“Method Of Providing Information” in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20210398647): Patent Application

2022 JAN 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent application by the inventors NISHI, TAKAHIRO (Nara, JP); SUGIO, TOSHIYASU (Osaka, JP); TOMA, TADAMASA (Osaka, JP); YAHATA, HIROSHI (Osaka, JP), filed on September 7, 2021, was made available online on December 23, 2021, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx correspondents.

This patent application has not been assigned to a company or institution.

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “

“The present disclosure related to a method of providing information.

“Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-222191 (hereinafter, for simplicity, referred to as PTL 1) discloses a technique for proposing a menu based on personal data including user’s preference information, harmful ingredient information indicating an ingredient prohibited to be ingested, and health management information for intake management such that the menu complies with the personal data.

“Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-299821 (hereinafter, for simplicity, referred to as PTL 2) discloses an order reception apparatus for use in a restaurant, which is installed in the restaurant for inputting menu order information and the like to support a customer service operation. The order reception apparatus for use in a restaurant disclosed in PTL 2 includes means for displaying an order input screen on a display device on which it is allowed to input menu order information. On the order input screen, menu order information is input individually for each seat set at a table.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “A further improvement is required in the related technique described above.

“In one general aspect, the techniques disclosed here feature a method of providing information in a health management system that includes a first server which manages biological information of a user in association with identification information identifying the user and that communicates with a second server that stores menu information indicating one or more dishes corresponding to a restaurant, the method including outputting a request of acquisition of the menu information to the second server based on a request for a personalized menu for the user acquired from an information terminal of the user via a network, acquiring the identification information stored in the information terminal from the information terminal via a network, acquiring the menu information from the second server, generating information indicating a degree of dietary restriction depending on a progress of a disease of the user based on the biological information of the user, generating, based on the menu information and the information indicating the degree of dietary restriction, a personalized menu for the user so as to meet the information indicating the degree of dietary restriction, and transmitting the personalized menu to the information terminal to allow a dish to be selected via the personalized menu on the information terminal.

“A further improvement can be achieved by the above aspect.

“Additional benefits and advantages of the disclosed embodiments will become apparent from the specification and drawings. The benefits and/or advantages may be individually obtained by the various embodiments and features of the specification and drawings, which need not all be provided in order to obtain one or more of such benefits and/or advantages.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method of providing information in a health management system that includes a first server which manages biological information of a user in association with identification information identifying the user and that communicates with a second server that stores menu information indicating one or more dishes corresponding to a restaurant, the method comprising: outputting a request of acquisition of the menu information to the second server based on a request for a personalized menu for the user acquired from an information terminal of the user via a network; acquiring the identification information stored in the information terminal from the information terminal via a network; acquiring the menu information from the second server; generating information indicating a degree of dietary restriction depending on a progress of a disease of the user based on the biological information of the user; generating, based on the menu information and the information indicating the degree of dietary restriction, a personalized menu for the user so as to meet the information indicating the degree of dietary restriction; and transmitting the personalized menu to the information terminal to allow a dish to be selected via the personalized menu on the information terminal.

“2. The method of providing information according to claim 1, wherein when the request for the personalized menu for the user is acquired, a seat ID indicating a seat of the user is acquired from the information terminal of the user, wherein the seat ID is acquired via an operation screen displayed on a display of the information terminal.

“3. The method of providing information according to claim 1, wherein the personalized menu includes a dish produced by modifying a dish included in the menu information so as to reduce an ingredient specified by the information indicating the degree of dietary restriction as an ingredient to be avoided by the user.

“4. The method of providing information according to claim 3, wherein the reducing of the ingredient includes removing the ingredient such that an amount of the ingredient is zero.

“5. The method of providing information according to claim 1, wherein the personalized menu is generated from the menu information by excluding or graying out a dish including an ingredient specified by the information indicating the degree of dietary restriction as an ingredient to be avoided by the user.

“6. The method of providing information according to claim 1, wherein the personalized menu includes a dish obtained by adding a nutrient, which tends to be deficient depending on the progress of the disease of the user, to a dish included in the one or more dishes.

“7. The method of providing information according to claim 1, wherein the personalized menu includes a description proposing a side dish for supplementing a nutrient tending to be deficient depending on the progress of the disease of the user.

“8. The method of providing information according to claim 1, wherein the personalized menu includes a dish obtained by adding, to a dish included in the one or more dishes, an ingredient including a nutrient lacking in past one or more meals of the user in a particular period.

“9. The method of providing information according to claim 1, wherein the personalized menu includes a description proposing a side dish for supplementing a nutrient lacking in past one or more meals of the user in a particular period.

“10. The method of providing information according to claim 1, wherein the information indicating the degree of dietary restriction includes information indicating a maximum acceptable intake in a current meal as to a specific nutrient related to the disease of the user, and the information indicating the maximum acceptable intake in the current meal is given by a value equal to or smaller than a value obtained by subtracting a cumulative intake taken in past one or more meals in a predetermined period from a maximum acceptable intake in the predetermined period, and the personalized menu includes a dish obtained such that when a dish included in the one or more dishes contains a greater amount of the specific nutrient than the maximum acceptable intake in the current meal, the amount of the specific nutrient is reduced to be equal to or smaller than the maximum acceptable intake in the current meal.

“11. The method of providing information according to claim 1, wherein the information indicating the degree of dietary restriction includes information indicating a target intake in a current meal as to a specific nutrient related to the disease of the user, and the information indicating the target intake in the current meal is given by a value equal to or greater than a value obtained by subtracting a cumulative intake taken in past one or more meals in a predetermined period from a target intake in the predetermined period, and the personalized menu includes a dish obtained such that when a dish included in the one or more dishes contains a smaller amount of the specific nutrient than the target intake in the current meal, the amount of the specific nutrient is increased to be equal to or greater than the target intake in the current meal.

“12. The method of providing information according to claim 1, wherein the information indicating the degree of dietary restriction includes information indicating a maximum acceptable intake of calories in a current meal depending on the disease of the user, and the information indicating the maximum acceptable intake of calories in the current meal is given by a value equal to or smaller than a value obtained by subtracting a cumulative intake of calories taken in past one or more meals in a predetermined period from an maximum acceptable intake of calories in the predetermined period, and the personalized menu includes a dish obtained such that when a dish included in the one or more dishes contains a greater amount of calories than the maximum acceptable intake of calories in the current meal, the amount of calories is reduced to be equal to or smaller than the maximum acceptable intake of calories in the current meal.

“13. The method of providing information according to claim 1, wherein the information indicating the degree of dietary restriction includes information indicating a maximum acceptable intake in a current meal as to a specific nutrient related to the disease of the user, and the information indicating the maximum acceptable intake in the current meal is given by a value equal to or smaller than a value obtained by subtracting a cumulative intake taken in past one or more meals in a predetermined period from a maximum acceptable intake in the predetermined period, and the personalized menu is generated such that when a dish in the one or more dishes includes a greater amount of the specific nutrient than the maximum acceptable intake in the current meal, the dish is excluded or grayed out.

“14. The method of providing information according to claim 1, wherein the information indicating the degree of dietary restriction includes information indicating a target intake in a current meal as to a specific nutrient related to the disease of the user, and the information indicating the target intake in the current meal is given by a value equal to or greater than a value obtained by subtracting a cumulative intake taken in past one or more meals in a predetermined period from a target intake in the predetermined period, and the personalized menu is generated such that when a dish included in the or more dishes contains a smaller amount of the specific nutrient than the target intake in the current meal, the dish is excluded or grayed out.

“15. The method of providing information according to claim 1, wherein the information indicating the degree of dietary restriction includes information indicating a maximum acceptable intake of calories in a current meal depending on the disease of the user, and the information indicating the maximum acceptable intake of calories in the current meal is given by a value equal to or smaller than a value obtained by subtracting a cumulative intake of calories taken in past one or more meals in a predetermined period from an maximum acceptable intake of calories in the predetermined period, and the personalized menu is generated such that when a dish included in the one or more dishes contains a greater amount of calories than the maximum acceptable intake of calories in the current meal, the dish is excluded or grayed out.

“16. The method of providing information according to claim 1, wherein the information indicating the degree of dietary restriction includes information indicating a maximum acceptable intake in a current meal as to a specific nutrient related to the disease of the user, and the information indicating the maximum acceptable intake in the current meal is given by a value equal to or smaller than a value obtained by subtracting a cumulative intake taken in past one or more meals in a predetermined period from a maximum acceptable intake in the predetermined period, and the personalized menu includes a dish obtained such that when a dish included in the one or more dishes contains a greater amount of the specific nutrient than the maximum acceptable intake in the current meal, the dish is added with an ingredient containing a neutralizing nutrient having an effect that intake of the neutralizing nutrient together with the specific nutrient neutralizes an adverse effect of the greater amount of specific nutrient than the maximum acceptable intake.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

URL and more information on this patent application, see: NISHI, TAKAHIRO; SUGIO, TOSHIYASU; TOMA, TADAMASA; YAHATA, HIROSHI. Method Of Providing Information. Filed September 7, 2021 and posted December 23, 2021. Patent URL: https://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220210398647%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20210398647&RS=DN/20210398647

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