Biowatch

Many people have a hard time understanding information printed on food packages. At the same time, many people do not know what their biological needs are which vitamins they need or what their blood sugar level is.

During the course "Information visualization" with Prof. Robert Spencer we deloped a concept, which uses biometrics to see what the user’s needs are, is able to scan products and visualize the information in a clear way such that people will be able to get the correct nutrition at the right time.

There were 30 participants. Participants selected randomly from US, UK, Sweden and the Netherlands that were representative of financially developed western countries. From the study we found that 97% of participants check ingredients before consuming a food. Calorie information is the mostly checked ingredient (23%) followed by fat (20%), sugar (21%), salt (9%), conservatives (6%), allergy (4%) and cholesterol (5%). Overall 77% of participants find the vitamin information useful in the nutrition facts list.

The brainstorm and user study results led to a set of primary requirements.

• The device should be wearable and able to show information any desired time
• The device should be able to use biometrics to detect if a user has any deficiency.
• The device should be able to scan a food item and visualize information.
• The visualizations should contain a minimum amount of textual information and
• The visualizations should provide a clear and better understanding of nutritional facts, vitamin/allergy information, portion sizes by taking into account daily recommended amounts.

Exploration of the broad concept of the smart bracelet shows a lot of potential. Preliminary results of the data survey shows that people indeed care what they are eating. Although the concept is very broad, one could chose to limit the functionality to only diabetics for example.