Inspiration

Calorie tracking is a powerful tool for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but it's often bogged down by its own complexity. Most existing solutions demand meticulous, unintuitive manual input, which is not only tedious but also inconvenient for users, especially us college students who already have to deal with classes and extracurriculars. We saw this problem and took it as an opportunity to revolutionize this space by leveraging image recognization AI to drastically simplify the process, making it accessible to all.

What it does

TrackRice offers two groundbreaking features, which distinguish it from existing popular calorie tracking apps. First, AI image recognization would effortlessly scan standard nutrition labels, extracting macros and micros in an instant. Second, AI recognition would be tailored specifically to Rice students, leveraging the fact that every Rice student, at some point in their life, has crossed path with the trusty servery plate. Users can snap photos, and, based on the standard sizing of the servery plate, TrackRice would use AI image recognization to automatically identify food items and relative portions, tapping into the rice.dining API for real-time menu data to assist in recognization and classification. It would then calculate nutritional information from a vast database of common Rice servery foods, or other foodbase APIs. All of this happens without users having to manually input a single piece of data -- it's as simple as taking a photo on your phone. And that's just the start - TrackRice also includes typical calorie tracker features and intuitive data visualization to provide users with nutritional insights and help them make informed, data-driven choices.

How we built it

We utilized React to design our front-end. We also paved a foundation for a robust backend using node.js, though we ultimately decided to focus on dellvering a compelling frontend which showcases the potential functionalities and paves the way for a complete implementation.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our accomplishments shine brightly in the polished front-end of TrackRice. We've created a user interface that's efficient, intuitive, and visually appealing. The ability to upload images, visualize data with customizable views (monthly/daily, cumulative/non-cumulative, breakdown by macro/micro-nutrient), and track macros over time sets TrackRice apart. Users can truly delve into the intricacies of their nutrition with our UI.

What we learned

The challenges we encountered on the backend taught us incredibly important lessons about balancing frontend development with foundational APIs and a fleshed out backend. We refined our expertise in front-end technologies, UI/UX design, React, and JavaScript, ensuring a top-notch user experience in TrackRice.

What's next for TrackRice

Our roadmap starts with fleshing out the backend, potentially integrating with existing advanced image recognition APIs like Amazon Rekognition, and connecting with a data scraper to access real-time rice.dining data. User accounts and login features would follow soon, and we would be 100% committed to listening to user feedback to shape the website's future. Ultimately, a non-web, app-based version of TrackRice would allow direct access on our smartphones, allowing for a truly effortless nutritional experience.

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