Balance References

Photo Diary Studies

Image browsing, processing, and clustering for participatory sensing: lessons from a DietSense prototype

Reddy, S.; Parker, A.; Hyman, J.; Burke, J.; Estrin, D. & Hansen, M.

EmNets '07: Proceedings of the 4th workshop on Embedded networked sensors, ACM, 2007, 13-17

Review: This paper is a publication from the DietSense project at UCLA. The idea is to use a camera cell phone hanging around the user's neck to record periodic pictures of the user's environment as well as contextual data such as audio clips and GPS location. The main work behind this paper was on the image processing necessary to eliminate blurry or uninteresting photos, as well as to make navigation more manageable by clustering similar photos together.

---

Development of a New Instrument for Evaluating Individuals’ Dietary Intakes

WANG, D.; KOGASHIWA, M. & KIRA, S.

Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2006, 106, 1588-93

Review: This is a Japanese study of 28 nutritional science students. The study compared the burden of use and recorded results from weighted food records (paper diary?), 24-hour recalls in interviews, and the Wellnavi system. In the Wellnavi system the user takes a picture of her meals using a PDA, then sends the pictures off to a nutritionist via a cell card. The study found little difference between the nutrient results of the different reporting methods, however, the users were nutrition students. The end survey indicated that the Wellnavi system took the least time of the 3 methods, and that the Wellnavi system was the reporting method to which users thought that they could adhere the longest.

---

MyFoodPhone

Review: This commercial service, based in Quebec, is based off of a photo diary of consumed foods. MyFoodPhone incorporates both expert advice and community support.

---

Comparison of digital photography to weighed and visual estimation of portion sizes

WILLIAMSON, D. A.; ALLEN, H. R.; MARTIN, P. D.; ALFONSO, A. J.; GERALD, B. & HUNT, A.

Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2003, 103, 1139-45

Review: This medical article established the validity of using digital photographs as a proxy for visual examination of food portion sizes. The study had experts visually inspect and estimate portion sizes, and these estimates were compared against expert estimates of portion sizes via digital photograph. Both estimation methods were equally-valid, reasonably accurate when compared to weighed food portions, and consistent between experts.

---

Four-Day Multimedia Diet Records Underestimate Energy Needs in Middle-Aged and Elderly Women as Determined by Doubly-Labeled

Kaczkowski, C. H.; Jones, P. J. H.; Feng, J. & Bayley, H. S.

Journal of Nutrition, 2000, 130, 802-805

Review: This medical study of middle-aged/elderly Canadian women indicates that the women either consistently underreported their food intake or decreased their food intake during the 4-day test period. The study was undertaken by comparing the women's multimedia diaries - voice recordings and pictures taken of the meals - against a baseline taken with doubly-labeled water.

Vanilla Data Entry

Wellness Diary

Nokia

Review: A project that came out of Nokia Research. The application allows the recording of weight, food consumption, excercise, fat %, etc.

---

Usability and feasibility of PmEB: a mobile phone application for monitoring real time caloric balance

Tsai, C. C.; Lee, G.; Raab, F.; Norman, G. J.; Sohn, T.; Griswold, W. G. & Patrick, K.

Mob. Netw. Appl., Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2007, 12, 173-184

Review: The paper focused largely on the usability evaluations and incremental improvments of a mobile phone interface for entering caloric intake and expenditure. After the heuristic evalutations, the authors performed a study comparing the use of paper diaries against the use of PmED with one or three daily prompts to enter fitness information. The general themes that emerged were that the PmEB software generated higher diary compliance, that the mobile phone form factor made it more appropriate in social settings than a paper diary, that food entry on the mobile phone was difficult, and that the daily prompts were irritating.

---

HyperFit: Hybrid Media in Personal Nutrition and Exercise Management

Järvinen, P.; Järvinen, T. H.; Lähteenmäki, L. & Södergård, C.

2nd International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, 2008

Review: HyperFit is a system for managing nutrition and exercise that is accessible from both the web (PC) and a mobile phone. The authors stress the use of the cell phone camera for "hybrid media" -- aka using the phone's camera and image processing software to recognize a bar code and load nutritional information about the product. Another feature of the HyperFit is the custom nutrition database that contains both data on Finnish food brands and data on average nutritional information for certain food types. The HyperFit system is intentionally a more heavyweight, nutrionally comprehensive solution. The authors intend to commercialize the system.

Underreporting

Low energy reporters vs others: a comparison of reported food intakes.

Krebs-Smith, S.; Graubard, B.; Kahle, L.; Subar, A.; Cleveland, L. & Ballard-Barbash, R.

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2000, 54, 281-287

Review: This medical study examined the reported nutritional information of 8334 adults and identified the subjects who were most likely underreporting (LERs). The overall finding of the study was that, while LERs underreport portion sizes of all foods, they particularly underreport the portion size or omit reporting foods which are perceived to be unhealthful or high in energy (carbohydrates, fats, sweets).

---

Does energy intake underreporting involve all kinds of food or only specific food items? Results from the Fleurbaix Laventie Ville Sante´ (FLVS) study

Lafay, L.; Mennen, L.; Basdevant, A.; Charles, M.; Borys, J.; Eschwe`ge, E. & Romon, M.

International Journal of Obesity, 2000, 24, 1500-1507

Review: This French study of 1033 subjects examines where the main underreporting takes place for subjects who underreport their energy intake. The findings are that the main underreprting comes from omitting snacks between meals (which are likely to be high in carbohydrates, fats, and sugar), but also that these "unhealthful" foods' portions will be underreported at meals.

Active Agent

Promoting a healthy lifestyle through a virtual specialist solution

Silva, J. M.; Zamarripa, S.; Moran, E. B.; Tentori, M. & Galicia, L.

CHI '06: CHI '06 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, ACM, 2006, 1867-1872

Review: This is from a CHI Student Design competition. The authors performed interviews with staff and patients of a national Mexican diet/excercise program. The authors conclude that the ideal approach is an active agent that provides JIT feedback regarding upcoming excercise and nutrition choices. The active agent also acts as an intermediary between the specialist and the patient. This setup requires somewhat extensive environmental instrumentation (special scale docking station, barcodes on menus, etc.).