MIT has developed a website that is very helpful for consumers who are obsessed with sharing and documenting images of food. Pic2Recipe is a neural net created by Electrical Engineering and Computer Science student Nick Hynes. It uses artificial intelligence to match a food image to the correct recipe based on over one million recipes.
The website, while still in its early stages of development, shows promise. Pic2Recipe can do more than identify recipes. Pic2Recipe! can identify different types of foods and predict the list of ingredients in a dish, which could then be used to estimate nutrition content. Hynes told Wired that the technology could help people analyze their food and determine its nutritional value or modify an existing recipe in order to make it healthier or conform to dietary restrictions.
Pic2Recipe! Pic2Recipe! is not the only project of its type. Pinterest, in an effort to improve the user experience for foodies and users of the site, announced the ” Dish Recognition feature” using visual search technologies. Users can snap photos of food to find relevant recipes. This feature is similar to Pic2Recipe! and has been dubbed “Shazam for Food.” It uses machine learning. Pinterest will suggest recipes in real time based on images rather than uploading the recipe.
Im2Calories is a Google research project that takes the concept a step further by using advanced image recognition technology to estimate the number of calories in a photograph. It could be used as a food diary in the future. This would allow consumers to track their consumption and monitor their diet. Google is working on improving the Assistant’s image recognition capabilities.
These projects are aimed at a world that is obsessed with self-quantification and calorie counting, as well as food photography. Artificial intelligence in the food industry will be more prevalent as food culture and social networks become increasingly intertwined. Food and beverage brands, beyond tech companies and researchers, can harness artificial intelligence in order to be on the cutting edge of this phenomenon. It would be a great way to help health-conscious customers discover new recipes and make it easy for them.