Foodcounts information system | alternative layout

Foodcounts homepage | parent page for original proposal

Key Terms:

Food-item
Food-item-knowledge
Food-item-taxonomy
Inter-operability
Data-manipulation

e System:

t is it?
How does it work?
Why develop it?
Who needs here will it be used?
When will it happen?

The System:

Overview
What doest work?
Why develop it?
Who needs it?
Where will it be use will it happen?
Summary

The System:

Overview
What is it?
How does it work?
Why develop it?
Who needs it?
Where will it be used?
When will it happen?
Summary

Overview

Foresight says our changing lifestyles affects attitudes towards food and have an adverse impact on public health. Foresight concludes there is a lack of easy-access to essential information on food issues; there are also serious gaps in this information.

The strength of the Foodcounts system is: (a) introducing a radical change in the presentation this food-knowledge and (b) developing a range of delivery choices.

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.

What is it?

Foodcounts is a multi-level food information and ordering service incorporating state of the art voice-interface. It is a complete Food Management System.

5 key terms are defined. These are the concepts that embody Foodcounts. They also serve as a precision shorthand when explaining the system detail :-

Food-item is any food or drink product that is sold through a food retail outlet and which is scanned at point of sale. 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.

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.

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How does it work?

A new concept in database construction, it will have the capacity and capability to incorporate all food-items sold within the UK. It will also allow for an unprecedented level of data-manipulation. There will be 3 databases:-

FoodID™ (food-item identity) contains the data that identifies a food-item for inter-operability. Initially this will be : barcode, phonetic code (for voice interface) and food-item taxonomy.

FoodACT™ (food-item action data) contains the food-item-knowledge collated from individual profiles. This content interacts with the FoodID™ database. It is this feature that provides the high levels of data-manipulation.

FoodXTN™ (extension to food-item databases) is a secure database in which consumer, retailer and manufacturer profiles can be safely stored. Access is through our proprietary CoreID™ technology. This gives us the necessary security to be able to communicate and integrate with 3rd party databases.

Full scale inter-operability is achieved by a consumer-centric approach with particular emphasis on VoiceXML and user-interface technologies. The databases operations are shown in separate a diagram.

Email us for more information on technical details.

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Why develop it?

We address 4 major problems:-