Diet Aid Weight Machine

This project entails the development of a microcontroller board and PC graphical user interface that together comprise a prototype of the ―DANI‖ (Dynamic Automated Nutrition Innovations) weight scale, a portion control and diet aid scale. Obesity in the United States is on the rise – according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2009, all states but Colorado and the District of Columbia had obesity rates of 20% or more. To help curtail this trend, a team of Cornell students have been designing a revolutionary diet aid: a weight scale that
reports the nutritional value of the weighed item and transmits it wirelessly to a smart phone or computer for viewing and logging. This project entails the development of a complete prototype of the ―DANI‖ (Dynamic Automated Nutrition Innovations) weight scale. The goal of the weight scale is to measure the nutritional intake of a person in as simple and nonintrusive a manner as possible and to report the measured data so that the person using the scale becomes aware of exactly how many calories and other nutrients they are consuming over the course of a day. Because the weight scale reports very detailed nutritional data, including the amount of vitamins and minerals ingested, it can double as a nutritional assistant in addition to being a diet aid.