From photo to estimate
- You photograph a meal, or pick one photo with Android’s system Photo Picker.
- On your phone, Google ML Kit finds the food and the app cuts it out, places it on a white background and scales it to 512 pixels. The original photo stays on your phone.
- If the on-device check detects a person in the photo, nothing is sent and no estimate is made.
- The cut-out and a few coarse hints (how much of the frame the food covers, how many items, the meal slot, language, region setting and container type) go to our gateway, which forwards the image to an AI vision model through OpenRouter.
- The estimate comes back and is shown to you. Nothing is saved until you save the meal, and it is saved only on your phone.
- On the result screen you choose I ate this (preselected) or Just curious. Just curious shows the estimate but saves nothing to your journal, schedules no check-in, and discards the photo and cut-out when the screen closes. The request in step 4 is identical either way and counts toward the daily estimate allowance.
Our gateway does not store or log the image. Details: privacy policy.
What the AI can output
The response has a fixed structure, and every field is a name or a number:
- a dish name, and alternative dish names you can pick from;
- calories, carbohydrate, protein and fat;
- optionally fibre, sugar and sodium;
- a confidence level.
There is no free-text field. The AI has nowhere to put advice, instructions, commentary or a message to you, and the app displays only the fields above.
What it cannot do
- It does not give advice and never tells you what to eat.
- It does not judge a meal as good or bad, and gives no scores or grades.
- It makes no health claims and does not name any condition.
- It does not generate images, and there is no chat.
- It never sees your journal, notes, check-in answers or Health Connect data.
We do not use your photos or journal to train AI models.
How estimates are labelled
Every AI estimate carries the label “Estimated by AI” and is shown with a range, because a photo cannot be measured precisely. Figures you type in yourself are not labelled as AI.
Correcting an estimate
Any estimate can be corrected in one tap:
- Rename the dish;
- Adjust the portion from 0.25× to 6×;
- Pick an alternative the AI suggested;
- or type the meal in yourself.
Your correction replaces the estimate in your journal, on your phone.
Reporting a wrong or inappropriate estimate
In the app
- Open the estimate and choose Report this estimate.
- Plateknow opens a pre-filled email draft in your email app, describing the estimate.
- Review it, add anything you want, and send it — or discard it.
Nothing is uploaded automatically. If you do not send the email, nothing reaches us.
By email
Write to hello@plateknow.com with the subject “Report an estimate”. Tell us the dish name shown, what was wrong, and roughly when it happened. Please do not include photos of people or health information.
What we do with reports
We read every report. We use them to improve how estimates are produced and checked, and we reply if you ask us to. If an estimate shows anything offensive or inappropriate — for example in a dish name — report it the same way; those reports are handled first.
Limits
An estimate is not a measurement and not medical advice. See the health disclaimer and terms of use.