Cloud computing is one of the hottest buzzwords that you will hear these days. Whether or not you know exactly what cloud computing is all about, you can certainly understand just how hot this topic is. For the benefit of those you who want to get a concise definition of cloud computing, here’s a nice description from the recently launched Google book 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web.
Modern computing in the age of the Internet is quite a strange, remarkable thing. As you sit hunched over your laptop at home watching a YouTube video or using a search engine, you’re actually plugging into the collective power of thousands of computers that serve all this information to you from far-away rooms distributed around the world. It’s almost like having a massive supercomputer at your beck and call, thanks to the Internet.
So yeah, cloud computing is THE thing today, and even big companies make use of global data center services to expand their operations. Recently, telecommunications giant NTT Communications announced a new venture wherein they would be using a cloud-based mobile service to analyze the eating habits of people, together with their exercise habits. The result of this analysis will be recommendations to help improve the health of the user.
The venture is being taken on in conjunction with NTT Resonant Inc. (an NTT affiliate) and foo.log Inc. Dubbed Health Enhancement Assist Service, it will require people to take photos of their food (using their mobile phones). The program will then analyze the photos to come up with estimated calorie content and nutritional value. The exercise part will come into play via calculation of how much the user walks within a day – not that different from a pedometer.
Whoever said that the Internet is simply for fun, useless applications can think again, right?
Photo via jhritz
Originally posted on November 23, 2010 @ 3:03 am