CarbCam Tour

Tour of CarbCam

A walkthrough of all four tabs in the app — from Scan to History, Stats, and Settings.

Back to help overview

1 – Scan Tab

Take a photo

Tap the shutter button to take a photo of your meal. The camera opens in portrait mode; rotate the device if you prefer landscape.

Gallery

Alternatively, choose an existing photo from your gallery using the image icon next to the shutter button.

Barcode

CarbCam detects barcodes automatically in the captured photo. When a barcode is detected, the app shows a dialog — you choose whether to look up nutritional values via Open Food Facts or have the photo analysed by AI.

Crop

After taking the photo, the crop screen opens. Crop the image to the plate — this significantly improves recognition accuracy.

Recognition & Values

CarbCam displays the result as a compact card with all nutritional values:

  • Carbs — carbohydrates in grams
  • kcal — calories
  • FPU — fat protein units
  • Fat — fat in grams
  • Protein — protein in grams
Actions

Below the result you will find:

  • Save — stores the entry in History (and optionally in Nightscout)
  • Edit — manually adjust carbs, fat, and protein
  • Re-analyse — send the same photo to the AI again
  • Correct — describe misrecognised items in text so the AI gets it right on the next attempt
  • Discard — delete photo and result

2 – History Tab

Chronological list

All saved meals appear in chronological order — newest first. Each row shows a thumbnail, title, carbs, and timestamp.

BG Graph (Nightscout)

If your Nightscout connection is active, CarbCam loads the blood glucose data from Nightscout and displays the BG curve below each meal (around the meal, time window platform-dependent). This lets you analyse the post-meal BG trend directly from your Nightscout data.

Filter

Filter by date, title, or nutritional value range. Useful for finding, e.g., all meals with more than 60 g carbs.

Long Press

Long-press an entry to open the context menu: Edit, Delete, Share, or search for similar meals.

Multi-Select

Activate multi-select mode to delete or export multiple entries at once.

Similar Meals

Choose “Similar” from the context menu — CarbCam shows you previous entries with comparable nutritional values.

3 – Stats Tab

Zoom Level

Select the time period: Day, Week, Month, or Year. Swipe left/right to shift the time period.

Summary

At the top of the tab you can see the totals and averages for carbs, kcal, FPU, fat, and protein for the selected time period.

The graph shows the trend of nutritional values over the selected time period. Tap a data point for details.

Nutritional Values by Time of Day

Broken down into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks — helping you identify patterns in your eating habits.

4 – Settings Tab

The settings are divided into eight categories:

Nightscout

URL, API secret, BG unit (mg/dl or mmol/l), treatment upload on/off.

AI Provider

Default provider, custom API key, model selection, prompt language.

Subscription

Subscription status, credits, restore purchases, cancellation.

Appearance

Dark mode, language, units (g/oz), sorting.

Data & Update

Export (CSV/JSON), update check, app reset / delete all data.

Daily Goals

Set daily carb, kcal, and FPU targets for the Stats evaluation.

Similar Meals

Adjust thresholds for the similarity detection in History.

Open-Source Libraries

List of all open-source libraries and licences used.

Tips for Everyday Use

Tip 1: Crop the photo to the plate — less background = better recognition.
Tip 2: Photograph from a slight angle above (approx. 45°) — this gives the AI the best view of proportions.
Tip 3: Point the camera at packaged foods — the barcode is automatically detected. Faster and more accurate than a photo.
Tip 4: Check the Stats tab regularly — spotting patterns helps with therapy adjustments.