Model-based measurement of food portion size for image-based dietary assessment using 3D/2D registration.
Dietary assessment is important in health maintenance and intervention in many chronic conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. However, there is currently a lack of convenient methods for measuring the volume of food (portion size) in real-life settings. We present a computational method to estimate food volume from a single photographical image of food contained in a typical dining plate. First, we calculate the food location with respect to a 3D camera coordinate system using the plate as a scale reference. Then, the food is segmented automatically from the background in the image. Adaptive thresholding and snake modeling are implemented based on several image features, such as color contrast, regional color homogeneity and curve bending degree. Next, a 3D model representing the general shape of the food (e.g., a cylinder, a sphere, etc.) is selected from a pre-constructed shape model library. The position, orientation and scale of the selected shape model are determined by registering the projected 3D model and the food contour in the image, where the properties of the reference are used as constraints. Experimental results using various realistically shaped foods with known volumes demonstrated satisfactory performance of our image based food volume measurement method even if the 3D geometric surface of the food is not completely represented in the input image.
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA ; Department of Neurosurgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA ; Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Hsin-Chen
HC
Chen
Wenyan
W
Jia
Yaofeng
Y
Yue
Zhaoxin
Z
Li
Yung-Nien
YN
Sun
John D
JD
Fernstrom
Mingui
M
Sun
active contour model; food volume estimation; model-based framework; quantitative dietary assessment; single view 3D/2D registration