They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away – and Cupertino's finest are hoping the apple in question is your iPhone in future years. That's according to a recent patent filed by the company, called an "Augmented Reality Calorie Counter".
According to the patent, the system would allow your phone to recognise the sound of chewing and prompt you to take a photo of your food, with your iPhone camera. A process of image recognition would then determine what the food was and tally up the calories eaten.
The patent even suggests that length of chewing time could be registered, to consider how well digested the food in question is. A flowchart for the process suggests that the image of the food and the length of chewing time would allow the system to determine a volume of consumed food, and register a blood glucose level for the change.
Frankly, it sounds like something straight out of a dystopian nightmare. Before we even tackle the ethical and moral considerations, the idea of picking up a snack and being prompted to snap a picture for your iPhone's AR brain to do some maths on is undeniably bizarre. Forget snapping a picture of that meal for Instagram, this one's for Apple Health...
It's not hard to think of a scenario where this could be useful, though. I can see this being a nicely integrated solution for fitness freaks who want to track every morsel as they train for their goals. Likewise, there would surely be the potential for this to be used in tracking sugar levels for diabetics, or even warning of potential allergies in a meal.
But arguably the biggest stumbling block for this technology has to come from a point of ethics. Because for anyone who suffers with an eating disorder, the additional pressure could have all kinds of unnecessary negative repercussions.
I'm certain there would be an opt-in required to use it – that's if it ever makes it into the consumer world. But even so, it seems like an unwarranted invasion of privacy.
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To quote Jurassic Park, "your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
Sam Cross is an award-winning journalist, with nine years of experience in the media industry. His work can be found in publications as diverse as Oracle Time, Metro and Last Word on Sports.
Here at T3, Sam is best known as the brand’s go-to guy for all things luxurious – from exquisite watches to fine fragrances; the latest performance vehicles to intricate audio equipment, and more.
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Sam also loves all things analogue including listening to music on vinyl or cassette, and photography on vintage film cameras.