This App Counts the Calories in Your Meal Through a Picture

The biggest problem for those of you counting calories is what to do when you’re eating out. Sure, it’s easy to log a banana or a bag of chips. However, unless you’re dining at a popular chain that has a predetermined calorie count, you’re pretty much just guessing as best you can. Luckily, it looks like we’ll be getting an app next year that could change the calorie-counting game.

The creators behind SRI are developing an app that will help count calories for a meal via a photo taken using a smartphone. The project, named Ceres, is still in developmental stages but they seem to be hard at work figuring out two crucial problems that plague other photo-based calorie applications: image recognition and volume. They’re even accounting for items with hidden components like a burrito from Chipotle.

The images will go through a database that recognizes what foods are shown and calculates the approximate volume in each dish. Ceres has since posted a few snapshots of their development phase.

While at the moment we can’t get a completely accurate estimate of calories thanks to hidden oils, butters and fats, Ceres is hoping it will give people as close of an estimate as possible. Maybe with a few updates, they’ll even be able to count this burger.

H/T Gigaom