5 ms·

I feel like that kind of comparison is a good candidate for a side project. Take picture, OCR, compare to old list, turn red if it's different

reustle 11y ago
Would be a cool app project. "Scan" each label as you put it in your cart, and see if it rejects it or not
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  The problem is, the ingredients can change without the UPC code changing. You would need manufacturers to purchase and use unique UPC codes for each version of their food formulations.
  - gkop 11y ago
    Neither parent nor grandparent references UPC. Grandparent references the list of ingredients.
    - toomuchtodo 11y ago
      Sorry about that! I didn't assume someone would suggest having a mobile device OCR an ingredients label, versus looking up a UPC code tied to an ingredients list and groking for your allergies. One is easy, the other is hard.
      - cbhl 11y ago
        OCR isn't that hard, just expensive. You do a first pass with an algorithm, and then use Mechanical Turk to correct for errors.
      - khedoros 11y ago
        > One is easy, the other is hard. There are APIs and libraries for OCR, so that might not be so bad (even on a mobile device). A low-end phone is faster than the first PCs I did OCR on anyhow, and about 20 years more research has gone into algorithms.
- bduerst 11y ago
  You wouldn't even need to scan labels per se, you could just take a picture of the box and identify the food item that is the largest in the FOV. If your ingredients data is getting stale, you could reward users with coupons for stale-data items, so some users will take pictures of the ingredients list (kind of a 'bounty' list). You could do this for new items too - e.g. a popup after the picture is taken saying you can get $0.50 off if you take a picture of the UPC and ingredients list. Do a visual diff on the ingredients photo to see if the they have changed, and if so, OCR it to the database.
  - pyre 11y ago
    Do the manufacturers change the UPC code when they update the ingredient lists? I doubt it. It's still technically the same item (and probably the same internal SKU too).
    - bduerst 11y ago
      Nope, but for new items in the database or if packaging changes drastically, you would need the UPC to join the update with previous data.
thaumasiotes 11y ago
If anyone actually starts this project, be sure to record two more data points: - price of product - food mass of product Those vary invisibly all the time, and it'd be great to have a record of it.
- anexprogrammer 11y ago
  And records the congolmerate that actually owns the brand. So many food brands are now just meaningless words in someone's brand portfolio. Especially silly when the two main competitors for an item turn out to now be owned by the same parent and rationalised to be made in the same factory. They get traded around like football cards.
- jlg23 11y ago
  And also get a very, very good insurance. Bugs in such an app can kill people.
  - bduerst 11y ago
    It could be covered in the TOS.
  - pyre 11y ago
    Since this is about OCR'ing the ingredient lists, I think that it would be much more likely to have false mismatches than false matches.
- bduerst 11y ago
  I worked on an idea/project a couple years ago to OCR prices off of shelves in grocery stores. Basically you could scan an isle in Safeway and have a geo-based price list of grocery goods. After talking to people about it though, it became apparent that most grocery shoppers already have an idea of where they are going to buy groceries, making location more important than price. It's a razor thin industry, and even the price-sensitive coupon-using folks almost always just go to the closest Safeway equivalent.
  - 11y ago
jeromeflipo 11y ago
build on http://openfoodfacts.org http://openfoodfacts.org?
- teolemon 11y ago
  http://world.openfoodfacts.org/cgi/search.pl?action=process&search_terms=kraft%20macaroni&sort_by=unique_scans_n&page_size=20&action=display http://world.openfoodfacts.org/cgi/search.pl?action=process&... We have them :-) We also store every single revision of the product, but we don't display the changes yet. Join us on http://slack.openfoodfacts.org http://slack.openfoodfacts.org to see how we can just do that.

reustle 11y ago

Would be a cool app project. "Scan" each label as you put it in your cart, and see if it rejects it or not

toomuchtodo 11y ago
The problem is, the ingredients can change without the UPC code changing. You would need manufacturers to purchase and use unique UPC codes for each version of their food formulations.
- gkop 11y ago
  Neither parent nor grandparent references UPC. Grandparent references the list of ingredients.
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    Sorry about that! I didn't assume someone would suggest having a mobile device OCR an ingredients label, versus looking up a UPC code tied to an ingredients list and groking for your allergies. One is easy, the other is hard.
    - cbhl 11y ago
      OCR isn't that hard, just expensive. You do a first pass with an algorithm, and then use Mechanical Turk to correct for errors.
    - khedoros 11y ago
      > One is easy, the other is hard. There are APIs and libraries for OCR, so that might not be so bad (even on a mobile device). A low-end phone is faster than the first PCs I did OCR on anyhow, and about 20 years more research has gone into algorithms.
bduerst 11y ago
You wouldn't even need to scan labels per se, you could just take a picture of the box and identify the food item that is the largest in the FOV. If your ingredients data is getting stale, you could reward users with coupons for stale-data items, so some users will take pictures of the ingredients list (kind of a 'bounty' list). You could do this for new items too - e.g. a popup after the picture is taken saying you can get $0.50 off if you take a picture of the UPC and ingredients list. Do a visual diff on the ingredients photo to see if the they have changed, and if so, OCR it to the database.
- pyre 11y ago
  Do the manufacturers change the UPC code when they update the ingredient lists? I doubt it. It's still technically the same item (and probably the same internal SKU too).
  - bduerst 11y ago
    Nope, but for new items in the database or if packaging changes drastically, you would need the UPC to join the update with previous data.

thaumasiotes 11y ago

If anyone actually starts this project, be sure to record two more data points: - price of product - food mass of product Those vary invisibly all the time, and it'd be great to have a record of it.

anexprogrammer 11y ago
And records the congolmerate that actually owns the brand. So many food brands are now just meaningless words in someone's brand portfolio. Especially silly when the two main competitors for an item turn out to now be owned by the same parent and rationalised to be made in the same factory. They get traded around like football cards.
jlg23 11y ago
And also get a very, very good insurance. Bugs in such an app can kill people.
- bduerst 11y ago
  It could be covered in the TOS.
- pyre 11y ago
  Since this is about OCR'ing the ingredient lists, I think that it would be much more likely to have false mismatches than false matches.
bduerst 11y ago
I worked on an idea/project a couple years ago to OCR prices off of shelves in grocery stores. Basically you could scan an isle in Safeway and have a geo-based price list of grocery goods. After talking to people about it though, it became apparent that most grocery shoppers already have an idea of where they are going to buy groceries, making location more important than price. It's a razor thin industry, and even the price-sensitive coupon-using folks almost always just go to the closest Safeway equivalent.
- 11y ago

jeromeflipo 11y ago

build on http://openfoodfacts.org http://openfoodfacts.org?

teolemon 11y ago
http://world.openfoodfacts.org/cgi/search.pl?action=process&search_terms=kraft%20macaroni&sort_by=unique_scans_n&page_size=20&action=display http://world.openfoodfacts.org/cgi/search.pl?action=process&... We have them :-) We also store every single revision of the product, but we don't display the changes yet. Join us on http://slack.openfoodfacts.org http://slack.openfoodfacts.org to see how we can just do that.