Google to count calories from pictures of food
It is undeniable that artificial intelligence (AI) has become an important part of the billion dollar company-Google. As a matter of fact robotics, delivery drones, driverless cars and big data have become so popular that AI is slowly becoming an inherent part of every major or minor field in the world. Apparently, with this in mind, Google has now decided to enter with AI in the field of food.
At the #-Link-Snipped-# that was held in Boston this week, Kevin Murphy, a research scientist at Google demonstrated a project (that is still underway) which will use artificial intelligence algorithms on Instagram photos of food, and will identify the total amount of calories present on the plate. Technically speaking, the algorithms will belong to a relatively new field of machine learning known as Deep Learning. The project is currently named as Im2Calories. Kevin showed an example of plate and the system accurately calculated the number of food items as: two eggs, two pancakes and two strips of bacon. It was evident therefore that system can differentiate between different kinds of foods even when the image of the plate was shown.
The good news is that the system won’t require high resolution images to work accurately. According to Kevin, any standard Instagram photo with enough clarity will suffice for the system to work well. The bad news is the calorie count provided by the system won’t have maximum accuracy because Im2Calories is actually based on the concept of unsupervised learning of AI. It means that the system will learn as it goes and not initially. For example, it is possible that the system might read the fried eggs as poached eggs, but once the user makes the correction manually, the system will learn the difference between the two and next time the chances of occurrence of the same mistake will be minimal.
Kevin said that if it works 30 percent of the time and if people start using it, the system will start collecting data and eventually, over time the accuracy will improve. Murphy also mentioned that the intention behind the project isn’t to shock the users with their calorie intake but rather allow people to keep a ‘food diary’. What do you think about this new project by Google? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
Source: #-Link-Snipped-#
At the #-Link-Snipped-# that was held in Boston this week, Kevin Murphy, a research scientist at Google demonstrated a project (that is still underway) which will use artificial intelligence algorithms on Instagram photos of food, and will identify the total amount of calories present on the plate. Technically speaking, the algorithms will belong to a relatively new field of machine learning known as Deep Learning. The project is currently named as Im2Calories. Kevin showed an example of plate and the system accurately calculated the number of food items as: two eggs, two pancakes and two strips of bacon. It was evident therefore that system can differentiate between different kinds of foods even when the image of the plate was shown.
The good news is that the system won’t require high resolution images to work accurately. According to Kevin, any standard Instagram photo with enough clarity will suffice for the system to work well. The bad news is the calorie count provided by the system won’t have maximum accuracy because Im2Calories is actually based on the concept of unsupervised learning of AI. It means that the system will learn as it goes and not initially. For example, it is possible that the system might read the fried eggs as poached eggs, but once the user makes the correction manually, the system will learn the difference between the two and next time the chances of occurrence of the same mistake will be minimal.
Kevin said that if it works 30 percent of the time and if people start using it, the system will start collecting data and eventually, over time the accuracy will improve. Murphy also mentioned that the intention behind the project isn’t to shock the users with their calorie intake but rather allow people to keep a ‘food diary’. What do you think about this new project by Google? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
Source: #-Link-Snipped-#
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