SAN ANTONIO - smile, schoolchildren. You are on the camera in calories.
Responsible for health seeking to reduce obesity and improve eating habits in five San Antonio, elementary schools unveiled a research project Wednesday 2 million which will be photographing students lunch trays before they sit down to eat and later take a snapshot of the remains.
A computer program analyzes then photos to identify each piece of food on the plate - to the Oz how many are left in this lump of potato mash - and calculates the number of calories each student assembled down.
The project, funded by a grant from the Ministry of Agriculture of the United States, is the first of its kind in the nation. Cameras, the size of lamps pocket, point only to plateaus and not photographing students. Researchers that about 90% of parents gave permission to record each piece of food that their child eats.
"We try to be as passive as possible." "Children know that they monitored," said Dr. Roger Echon, who works for the health & Social Research Center of San Antonio, and who built the program of recognition of food.
Here's how it works: each shelf lunch Gets a bar code sticker to identify a student. After children loading their plates reluctant - cole slaw or green beans? French fries or fruit? -a camera above the cashier takes a photo of each shelf.
When breakfast is complete and the plates are returned to the kitchen, another camera takes a snapshot of what remains. Echon program then scans forward and after photos to calculate consumed calories and 128 other nutrient values. It identifies foods by measuring the size, shape, color and density.
Parents will receive the data for their children, and researchers hope eating habits at home will change once the Moms and dads are choosing their children to school. The data will also be used to study what food children are likely to choose and how much they eat.
Nine years Aaliyah Haley crossed the line for lunch at W.W. White elementary with cheesy enchiladas, Spanish rice, fat free chocolate milk and an Apple. Two cameras, one pointed directly and another on the level of the status bar, photographed his food before she sat to eat.
"I liked it." "It is good food, which is good for me," said Haley.
How healthy it was researchers don't know yet. Echon still develops the program and is expected to pass the first year of the grant of four years at the equipment. Here the school year 2012-2013, the Centre for research & social health plans have a prototype in place.
Echon has already made some changes to the project. Echon learned that mashed potatoes served on some campus are lumpier than those served on the other. The program now represents the consistency and texture.
The database already includes approximately 7,500 different varieties of food. Echon said that he started from scratch because no there was no other food recognition software inspiration. He insisted on the creation of technology of records meal because asking 8 years to remember what they eat and write that it down is rarely accurate.
Poor selected research, campus of minority where the rate of obesity and diabetes risk is higher. Among those is white elementary, which is just next to a highway occupied next to poor is of the city, in a street dotted with taquerias and fast food.
In the County of Bexar, where the five pilot schools, 33% of children living in poverty are obese.
Researchers warn that obesity is not always the result of children eating too many calories. A previous study by the centre non-profit reported that 44% of the studied children were consumed calories below the minimum daily requirements, but almost a third were still obese. Seven percent projected positive for type 2 diabetes.
Mark Davis, Director of the school, said the consent of their parents was not a problem. He suspects the small number of parents who refuse to consent does not understand the project, perhaps thinking that it limits to what their children can eat at school.
"Nothing in the program said that they may not have something," said Davis. "He said just that we will follow what it is."
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