Health & Nutrition

Giulia GalassoAlessandro Lagasca

Giacomo MarianiLuca Racchetti

Ubiquitous andContext-aware Computing

Health & Nutrition

In recent years, healthcare systems around the globe have undergone an

increasing pressure to improve healthcare services, for

chronic-disease patients as well as the general population, through

effective prevention and post-operative care.

Ubiquitous healthcare is an emerging field of technology that uses a large

number of environmental and patients’ sensors and actuators to

monitor and improve patients’ physical and mental conditions.

http://infonomics-society.org/IJISR/Ubiquitous%20Healthcare%20Information%20System_Assessment%20of%20its%20Impacts%20to%20Patient%E2%80%99s%20Information.pdf

• Reducing the delay in the communication between patient and physician • Reducing the delay between the recording of the data and its exploitation • Faster diagnosis• Reduction in the medium cost • Improved accuracy in the diagnosis

There are some foundamental objectives in the Ubiquitous Healthcare Information Systems


The essence of ubiquitous healthcare lies in the creation of an environment where healthcare is available to

everyone, everywhere without the dependence on time or location and where technologies enabling ubiquitous

healthcare would not only bepervasive but also be assimilated flawlessly in daily lives.

With this vision of Ubiquitous healthcare then, tiny sensors, which can either be worn on (by integrating them in patient’s clothing); implanted or installed in

patients’ homes and workplaces (such as in furniture, electrical appliances and construction), are being

designed to collect information on bodily conditions such as heart rate, blood pressure and even blood and urine chemical levels. The actuators go further by triggering

actions such as the release of small quantities of pharmaceuticals into the bloodstream or the electrical

stimulation of brain areas.


Theoretical advantages

• Availability and accessibility of healthcare knowledge and expertise• Equality in the availability and accessibility of services offered by the health system by breaking down the geographic and temporal limits• Availability of ubiquitous healthcare services for new and alternative (non-invasive) medical procedures• Cost savings for ubiquitous healthcare service providers and patients in procedural, travel, and claim processing costs• Reduced use of traditional emergency services• Improved non-emergency services• Decreased time for non-emergency services• Timely accessibility of critical information in the event of emergencies• Increase of general efficiency • Increase and improvement in patient relationship management


Possible disadvantages

• Unnecessary information and data overload for diagnosis• The data collection with sensors could lead to less control of own health through regular medical examination• The systems must be targeted on patients with a certain pathology and should not be used on the entire population because useless and extremely expensive• It’s not possible to screen everything and everyone• The patient could not be sured about the sensor’s feedbacks and could still decide to go to the Emergency Room even without actual need (Complaiance of the patient).

https://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/health/https://developer.apple.com/healthkit/

One of the areas being developed within the systems dell’ubiquitus healthcare is that of

nutrition. The diet is the foundation of health as a source of all the nutrients and constituents of the organism (energy substrates, proteins and amino acids, lipids, trace elements, vitamins, minerals).

It’s so intuitive that monitoring and real-time analysis of what is from dietary intake is useful

and essential for better health.

Especially in people who need customized diets such as

gluten-free, obese, diabetic, allergic or intolerant to certain foods, athletes, pregnant women,

vegetarians and vegans.

Significant benefits arise from being able to capture dietary or nutritional intake information automatically or

semi-automatically. These include the ability for individuals to know and understand their nutritional

intake and hence improve their diet and health.

To date, only highly manual processes such as 24 hour recall, food diaries and food journals have been utilized which have been overly cumbersome for widespread

adoption.

Emerging informatics, computer vision, mobile computing and sensor-based approaches are likely to play a role in further automating the capture of dietary intake information. In addition there is the increasing

development and prevalence of nutrition fact panel labeling and further digitization in food industry

production and point-of-sale systems.

https://www.academia.edu/2390233/An_Overview_of_the_State_of_the_Art_of_Automated_Capture_of_Dietary_Intake_Information

The challenge:

for each meal or food item consumed, two pieces of information would need to be captured automatically or semi-automatically: • the exact types of food eaten • the portion-sizes eaten.

The benefits of a UPC (Universal Product Code), usually barcodes, are that it unambiguously identifies the food, is typically accompanied by a nutrition fact panel and it also can powerfully help to assist the addressing of the question of portion size eaten. That is, where the whole amount of a packaged food is eaten, or the recommended serving, or an estimated fraction of the packaged food, there then is a simple step to calculate nutritional intake consumed from that food.

https://www.academia.edu/2390233/An_Overview_of_the_State_of_the_Art_of_Automated_Capture_of_Dietary_Intake_Information

The “calorie in” measurement remains a wearables industry challenge. Many activity-tracking wristbands integrate food-logging tools in their mobile apps to record calorie intake, but these functions are too time-consuming and clumsy.

What the fitness-tech space really needs is a breakthrough in calorie-intake tracking, some kind of sensor-laden wristband that automatically records how many calories we’re consuming in the food we eat.

In the last year, two fit-tech companies claiming breakthroughs in automatic calorie-intake tracking have crawled out of the crowd-funding woodwork: Airo Health and Healbe.

http://www.techhive.com/article/2110429/wearable-snake-oil-the-search-for-automatic-calorie-intake-tracking-in-fit-tech-wristbands.html

Name: AIRO Developed by: AIRO Health Development stage: unknown Price: 199$ Goal: divine calorie intake through the surface of one’s skin using spectroscopic sensors How does it work: a LED array shines different wavelengths of light through the skin, while a highly sensitive photo detector determines which wavelengths have been absorbed, and which have been reflected. The system detects the optical footprints of what Airo Health describes as metabolites, and from these, the AIRO algorithm can estimate calorie intake. The company has since shuffled its executive leadership, and has refunded pre-order payments from initial crowd-funding backers. But its new CEO tells that development continues apace.

http://www.techhive.com/article/2110429/wearable-snake-oil-the-search-for-automatic-calorie-intake-tracking-in-fit-tech-wristbands.html http://www.getairo.com/

Name: GoBe Developed by: Healbe Development stage: post-production Price: 199$ Goal: automatically tell you how many calories you consume and burn throughout the day GoBe is a wristband announced on March 6 in an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign. Developed by a Russia-based company called Healbe, the GoBe can allegedly “automatically tell you how many calories you consume and burn throughout the day.” Since the launch of the campaign, a strong debate about the authenticity of the product came out. On one hand the scientific community, on the other hand the company Healbe with its researches. What the scientific community claims is that there is no scientific literature supporting the possibility to measure the level of glucose in the blood just thanks to a simple impedance sensor. And more, even if it were possible, what is totally against any scientific evidence is the possibility to deduce the calorie intake from the only glucose value, without taking into account key factors such as the level of protein, fat or carbohydrate intake.

http://pando.com/2014/03/20/on-indiegogo-a-miracle-health-device-raises-730k-and-a-whole-load-of-red-flags/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/healbe-gobe-the-only-way-to-automatically-measure-calorie-intake

Name: Prep Pad Developed by: The Orange Chef Co. Development stage: available on market Price: 149.95$ Goal: create balanced meals through beautiful visualizations of Protein, Carbs, Fats, and more Prep Pad is the smart food scale that gives you real-time insight into your food. It consists of an aluminium frame topped off with a paper composite surface that can be hygienically wiped down, plus the electronic guts (weight sensor with +/-1gram accuracy, microcontroller and Bluetooth LE connectivity). Use it to create balanced meals through beautiful visualizations of Protein, Carbs, Fats, and more, with the Countertop app. The Countertop is availabe only on the Apple store, and it requires iOS 6.0 or later, and it’s compatible only with 3th generation or later iPad.

http://www.techhive.com/article/2358626/prep-pad-review-achieve-a-balanced-diet-with-this-smart-food-scale.html https://itunes.apple.com/it/app/countertop/id763317140?mt=8 http://theorangechef.com/products/prep-pad

How does it work:

The user specifies what foodstuff/liquid they are weighing in the app, either by manually selecting it within the app, or scanning a product barcode, or there’s also a voice-capture feature. The app then builds a visualisation of how balanced that particular combination of meal ingredients is. The basic idea of the Prep Pad is to give people more control over their eating habits by visualising the nutrition content of foodstuffs in real-time, allowing the user to adjust ingredients to achieve a more healthy balance.

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzLwJyqTPGw

Nome: --- Developed by: Fraunhofer Development stage: working prototype Price: low Goal: rapid testing of food quality The quality of food is not always as consumers would like it to be. But a spectrometer will allow them to gage the quality of food before they buy it. No bigger than a sugar cube, the device is inexpensive to manufacture and could one day even be installed in smartphones. In future, all consumers will need to do is hold their smartphone near the product in question, activate the corresponding app, choose the food type from the menu and straight away the device will make a recommendation. The application is based on a near infrared spectrometer which measures the amount of water, sugar, starch, fat and protein present in the products. The system “looks” several centimeters below the outer surface of the foodstuffs, which means that thin packaging film is no problem for the device as it takes measurements straight through it.

http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Safety-Regulation/NIR-food-quality-device-coming-to-a-smartphone-near-you-Fraunhofer

How does it work:

By shining a broad-bandwidth light on the item to be tested – for instance a piece of meat. Depending on the meat’s composition, it will reflect different wavelengths of light in the near infrared range with different intensities. The resulting spectrum tells scientists what amounts of which substances are present in the foodstuff. The researchers are also working on creating a corresponding infrastructure. They are developing intelligent algorithms that analyze the recorded spectrums immediately, compare them with the requirements and then advise the consumer whether or not to buy the item.

http://www.fraunhofer.de/en/press/research-news/2012/may/rapid-testing-of-food-quality.html

Name: TellspecDeveloped by: Isabel Hoffmann, founder & CEO of TellspecDevelopment stage: Beta-testing after raising 386.392$ on Indiegogo Price: 250$ Goal: The world’s first handheld device able to scan food so consumers know more about the ingredients before they buy or eat the food.

Tellspec is a keyring sized sensor that can tell you exactly how many calories are in your food simply by scanning it: the small handheld gadget, which works with a mobile phone app, contains a spectrometer to analyse the chemical compounds in food.From this, its Canadian inventors, Stephen Watson and Isabel Hoffmann, claim it can ‘tell you the allergens, chemicals, nutrients, calories, and ingredients in your food’.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2452714/Tellspec-Future-dieting-Gadget-tells-calories-dinner-scanning.htmlhttps://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tellspec-what-s-in-your-food

The handheld scanner incorporates a miniature near infrared spectrometer. The internal light source focuses a beam of light through the front window into the food. Light reflected from the

sample is then collected through the same window. This light is then dispersed onto a micro-mirror device, and measured by an

optimized detection system. This produces a digital electronic signal, known as a spectrum,

that is characteristic of the food.VIDEO: http://vimeo.com/108316921

http://tellspec.com/howitworks/

TellSpec’s algorithm takes the spectrum data and returns it to the user as a report on common allergens, trans fats,sugars, mercury and other toxic contaminants. It also provides sodium and calorie counts, providing TellSpec with appeal for a broader audience. As more

people use the device, more information about common foods will be added to the algorithm, the

company says. The scanner correctly identifies foods and ingredients 97.7 percent of the time, according to the company — which isn’t bad but leaves a 2.3 percent

chance of a potentially fatal allergic reaction.

Baidu Kuaisou is a pair of smart chopsticks equippedwith sensors that can detect certain levels of

contamination in cooking oil, a commodity that isconsistently in demand in China, where oil is seen as a

symbol of wealth since long time ago, and can beconnected to the user’s smartphone via an app that

displays the results.

http://goo.gl/cDNzvChttp://goo.gl/PqSsAi

Name: KuaisouDeveloped by: BaiduDevelopment stage: working prototypePrice: ---Goal: Kuaisou uses a series of sensorsto determine metrics like oil quality, temperature, PH levels, and even calories, then transmits that information to an app. A tiny blue LED at the tip of the chopsticks would give you an on-sight reading.

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c74nGOT5dNo

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/04/baidu-china-search-engine-smart-chopsticks-food-safety

“In the future, via Baidu Kuaisou, you’ll be able to know the origin of oil and water and other foods - whether they’ve gone bad and what sort of nutrition they contain,” says Robin Li, Baidu Chief. China’s food industry has had more than its fair share of food scandals, from virus-infected strawberries to meat painted with inedible pigments to make itlook more appetizing. Recently, McDonald’s and KFC had to pull out meat items from their menus after reports surfaced that the fast-food chains were using rotten meat from a Chinese supplier.Zhong Nanshan, a health expert who discovered the SARS virus in 2003, says that up to 14 million tons of gutter oil were produced in China last year, with 3.5 million of these making it to dinner tables. And with huge demand driving up the cost of edible oil, it’s not uncommon for restaurants to pinch pennies and use contaminated oil bought from the black market.

VIDEO:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c74nGOT5dNo

One of the firts molecular sensor that fits in a hand palm. It’s a tiny spectrometer and

allows you to get instant relevant information about the chemical make-up of just about anything around you, sent directly to your

smartphone.

http://www.consumerphysics.com/myscio/scio.htm

Name: SCiODeveloped by: Consumer Physics, Tel Aviv, IsraelDevelopment stage: Pre-order/march 2015 as shipping datePrice: 249$Goal: Analyze food, plants, medication, oil and fuels, plastics and wood. Collect and share data through future developed application.

Compatibility:iPhone 4S, 5, 5C, 5S ( iOS5 or later )iPad (3rd generation or later)Android based phones ( Android 4.3 or later)

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIFyAOD_E3E

• Get nutritional facts about different kinds of food: salad dressings, sauces, fruits, cheeses, and much more.• See how ripe an Avocado is, through the peel!• Find out the quality of your cooking oil.• Know the well being of your plants.• Analyze soil or hydroponic solutions.• Authenticate medications or supplements.• Upload and tag the spectrum of any material on Earth to our database. Even yourself!

http://www.consumerphysics.com/myscio/technology.htm

What Can I Do With It Today?

Name: iTube Developed by: Aydogan Ozcan, UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science Development stage: working prototype Price: low Goal: allergens tester The iTube is a cell phone attachment to detect allergens in food samples, using the cell phone’s built-in camera, along with an accompanying smart-phone application that runs a test with the same high level of sensitivity a laboratory would. Weighing less than two ounces, the attachment analyzes a test tube–based allergen-concentration test known as a colorimetric assay.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/biomedical/imaging/smartphones-as-blood-analyzers-and-allergen-testers

How does it work:

To test for allergens, food samples are initially ground up and mixed in a test tube with hot water and an extraction solvent; this mixture is allowed to set for several minutes. Then, following a step-by-step procedure, the prepared sample is mixed with a series of other reactive testing liquids. The entire preparation takes roughly 20 minutes. When the sample is ready, it is measured optically for allergen concentration through the iTube platform, using the cell phone’s camera and a smart application running on the phone. The kit digitally converts raw images from the cell-phone camera into concentration measurements detected in the food samples. And beyond just a “yes” or “no” answer as to whether allergens are present, the test can also quantify how much of an allergen is in a sample, in parts per million.

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-engineering-researchers-test-241465

Select your food restriction.

Scan the code of the product and

wait a few moments to

verify.

Display the result. If you wanted to buy a product that is not good,

it finds one compatible.

Offers consumers the power to choose in an informed manner what are the foods that best meet their intolerances, allergies, his food choices or simply his tastes, reading the label is not always 100% transparent.

http://www.geniuschoice.it/

• Lactose intolerance• Allergy to cow’s milk protein• Gluten intolerance• Intolerance to eggs• Shrimp allergy• Peanut allergy• Allergy to fish

http://www.geniuschoice.it/app-intolleranze-allergie/

The food restrictions currently covered by GeniusFood

An app that reads the label for you.A database covering most food supply.

An algorithm able to detect the presence of the chosen product ingredients side.

The certainty of information maintained and certified by nutrition professionals.

The open beta version of the app is both available for Android and iOS platforms.

http://www.geniuschoice.it/

Ethics and medical deontology

With the introduction of new UBHIS technologies, privacy risks, social equality issues and new medic responsabilities have arisen.

• Obtainment, storage and communication of sensitive data• Protection from intrusion by third parties (insurance, pharmaceutical, workplace ...)• Individual’s body integrity UBHIS devices’ informed consent (what data is collected and who can access it)• Doctors liability in a system error situation, while using UBHIS devices.• Access to UBHIS services regardless of the economic and social differences.• Ubiquitous healthcare can be considered at the same level of Enforced treatment or a surveillance system?


Devices & Hardware

Health & Nutrition