ASSESSMENT OF FOOD INTAKE AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY: A COMPUTATIONAL APPROACH
Obesity is one of the most rapidly evolving public health problems in many parts of the world. Currently, self-reporting is the main method for diet and physical activity assessment. The lack of objective measurement technology has significantly hampered obesity research and clinical treatment of patients. We present an image-based computational approach to monitor both dietary and physical activity continuously for extended periods. Our goal is to produce quantitative measurements of energy balance for overweight and obese individuals. A new wearable device has been designed to be worn below the neck. This device contains a miniature camera which records video from a viewpoint similar to that of the wearer and sensors to estimate food portion size and other variables. The image data, along with other sensor measurements, are compressed and stored in a multi-gigabyte flash memory. The recorded data are uploaded to a computer where advanced multimedia data processing algorithms, including food portion size and physical activity estimations, are utilized to compute calories and nutrients in foods and energy expenditure during physical activity. This multimedia approach helps people to manage their nutritional and caloric intake and maintain sufficient amounts of physical activity in their particular working and living environments, providing an effective tool for aiding in curbing the progression of the obesity epidemic.
