This idea is for a device that would be used primarially to monitor one's diet. Nutritional information such as calories, total fat, saturated fat, vitamin content, etc. would be coded into a barcode and this would be placed on the packaging of all food products. People would scan the nutritional barcode, and enter in the approximate number of servings they are eating. I envision the device to be similar to the laser type things used to read regular barcodes at a supermarket. Data could be transferred to a computer via USB and people could compare what they have been eating to their recommended daily allowance, enabling them to monitor their dietary intake. I see this as being especially valuable to people with certain medical conditions.-- defacto, Nov 13 2002 calorie and nutrition analyzer http://www.halfbake...utrition_20analyzerrelated idea by [everlasting], note the annotations [krelnik, Oct 04 2004] The CueCat, in all of its glory. http://joelonsoftwa.../fog0000000037.html14 Nov 02 | Joel Spolsky's review of the CueCat business model. [bristolz, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] It seems to me that such databases must exist and that they can be queried using UPC.-- bristolz, Nov 13 2002 Very good for diabetics, people with gluten intolerance. Could be discreetly printed on menus in food outlets as well.
I have a barcode reader for programming some of my videos; it has an LCD display and it's not much larger than a big pen. Sounds like the same form factor.
Have a croisssant ..... <BEEP>.-- 8th of 7, Nov 13 2002 I thought I saw this before at the bakery, but it was just an annotation in another idea (see link). Good for you for formalizing it as an idea.
Welcome to the bakery by the way, you seem to be getting the hang of it! (WTAGIPBAN)-- krelnik, Nov 13 2002 It will need a database carrying more information than you can code into the barcode. The UPC barcode holds less than a dozen bytes. The scanned code will need to be just the database key, which links to the data carried in the reader.
This would be perfect for those with odd needs that are never included on the package: A dialysis patient needs to know the phosphorus content. Certain transplant patients must avoid grapefruit. Peanut-sensitive persons need to know not only whether the food contains peanuts, but even if it was processed with equipment that also processes peanuts. Most manufacturers don't want to add more labelling to food products, as it tends to cause customers to be alarmed.
Program it to select the data *you* are interested in. Point - *bleep* - customized labelling.-- lurch, Nov 13 2002 Cuecat. Because this exists, there is hope for ALL half-baked ideas. Diet barcode could work great if you integrated it with a PDA and built in scanner. Could have a wireless link to an internet ready pc to access caloric/serving size databases.-- DrugStoreCowboy, Nov 14 2002 You mean like the Socketcom CF-card scanner or the Mitigo digital camera based scanners and the PocketPC?-- bristolz, Nov 14 2002 The product you have imagined exists! Check out http://www.bfitapp.com (the Website seems to load slowly, so be patient). I have not used it and don't know how many records the database has, but they definitely have the same idea.-- jfedewa, Jan 26 2003 For this to be useful, i think your diet must consist of lots of prepackaged foods. (as opposed to say, fruits and vegetables)-- cameron, Jan 28 2003 random, halfbakery