EXTENDED PROPOSAL FIRST PAGE
Introduction
Foresight
draws attention to how our changing lifestyles are affecting attitudes
towards food and the adverse impact this has on public
health. Foresight concludes: there is a lack of easy-access to
essential information on food issues and there are also serious gaps
in this information.
The
strength of the Foodcounts®
proposed system is: (a) identifying the need for a radical change in the
presentation and accessibility of this food-knowledge and (b)
developing a range of core services for delivery of this food-knowledge
to a far wider market audience, including both consumer and food seller.
Our
business will be modelled around 4 distinct markets: (a) the top
segment of the food retail market (b) white-goods manufacturers (c) the
health and fitness consumer market, and (d) consumers with disabilities.
By concentrating on these 4 distinct sectors, and by adopting a
co-ordinating approach, we see a strong market opportunity to fill the
data services vacuum that is currently restricting any realistic
application of the intelligent kitchen and the ultimate healthcare
vision.
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Foodcounts®
is a multi-level food information and ordering service incorporating state
of the art voice-interface. It is a complete Food Management System.
To
fully understand what this means, 10 key terms are defined. These terms,
and the concepts they embody, provide the essential background to the
Foodcounts® development, and also serve as precision
shorthand when explaining the system detail. These definitions
are: [skip]
Foresight
is managed by the Office of Science and Technology and looks beyond normal commercial time horizons
to identify potential opportunities from new science and technologies. The
Food Panel's overall conclusion is that there is a prime need to improve trust and
confidence in the information supplied and received throughout the food
chain.
Core-identity
is a computer generated or other digitised code that specifies a person or
thing, and has the prime purpose of creating and maintaining a digital
identity on which other digital information can be centred (e.g. barcodes,
birth certificates, national insurance numbers)
Food-item
is any food or drink product that is sold through a food retail outlet and
which would be scanned at point of sale (and thereby represented as a
single line item on a till receipt or equivalent). Each food-item is
identified by a barcode printed on packaging (or in a manual directory in
the case of unpackaged food). Food-items of different sizes, or in
multi-pack, will have unique ID's.
Food-item
Knowledge is a series of data sets that provide additional information
on food-items:- manufacturer / seller / packaging / cooking / freezing /
storage / nutrition / ingredients / micro-ingredients / risk-ingredients /
functional-ingredients. These data sets combine information published by
the food-item manufacturer and official government sources.
Food-item
Taxonomy is the overall classification system of
food-items. The prime classification is by alpha sequence from
which most large
retailers have adopted a 5-tier hierarchy of : department / aisle /
section /shelf / brand. These are in-store orientated classifications and
impact on the ease and efficiency of food-item search and location. There
are a series of other typologies based on the data sets that make up the
food-item knowledge. The prime classes are by: ingredient(s) / portion sizes /
calorie levels / fat levels / preparation times / cooking
options.
Extended
Labelling
is the compilation and presentation of the
food-item
knowledge in a format and sequence that is compatible with food-item
package labelling.
Intelligent
Kitchen
refers to the application of co-ordinated computer
technologies driving electrical appliances. The focus is on the monitoring
of food of food usage and the automation of preparation.
Inter-operability
enables food-item knowledge to be accessed by the full range of
interface devices: conventional phone / conventional mobile / WAP mobile /
3G mobile / PC keyboard / PC voice / PC text reader / PDA's / interactive
digital TV / portable and embedded barcode readers
Data
Manipulation
is the interrogation, extraction and computation of
food-item
knowledge from a multiple database.
Food-item
Disambiguation
is an interactive dialogue between the computer and the
user, with dynamically structured questions to resolve ambiguity over the
identity of a given food-item and the precise nature of any
required data manipulation.
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