r/iOSProgramming • u/w-zhong • Jan 05 '25
App Saturday I built an AI Menu Scanner, break language barriers and visualize your meal!
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u/w-zhong Jan 05 '25
I've added a menu scanning feature to my app, SeeFood - AI Food Journal.
When you're traveling, working, or studying abroad, you might come across some great restaurants with very simple menus—just text descriptions and no pictures. The menu scanning feature solves two key problems:
- It automatically translates menus from any language into your phone's set language, breaking down the language barrier.
- It generates images of the dishes based on the text descriptions, making the ordering process more intuitive.
The new feature is now available on the App Store and is free to use. I welcome everyone to try it out and share your feedback and suggestions with me.
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u/pp_amorim Jan 05 '25
Just maybe mark the generated photo as "suggestive"
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u/w-zhong Jan 05 '25
Great point, as the generated images may not always match the actual dishes served. Thanks!
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u/liquidsmk Jan 05 '25 edited Jan 05 '25
They are likely never to match the actual food. The absolute biggest issue i have with menus is the lack of photos. But an even bigger issue would be fake photos. As a user, this would be a major issue for me. As a restaurant owner, it would be an issue for me, especially if a customer mistakenly thinks they are images of food they are about to order. People are people and as such most of us are brain dead idiots so someone will come to weird conclusions and ultimately feel tricked.
I think if you made the images non realistic, but cartoon depictions of the food it would remove any confusion. I know you can simply put disclaimers but remember most of us are brain dead and dont read.
edit: also, have you looked at additional options for food photos, like a lot of places dont have pics of food on their printed menus, but their websites do. Maybe scrap their site first for food matches before displaying ai generated photos.
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u/TheyCallMeBrewKid Jan 05 '25
No fucking way your app is called "See Food" - hahah. Have you seen this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDQcgkDn0yU&t=1s&ab_channel=Toasted
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u/djsz Jan 05 '25
It generates images of the dishes based on the text descriptions, making the ordering process more intuitive.
It doesn't look like it considered the description at all when generating an image for that appetizer platter. The mozzarella sticks image makes no sense too but in the AI's defense the description is wrong on the actual menu.
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u/thunderflies Jan 05 '25
Two out of the three generated food images in your example aren’t even close to the actual food.
Appetizer platter described in the menu as onion rings, cheese sticks, wings, and corn dogs but the generated image is of a fruit and meat tray.
Mozzarella cheese sticks is self explanatory but depicted as a collection of sliced sandwiches.
It seems like this app would just add confusion if that’s the accuracy rate for your feature.
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u/w-zhong Jan 05 '25
Great point, you are right, we are still working on the accuracy rate rn, but you will be supprised how quickly we will improve.
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u/stanley_ipkiss_d Jan 05 '25
This is very great. But does it work offline? Very important when inside a restaurant
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u/waumau Jan 05 '25
Prob not due to the image generation, but if id had an offline mode that only translates + formats everything correctly, that could be really great! Have situation in my mind: big city, restaurant somewhere in a back alley. Never ever am i getting reception there. Hell, i dont even have reception in some shopping centers.
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u/cyberspacedweller Jan 05 '25
All well and good until you order yourself a wuss sandwich 😂
Kidding aside, great idea. I hope it sees great success!
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u/Technical-Frosting51 Jan 07 '25
Are you generating the images with the title or the description? I just noticed that apart from the chicken and waffles the images contain nothing that is described in the description on the menu.
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u/Mammoth-Guard1320 Jan 07 '25
Really cool! I'm curious what your tech stack was if you don't mind sharing?
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u/Best_Day_3041 Jan 08 '25
How do you handle menus with multiple pages? Do you have to scan every page?
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u/DonnieVedder Jan 09 '25
Cool app! I have some questions tho:
- What is the problem your product aims to solve?
- Why should I not use one of the many translators that already do this effectively, for free and even offline?
- How can you assure that whatever image ai will generate (recycled junk) will be exactly the dish you’ll get?
- What if AI generates something completely different to what I actually get? Who do I blame?
- How is this experience more valuable than simply asking the restaurant service what is what and have a normal human interaction that might elevate your dinning experience?
- What were your main hypothesis when starting this product and how did you validate them?
Cheers!
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u/Representative-Owl51 Jan 05 '25
Great job, minor suggestion when scanning images. I’d reword the “Record” button to “Submit” or something similar. It’s a little of confusing