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November 13, 2010

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Japanese phone app counts calories

DIETERS, take heart. A new weapon in the fight against fat is on its way: a mobile phone application that counts calories from a photograph of what's on your plate.

While existing applications require users to type in the food and the calorie information themselves, software developed by Japan's NTT Communications evaluates the color and shapes of food, then compares it with a database and counts the calories.

Information on about 100,000 different foods is stored on a server run by the company and can be accessed by smartphone. The application even registers portion size and adjusts the count accordingly.

"We hope this will enable people to understand the calories they eat and help them with their diets," said a spokeswoman for the company, a subsidiary of communications giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation.

"Current diet applications require people to input a lot of information themselves. But ours does it all by taking photos, which helps people keep on using it - and keep up their diet."



 

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