Communications of the ACM
a Professor Developing Wearable Device to Track Diet
A prototype of the Automatic Ingestion Monitor, which automatically tracks a user's dietary consumption.
Credit: UA News (AL)
University of Alabama (UA) researchers are developing the Automatic Ingestion Monitor (AIM), a sensor that can automatically track diet, giving medical professionals and consumers accurate information that can be missed with self-reporting.
"The sensor could provide objective data, helping us better understand patterns of food intake associated with obesity and eating disorders," says UA professor Edward Sazonov. He says the AIM, which is worn around the ear, already has been proven viable, and now it will be updated, further miniaturized, and validated in a more formal, robust experiment.
The AIM senses vibrations from movement in the jaw during eating, and it is programmed to filter out jaw motions, such as talking, that do not originate from drinking or eating. The device monitors eating by automatically detecting and capturing imagery of food intake and estimates the mass and the energy content of ingested food.
The researchers say the AIM could be used to improve behavioral weight loss strategies or to develop new kinds of weight-loss interventions. The technology also could be used to provide an objective method of assessing the effectiveness of pharmacological and behavioral interventions for eating disorders.
From UA News (AL)
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