NutriGlass

About NutriGlass Android App

NutriGlass is a vision-based application for Android 4.1.X or higher smartphones (not tablets!) that can scan 1D UPC and EAN barcodes of any orientation in the yaw plane and of up to +/- 50 degrees in the pitch and roll planes. When a barcode is scanned, NutriGlass uses its digits to retrieve the product's nutritional label (NL) from a cloud database of some 230,000 products. The NL contains embedded links to many nutrition terms. Users can use standard touch gestures (e.g., zoom in/out, swipe) for manipulating the NL's surface size or browsing its contents. When the user clicks on an embedded link, a Wiki page for that nutrient is displayed. When the scanned barcode is not in the database, the user is given the option to search the web for the corresponding product.
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Installation Note

The front end application uses two methods from OpenCV API: capturing frames and grayscaling. When the application is installed for the first time and started, the user will be asked to install the OpenCV manager (if it is not already installed).
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Challenges

NutriGlass is a distributed, cloud-based system. This application is the system's front end. application. The system's back end is deployed on a cloud cluster where images are processed. While testing NutriGlass we have observed the following challenges.

1. Some barcodes may be misrecognized. The only way to deal with it is to scan the barcode again. It is recommended that the user wait until the camera is focused. In short, camera focus is a key factor.

2. Glares and light reflections can be a problem. The only way to deal with this problem is to rotate either the smartphone or the package so that glares and reflections are minimized.

3. The speed and robustness of an Internet connection is an important factor. The application monitors the state of the Internet connection and informs the user through a no-connection symbol displayed in the center of the screen. Some supermarkets may have dead spots where no Internet is available. The only way to deal with this problem is to change your location inside the supermarket.
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Privacy Policy

NutriGlass does not collect, store, or share any end user information. Smartphones send only images to a cloud server where images are processed for barcode recognition and receive from the server nutrition labels for recognized barcodes encoded as HTML files. No images or part thereof or other smartphone-specific information (e.g., model, location, battery charge, etc.) are stored or used on the smartphone or the server.