| [ Summary ] |
To overcome the rapid increase in national expenditures for medical treatment due to the increasing number of patients with life style related diseases in Japan, an easy method of estimating and evaluating individual daily food intake has been proposed, which is less disturbing to patients' quality of life (QOL). A digital camera, which is readily available, is used and every test subject meal is photographed. Furthermore, the photos are transferred, in the late night, to what is known as a "center for analyses and evaluation of dietary life". The evaluated results are reported to the individual test subject in relation to their particular disease. Various IT technologies, which have already been developed, are easily applied to these systems, and the semi-automatic image analys of foods is now carried out for the sake of decreasing analyzing time. The present goal for estimating accuracy is +-10% for intake volume of main foods consumed and a great deal of progress is expected in making recording easier and improving estimating accuracy. An improvement in information storage is expected, as compared to the present card system. |