Time to throw away your scales?
Chrysalid2014
Posts: 1,038 Member
Anyone tried this?
Im2Calories, Google's 'smart' food diary, aims to do something quite different from many other calorie-counting apps on the market. Rather than asking users to type the foods they have consumed into a spreadsheet or scan an item's bar code, Im2Calories analyses photos of meal a user has taken and then attempts to estimate that meal's calorie count. Currently, Google admits that its estimates can be inaccurate. Kevin Murphy, a researcher at Google, told Popular Science: "Okay fine, maybe we get the calories off by 20 per cent (but) it doesn't matter." According to Murphy the system will become more accurate as users begin uploading their photos and Google compiles a database of different types of food from all over the world.
Im2Calories, Google's 'smart' food diary, aims to do something quite different from many other calorie-counting apps on the market. Rather than asking users to type the foods they have consumed into a spreadsheet or scan an item's bar code, Im2Calories analyses photos of meal a user has taken and then attempts to estimate that meal's calorie count. Currently, Google admits that its estimates can be inaccurate. Kevin Murphy, a researcher at Google, told Popular Science: "Okay fine, maybe we get the calories off by 20 per cent (but) it doesn't matter." According to Murphy the system will become more accurate as users begin uploading their photos and Google compiles a database of different types of food from all over the world.
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20% of a tomato, no big deal
20% of a bacon explosion, yeah, I'll pass0 -
20% of a tomato, no big deal
20% of a bacon explosion, yeah, I'll pass
Yeah, that. Avocado, peanut butter, butter, olive oil? No thank you.
Then there's the issue of mixed ingredient dishes. Take a picture of a salad. How can they tell how much oil is in it? How much oil you used when you made a pot of chili? What kind of meat you used in the chili? Soup? It can vary so much--something could look the same, but be so different in calorie count depending on how you made it. Or something like meatloaf?
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Erm it really does matter!0
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I guess with that dedication to accuracy, we should just be thankful the guy doesn't work on their automotive team.0
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I saw an ad here on MFP a while ago for SmartPlate that does exactly the same.
There's also a cup that is supposed to be able to track what you drink and how many cals it has.
I think I'll stick to using my scale...0 -
Ridiculous.0
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Is that one of those things where the distance of the camera to the plate matters? I suspect it does. Let me get up on the stepladder and photograph this cheesecake. I need to know whether I've done enough housework to justify eating it.0
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How does it know what's in my pasta sauce or meat loaf?0
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I think that taking a photo of every snack/meal would be more of a hassle than logging, but to each their own!0
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How can they tell if it's turkey or beef chili?0
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lol0
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LOL....how is google going to analyze a picture of my green chile stew and give me something even remotely accurate for a calorie count...a picture doesn't actually show how much oil I cooked with, how many potatoes I used, etc.
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It doesn't sound useful for weight loss at all.
I suppose that might work okay for people who only eat restaurant meals or packaged meals that are made and presented the same way every time but how would that work at all for homemade stuff? I forseee that you will have to enter your recipe and a photo and save it to their database... so much like MFP but with an extra annoying step.0 -
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So how would it guess between a high fat and low fat version of same dish like say cheesecake?
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I predict the accuracy being like the Microsoft thing that judges age by a picture of your face. (I think it was Microsoft anyway)0
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shadow2soul wrote: »I predict the accuracy being like the Microsoft thing that judges age by a picture of your face. (I think it was Microsoft anyway)
Oh, I liked that thing. I used it on a before picture of me and got a young age, and then did it again with my current picture. Well, I think I look older now (no biggie to me, whatever)... hah! I had me even younger. It has me almost 30 years younger than I really am.
Could you imagine that amount of inaccuracy on calories?
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So how would it guess between a high fat and low fat version of same dish like say cheesecake?
Oh, those are so easy to estimate!
The entire cheesecake has no more than 1,000 calories, and just a slice has 25 calories!
Doesn't matter if one is high or low fat....ALL cheesecake is super duper low in calories.
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mamapeach910 wrote: »shadow2soul wrote: »I predict the accuracy being like the Microsoft thing that judges age by a picture of your face. (I think it was Microsoft anyway)
Oh, I liked that thing. I used it on a before picture of me and got a young age, and then did it again with my current picture. Well, I think I look older now (no biggie to me, whatever)... hah! I had me even younger. It has me almost 30 years younger than I really am.
Could you imagine that amount of inaccuracy on calories?
*shudder* If I remember correctly, one of my pictures registered as 52 years older than I am.0 -
Bonkers and someone is being paid to go ahead with that....0
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Damn! There goes that theory.
Actually, looking again, the crust on the bottom one should have been a giveaway. Looks like it's falling apart i.e. they skimped on the butter.0 -
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no glaze on the strawberries either. I would eat both, no probs
Chrysalid2014 wrote: »
Damn! There goes that theory.
Actually, looking again, the crust on the bottom one should have been a giveaway. Looks like it's falling apart i.e. they skimped on the butter.
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So how would it guess between a high fat and low fat version of same dish like say cheesecake?
Oh, those are so easy to estimate!
The entire cheesecake has no more than 1,000 calories, and just a slice has 25 calories!
Doesn't matter if one is high or low fat....ALL cheesecake is super duper low in calories.
You two aren't helping me not eat the Oreo cheesecake hiding under a bowl in the kitchen.
OT: Since I don't have a cell phone, I'll have to stick with the food scale and PC friendly food diaries.0 -
Seems like something I'd try out just to have something to log during those odd times when I have no clue what I'm eating, but I wouldn't use it as a method of tracking calories on a day-to-day basis. I've come too far to let hocus pocus ruin my progress.0
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Here's some more riduclousness, in case just the concept of it didn't seem silly enough... http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/2/8707851/google-calories-food-photos-im2calories0
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