19 May, 2015

'Smart' plate can count calories

A 'smart' plastic plate can count calories in meals placed on it to keep you from over-eating.

The SmartPlate, being developed by a US start-up, contains three digital cameras that photograph the diner's food.

These pictures are relayed over wi-fi or Bluetooth to a mobile device, which sends them for comparison with a large bank of images to determine what is in the meal.

A scale hidden in the body of the plate weighs the food and matches it against the database to calculate how much energy it contains, 'The Times' reported.

"Our proprietary food-recognition algorithm is trained to read mixed foods as well as single food items with up to 99 per cent accuracy in less than a second," said Anthony Ortiz, the founder and chief executive of Fitly.

"Currently, our technology can identify things like mixed salads, rice pilaf, spaghetti with meatballs and turkey wraps," he said.

"SmartPlate is like a newborn that is starting to see for the first time. Once it learns or is taught what the objects are, it then starts to classify each item or combination of food items for the future," he added.

Fitly is raising money for the SmartPlate through crowd-funding website, Kickstarter, and hopes to sell it for USD 199. 

Source: www.zeenews.india.com

19.05.2015

Diet, exercise, emotional intelligence combo required for `good leaders`

Diet, exercise and emotional intelligence is a critical combination required for to be good and effective leaders, claims a new study.

University of Florida doctoral student Chris Mott, who was investigating how food and lifestyle impacted emotional intelligence for the first time, said that the latter was about knowing one's true self and using awareness to best respond and relate to others, which was vital to becoming a trusted and effective leader.

Mott studied the University of Florida IFAS Extension's county directors, but said his research in all likelihood applied to leaders everywhere.

Mott said that he surveyed the state's 64 Extension directors to assess their daily physical activity for the most recent week. The directors also assessed their own diets for the most recent 30 days.

He then combined and analyzed the data to look for correlations and found strong relationships between diet, exercise and emotional intelligence. He concluded that directors with healthier lifestyles also had high emotional intelligence.

Specifically, Mott found that leaders who ate more fruit and vegetables and exercised more were rated as having high emotional intelligence. Conversely, those who consumed high amounts of sugar received lower emotional intelligence scores.

Mott said though prior research had asserted many organisations needed emotional intelligence training, but never had it been investigated and published with a nutrition and exercise component.

Source: www.zeenews.india.com

19.05.2015

You may find the worst enemy or best friend in yourself