid Sarrafzadeh, a Computer Science professor and co-director of UCLA’s Wireless Health Institute, Haik Kalantarian who worked on system design and Nabil Alshurafa director of Engineering and R&D. The team found that the system can differentiate between solids and liquids, hot and cold fluids and food items with different textures all with more than 80 percent of accuracy. They also claim that the accuracy would increase once WearSens is calibrated according to users’ intake habits.

WearSens can be used as a necklace and rests slightly above user’s sternum. It uses very sensitive in-built piezoelectric sensors to capture vibrations from action of swallowing. These vibrations or movements are then converted into voltage. The sensors are automatically activated whenever user eats or drinks. WearSens then transmits the data to smartphone app which then analyses and can advise the user accordingly. The information picked up by sensor is represented in the form of spectrogram that offers visual of vibrations. According to co-inventor and author of research paper, the device doesn’t interfere in other routine activities and is very simple.

The team is currently working on increasing the efficiency of algorithm and design of WearSens. Researchers believe that the smart wearable would be available for public later this year.

Take a look at WearSens


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Replies

  • Saandeep Sreerambatla
    Saandeep Sreerambatla
    I dont know what to say 😀

    This is quite inventive, and a great invention no doubt about it. but i dont have one good reason that this will be useful.

    But the technology behind this can be used some where in medical industry (might be).

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