Cooking up a Remix: Investigating the use of Max MSP graphical programming environment to develop a new software design

Abstract

This paper presents our approach to the development of Food Monitor, an original software program that provides a database of grocery items that can be used to monitor stock levels, suggest recipes, and provide nutritional information to the user. The software is intended to provide a low-cost, flexible and useful tool for the everyday consumer to assist the universal management of grocery-related activities in a residential setting, with a focus on increasing awareness of nutritional information to encourage healthy-eating, reducing food waste, and offering interactive recipe choices. The software was developed in the Max MSP graphical programming environment, which despite primarily being a domain for computer musicians and visual artists nevertheless offered a flexible set of tools to achieve the aforementioned aims and intentions. To this end, here we reflect not only on the development of the Food Monitor project itself, but more-so on the opportunities facilitated by flexible programming environments such as Max MSP to non-expert programmers.