Google unveiled the artificial intelligence (AI) project at the Rework Deep Learning Summit in Boston last week called the Im2Calories, which aims to count the number of calories a food snap has on Instagram.
This revolutionary technology comes from DeepMind, a company Google acquired in 2014 for $400 million.
Kevin P. Murphy, a researcher who works with Google's Research Labs, specializes in artificial intelligence and algorithms and theory. He explained that the new AI uses "the depth of each pixel in an image" and "sophisticated deep-learning algorithms" to identify food, judge the size and come up with a calorie count.
He also said the photo of the food does not need to be high-definition for the feature to be able to do its job.
Murphy said during his presentation that the AI may still have trouble identifying some food in photos, and it may not get the calorie content correct the first few tries, but it will improve the more people use it and share the results.
“If it only works 30 percent of the time, it's enough that people will start using it, we'll collect data, and it'll get better over time,” said Murphy.
Users also have the control to approve or reject the estimated results.
Google spokesman Jason Freidenfelds told CNET: "No actual product plans at this stage. We don't have more to say at this point on whether or how this might make its way into some future product(s), because we'd really just be speculating."
Given the popularity of fitness and calorie counting apps, it's no surprise that a team has come up with this new app. The hashtag 'food porn' (#foodporn) has been very popular with Instagram users, and because of this innovation, may include even more specific details about a dish.
