Forget Apps, Forget FitBit -- Think DCRT

Think “acceleration sensor!” NTT, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., the third-largest telecommunications company in the world and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, back in 2002 issued its "vision for a new optical generation." One of the first to do so, it offered an overview of just how important full-scale broadband would become.  

The report said, "By conquering time," our "disposable time" will be increased, and by"conquering distance," the existing "range of activities" of people and companies will undergo phenomenal expansion. The full report is a fascinating read even today, some 15 years later, and offers great insight into what can become reality.  

Keeping with it ahsead-of-the-curve positioning, it has just previewed at its annual NTT R&D Forum a wrist-wearable device that could help us eat a little better and smarter. Called Dietary Content Recognition Technology (DCRT), it can estimate what we eat without any visual prompts; allowing us to keep a diet log by writing the foods we eat on a piece of paper, or in an app, or taking its photo. It's fascinating. 

Our arm movements are arranged in a time series, and the amount of each extracted characteristic is considered as one movement. Basically, it's a physical movement algorithm, which estimates what the foods are. The device contains sensors and gyroscopes. The company hasn’t released an official photo of it yet, but Yahoo Beauty published one that looks a lot like the iWatch.  

Don’t get too excited yet -- it’s only in development, But so far, the company has demonstrated its accuracy with beef bowls, sushi, bread, curry and pasta. Next step, according to the company’s press release, is to “examine, for example, how much accuracy is required,” to which end it will be conducting market research.

Topline is that if the technology is a smart as they say, for the U.S. consumer, it better be 99.999 percent accurate.