KR20220049980A - Method for monitoring mealtime and apparatus therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are a method for monitoring mealtime and an apparatus therefor. A smartphone provided with an application for monitoring mealtime identifies the number of times that an eating tool accesses a pre-defined bowl while performing recording during a certain amount of time and transmits monitoring data to an analysis server to receive a meal report from the analysis server after receiving an answer of a survey after a certain amount of time passes.

Description

Method for monitoring mealtime and apparatus therefor

An embodiment of the present invention relates to a meal time monitoring method and apparatus, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus capable of monitoring and analyzing a relationship between a parent and a child during meal time and the number of eating of unbalanced foods, etc. it's about

Children often have wrong eating habits such as unbalanced meals, and the wrong eating habits affect the physical and mental health of children. There have been various attempts to mediate children's eating problems. However, there are few studies on parental dietary guidance, which is one of the factors that influence children's desirable eating habits.

In previous studies, it has been pointed out that technical approaches to collecting food behavior-related data cause discomfort to users and interfere with eating. In the case of children, an approach to promote children's eating behavior by introducing game elements has been widely used, but this has also been shown to impair children's concentration when eating. In addition, it has been reported that the systems mediating parent-child or intra-group interaction outside the context of mealtime may become a stumbling block to the interaction.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for monitoring and analyzing the interaction between a parent and a child and a child's eating habits during mealtime in a non-invasive manner.

In order to achieve the above technical problem, an example of a meal time monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention, a bowl containing food; dining utensils with magnets; and a monitoring device located on or around the bottom of the bowl to determine the number of times the eating utensils approach the bowl based on a change in the magnetic field by the magnet.

In order to achieve the above technical problem, an example of a meal time monitoring method according to an embodiment of the present invention is a method of monitoring a meal using an application implemented in a smartphone, while recording is performed for a predetermined time. Recognizing the number of times the dining utensils approach the defined bowl; receiving a response to the questionnaire after the lapse of the predetermined time; and transmitting monitoring data including the number of times of access, response to the questionnaire, and the recording to an analysis server, and receiving a meal report.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to collect mealtime data in a non-invasive manner without impairing the concentration of the child. By collecting data on mealtimes between parents and children, it is possible to improve children's eating habits and parents' dietary guidance, ultimately improving the family's dining experience. In addition, parents can help their children to understand their eating habits and their own dietary guidance, as well as to see them from a new perspective. In addition, when the present embodiment is used at a parent-child meal time at home, it can have a positive effect on children's eating habits, parental perception, parent-child relationship, and the entire family's dining experience.

1 is a view schematically showing an overall system for monitoring and analyzing meal time according to an embodiment of the present invention;
2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a meal time monitoring method according to an embodiment of the present invention;
3 is a view showing an example of an emotion classification model according to an embodiment of the present invention;
4 is a view showing an example of a method for calculating a mealtime analysis score according to an embodiment of the present invention;
5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method for monitoring meal time using a smartphone equipped with an application in which an embodiment of the present invention is implemented, and
6 to 17 are diagrams illustrating an example of a screen of a smartphone according to the method of FIG. 5 .

Hereinafter, a meal time monitoring method and apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a diagram schematically illustrating an overall system for monitoring and analyzing a meal time according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1 , the system for monitoring meal time is located on the underside of or around the eating utensils 100 to which a magnet 102 is attached, a bowl 110 for holding food, and the bowl 110 to provide a dining utensils 100 . ) on the basis of the change in the magnetic field by the magnet 102 located in the dining utensils 100 to determine the number of times approaching the bowl 110 includes a monitoring device 120, and the analysis server (130).

The dining utensils 100 refer to various tools that can pick up food. For example, the eating utensils 100 may be various types of eating tools that children can use, such as chopsticks, spoons, and forks. A magnet 102 is attached to one side of the eating utensils 100 . As an example of the magnet 102 , a neodymium magnet may be used.

In one embodiment, the magnet 102 and the eating utensils 100 may be implemented as an integral piece, or the magnet 102 may be implemented to be detachable from the dining utensils 100 . For example, various conventional fastening methods and fastening means can be applied to this embodiment for attaching and detaching the magnet 102 and the dining utensils 100, such as the magnet 102 being implemented in a round shape so that it can be inserted into chopsticks. there is.

The bowl 110 may have various shapes that can contain food, and is not limited to a specific material or a specific shape. A common bowl can be used in this embodiment. In another embodiment, the bowl 110 may be implemented to include a space 112 in which the monitoring device 120 can be embedded. This embodiment shows a smartphone as an example of the monitoring device 120 for better understanding. In this case, a space 112 for embedding the smartphone may be formed at the bottom of the bowl.

The monitoring device 120 is a device including a geomagnetic sensor, a communication means, a memory and a control unit. A smartphone equipped with an application for this embodiment may be used as the monitoring device 120 of the present embodiment. Hereinafter, for convenience of description, it is assumed that a smartphone is used as the monitoring device 120 .

The monitoring device 120 is located under the bowl 110 or around the bowl and detects the change in the magnetic field by the magnet 102 attached to the dining utensils 100 through the geomagnetic sensor, so that the dining utensils 100 are the bowls. Calculate the number of accesses to (110). When this embodiment is used to monitor a child's meal time, the monitoring device 120 is inserted into the inner space 112 of the bowl 110 so that the monitoring device 120 does not interfere with the child's concentration when eating so that it is not visible. can do. In addition, when the monitoring device 120 is located at the bottom of the bowl 110, it is possible to more accurately determine whether the eating utensils 100 approach the bowl. It can be estimated that the number of times the eating utensils 100 approached the bowl 110 is the number of times the monitoring target (eg, a child) ingested the food contained in the bowl. For example, after putting the child's picky food in the bowl 110 , it is possible to determine how many times the child eats the picky food during the meal time.

The monitoring device 120 includes a recording function. For example, the monitoring device 120 may record a conversation between a child and a caregiver (eg, a parent) while the child eats.

The monitoring device 120 also includes a function of displaying a predefined questionnaire and receiving a response to the questionnaire. A method of monitoring meal time through the monitoring device 120 will be described in more detail in FIG. 2 .

The analysis server 130 is connected to the monitoring device 120 through wired or wireless communication, and when receiving monitoring data from the monitoring device 120 , it analyzes it and generates a meal report. The analysis server 130 may generate a meal report for each meal and provide it to the monitoring device. A detailed method of generating various types of information included in the meal report will be described again with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4 .

This embodiment can be used to monitor various mealtime environments. However, below, for convenience of explanation, it is assumed that the eating habits of children are mainly monitored.

2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a meal time monitoring method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2 , the monitoring device 120 records during meal time ( S200 ). For example, the monitoring device implemented as a smart phone may provide the user with a screen interface including a button for recording as shown in FIG. 7 after driving the application for the present embodiment. The user may press the record button to start recording, and press the record end button to end the recording.

The monitoring device 120 is located at or around the bottom of the bowl during the meal time to determine the number of times the eating utensils approach the bowl (ie, the number of food intake) (S210). The identification of the number of food intake may be performed from the start time to the end time of the recording of the monitoring device.

When the recording is finished, the monitoring device 120 may display the questionnaire and receive a response from the user. The user may respond to the questionnaire immediately after the recording is finished or may respond to the questionnaire at a desired time thereafter. The questionnaire content may relate to attitudes during meal time toward parents and children as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12 . For example, the content of the questionnaire may include the type of challenge menu (ie, the type of food served in a bowl), the subjective satisfaction of parents and children with their dining experience, the parent's eating guidance method, and the child's eating attitude. . In addition to this, the questionnaire content itself may be variously modified according to embodiments.

The monitoring device 120 transmits monitoring data including recording data during meal time, the number of times the dining utensils approached the bowl, questionnaire data, etc. to the analysis server 130, and based on the monitoring data from the analysis server 130 It is possible to receive a meal report analyzed as (S230). The meal report may include various information such as a total score for meal time (ie, analysis score), meal time, number of intakes, and a certain number of affirmative sentences. In addition, the monitoring device 120 may display statistical data for a certain period (eg, weekly, monthly, etc.) in the form of a graph or the like. Statistical data can help identify long-term patterns of mealtimes. Examples of meal reports and statistics are shown in FIGS. 15-17 .

3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an emotion classification model according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3 , the analysis server 130 generates a meal report analyzing meal time based on the monitoring data received from the monitoring device 120 . At this time, the analysis server 130 may use the recording data included in the monitoring data to identify positive or negative sentences during the conversation during the meal time using the emotion classification model 300 .

The emotion classification model 300 may be implemented as an artificial intelligence model, and in this case, a learning process of the emotion classification model 300 is required. For example, the emotion classification model 300 may be trained using learning data including a plurality of sentences labeled positively and negatively. For example, the emotion classification model 300 may be implemented through any one of a convolutional neural network (CNN), a long short-term memory (LSTM), and a recurrent neural network (RNN), or a combination thereof.

The analysis server 130 may select a positive sentence or a negative sentence from the recorded data included in the monitoring data by using the learned emotion classification model 300 . More specifically, the analysis server 130 first converts the recorded data into text. For example, the analysis server 130 may convert the recorded data into text using the 'Speech-To-Text' API of 'Google'. In addition, various conventional methods for converting voice into text may be applied to the present embodiment. When the voice of the recorded data is converted into text, the analysis server 130 may input the text into the emotion classification model 300 to identify positive or negative sentences.

When the positive sentence and the negative sentence are classified, the analysis server 130 may determine the ratio of the positive sentence and the negative sentence. In another embodiment, the emotion classification model 300 may output the degree (ie, probability) that the received sentence corresponds to an affirmative sentence or a negative sentence as a value between 0 and 1. In this case, the analysis server 130 may sort the affirmative sentences in the order of positivity and select a certain number of positive sentences from the highest.

4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method for calculating a mealtime analysis score according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4 , the analysis server 130 may calculate a score obtained by quantifying the corresponding meal time based on the monitoring data received from the monitoring device 120 . For example, the analysis server 130 is the number of times the food item approached the bowl (ie, the number of intakes) 400, the ratio of positive and negative sentences identified from the recorded data 410, the length of meal time 420 ) and the like, the analysis score 430 may be calculated. For example, in this implementation, various methods of giving a score for each element, such as giving a predefined score according to the number of intakes 400, or giving a corresponding score according to the ratio 410 of positive sentences and negative sentences can be applied to the example. In addition, when the total score of the analysis score is 100, the reflection ratio for each element may be variously modified according to the embodiment. For example, the reflection ratio of each element may be variously selected, such as reflecting the meal time 420 as 20%, the number of intakes 400 and the ratio of positive and negative sentences 410 as 40%, respectively.

5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method of monitoring a meal time using a smartphone equipped with an application in which an embodiment of the present invention is implemented, and FIGS. 6 to 17 are screens of a smartphone according to the method of FIG. 5 It is a diagram showing an example of.

Referring to FIGS. 5 to 17 together, when the user starts the application of this embodiment on the smartphone, the smartphone displays a meal selection screen for monitoring meal time as shown in FIG. 6 (S500). The smartphone can classify breakfast/lunch/dinner meals based on the current time point (date and time, etc.) and display them immediately.

When the user touches the screen for meal monitoring, the smartphone displays a screen for recording (S510). When the user places the smartphone on the bottom of the bowl and presses the record button, the smartphone starts recording. The smartphone also keeps track of the number of times the utensils have approached the bowl (ie, the number of times food is consumed) during the recording. When the child's meal ends and the user presses the recording end button, the smartphone displays a screen asking whether to input additional information as shown in FIG. 8 . After the recording is finished, the user can directly input additional information, such as a survey response, or enter it later.

When the user selects to directly input additional information, the smartphone displays the type of food in the bowl and various questionnaires as shown in FIGS. 9 to 12 and receives a response thereto (S520). Additional information may be entered later. For example, when the user selects a calendar icon located at the bottom of the meal selection screen of FIG. 6, a calendar screen is displayed as shown in FIG. 14, and the user selects a date for which additional information is not entered on the calendar screen and provides additional information. can be input (S530). As another example, when additional information is not input, the analysis server 130 may transmit a message including the information to the smartphone, and the user may click a link included in the message to move directly to the additional information screen. In addition to this, a method of inputting additional information may be implemented in various ways.

The user may inquire a meal report or statistics by clicking a calendar icon or a statistics icon located at the bottom of the meal selection screen of FIG. 6 ( S540 ). For example, when the user selects a date on the calendar screen of FIG. 14 , an analysis score for each meal time on that date may be displayed at the bottom of the screen. Also, by clicking the icon at the bottom of the calendar screen of FIG. 14 , the meal report for the corresponding date can be inquired as shown in FIG. 15 . The meal report may include a summary of the entire analysis including the analysis score, positive sentences extracted from the recorded data, and detailed information such as challenge food or the number of intakes. When the user clicks the statistics icon at the bottom of the meal selection screen of Figure 6 or the calendar screen of Figure 14, the smart phone displays statistical data as shown in Figures 15 and 16. The user can set a statistical period and inquire about the analysis of meal times during the period. If the user repeats the act of inquiring the meal report and statistical data, the user can better understand the child's eating habits and his (that is, the caregiver)'s meal guidance method, and based on this, he can explore a more effective children's meal guidance method. there is.

The present invention can also be implemented as computer-readable codes on a computer-readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium includes all types of recording devices in which data readable by a computer system is stored. Examples of computer-readable recording media include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, and optical data storage device. In addition, the computer-readable recording medium is distributed in a network-connected computer system so that the computer-readable code can be stored and executed in a distributed manner.

So far, the present invention has been looked at with respect to preferred embodiments thereof. Those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains will understand that the present invention can be implemented in a modified form without departing from the essential characteristics of the present invention. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments are to be considered in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. The scope of the present invention is indicated in the claims rather than the foregoing description, and all differences within the scope equivalent thereto should be construed as being included in the present invention.

Claims (9)

food container;
dining utensils with magnets; and
Meal time monitoring system comprising a; a monitoring device located on or around the bottom of the bowl to determine the number of times the eating utensils approach the bowl based on a change in the magnetic field by the magnet. The method of claim 1,
The monitoring device is implemented as a smartphone,
Meal time monitoring system, characterized in that the bowl includes a space for embedding the smart phone on the bottom. The method of claim 1,
Meal time monitoring system, characterized in that the monitoring device performs recording during meal time. The method of claim 1,
Meal time monitoring system, characterized in that the monitoring device displays a questionnaire and receives a response to the questionnaire. The method of claim 1,
Mealtime monitoring system further comprising a; an analysis server that converts the voice data received from the monitoring device into text, and extracts positive or negative sentences from the text using an emotion classification model. In a method of monitoring a meal using an application implemented in a smartphone,
Recognizing the number of times the dining utensils have approached the predefined bowl while recording for a certain period of time;
receiving a response to the questionnaire after the lapse of the predetermined time; and
and transmitting monitoring data including the number of times of access, response to the questionnaire, and the recording to an analysis server, and receiving a meal report. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of determining the number of times of access,
Meal time monitoring method comprising the step of positioning a smart phone in the bowl and determining the number of times based on the change in the magnetic field that occurs when the eating utensils to which a magnet is attached approach the bowl. The method of claim 6, wherein the meal report,
Meal time monitoring method, characterized in that it includes positive sentences or negative sentences extracted from the text using the analysis score and emotion classification model for the monitoring data. A computer-readable recording medium recording a computer program for performing the method according to any one of claims 6 to 8.

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