Metaio is a German company that specializes in augmented reality (AR). They just published the video above that demonstrates some intriguing ways to apply AR to health and fitness functions for wearable technology such as smartwatches. In the video, the wearer uses the camera on a watch to identify the packaging of the food she is eating. This links to a database that makes it easy for her to log her consumption, which automatically tracks calories or other dietary factors.
One drawback of this particular approach is that it would appear to require packaged food in order to work. Scanning a UPC bar code makes it easy to identify an item. It’s much more difficult if you’re part of the real food movement to scan and identify an apple or homemade bread. Also, you may not have the bar code handy when you are using the food in question, such as adding butter or margarine that has been removed from its original packaging.
Still, the concept is a powerful one. Just as a wearable device can track your daily steps or other exercise, so it may be able to make other observations about your surroundings to gather useful data that can help you towards fitness and health goals.
