Order Buddy

Inspiration

The inspiration behind Order Buddy comes from the common challenges faced by travelers, expatriates, and adventurous foodies when dining in unfamiliar places. Language barriers, unclear menu descriptions, and a lack of knowledge about ingredients or allergens can make ordering food a frustrating experience. We wanted to create an app that simplifies the process of understanding foreign menus and ensures that users can confidently make food choices that align with their dietary needs and preferences.

What it Does

Order Buddy allows users to take a picture of a restaurant menu, and then it provides:

Top 5 personalized dish recommendations, based on their dietary preferences, restrictions, and allergens.
Detailed information about every dish on the menu, including prices, ingredients, allergens, and dietary tags (e.g., vegan, gluten-free).

How We Built It

OCR (Optical Character Recognition): To scan and extract text from an image of the menu.
Food Database: A comprehensive collection of dishes, ingredients, dietary tags, and allergens, which enriches the extracted menu information.
LLM (Large Language Model): To process user preferences, diet restrictions, and the available menu data to deliver the best dish recommendations.
User Database: Stores individual user profiles, including their preferences, dietary restrictions, and past feedback.
Feedback Loop: Users can provide feedback on recommendations, which improves future suggestions through machine learning.

Challenges We Ran Into

Menu Text Recognition: Ensuring accurate extraction of dish names and descriptions from varied menu formats, fonts, and languages was a major hurdle.
Personalized Recommendations: Developing a recommendation algorithm that adapts to different users’ preferences, allergies, and diets while maintaining high relevance and accuracy was complex.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

Not only provides dish recommendations but also gives users detailed information about allergens, ingredients, and prices, addressing key concerns for travelers and health-conscious individuals.