The present invention is directed to an electronic digital readout diet scale for measuring and displaying weight information.
Present bathroom and other scales generally are a very poor aid to weight control because they do not provide any psychological reinforcement to dieters because the scales do not indicate the progress being made after several days of dieting. In other words, these scales are unable to detect and indicate progress made as a result of a diet program.
A prior art diet scale is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,690 which issued on July 6, 1976 to the inventor of the present invention. The subject matter of that patent is hereby incorporated by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,690 discloses a digital readout diet scale which accurately measures and displays changes in the weight of a dieter. The present or current weight of a dieter is measured and this weight is then compared to a previous weight in order to determine the change in weight. A circuit arrangement is disclosed for accomplishing these weight measurements.
The present invention is an improvement of the digital readout diet scale of the type disclosed in the above United States patent. In the present invention, all the hardwired circuitry of the above patent has been eliminated. This invention also contemplates several additional functions. In particular, as set forth below, a microcomputer is used to perform the various functions previously performed by the discrete components of the above patent. In addition, the diet scale of the present invention enables a dieter to enter a diet program in the microcomputer having an objective weight and given time interval and the diet scale will indicate the amount of weight to be lost or gained in order to achieve the objective weight as well as the deviation between the current weight and the projected weight according to the diet program.