SCiO : A Chemical Scanner That Will Change The Way You Shop

Thanks to government laws, we have nutritional labels on packaging on most store-bought food. They give you a quick run down of their contents: fat, sugar, calories, and so on. But what about the melon in your fridge or the fresh cheese you bought from supermarket or the RO water in your glass?

A new handheld gadget called SCiO takes the guesswork out of analyzing your food. The device can be used to scan almost any food or beverage, analyze its chemical make-up and send the data to your phone.

SCiO contains a tiny optical sensor, called a spectrometer, which reads the molecular fingerprint of an object by shining an infrared light on it. The gadget then sends the data to the cloud for analysis and forwards the results to your phone, all in seconds. An accompanying SCiO app, which can be downloaded, then displays fat, protein and carbohydrate levels down to the milligram.

Touted as the world’s first affordable molecular sensor, it fits in the palm of your hand. The same technology has been used for decades by corporations in quality control of oil and chemicals, although SCiO is being pitched as the first portable spectrometer for consumers. The sensor can only detect materials and objects that were previously uploaded to its database. But the device is so smart that the more items you scan with it, the more it learns to recognize items and their ingredients.

Company highlighted some use of the this portable sensors like:

• Get nutritional facts about different kinds of food: salad dressings, sauces, fruits, cheeses, and much more.
• See how ripe an Avocado is, through the peel!
• Find out the quality of your cooking oil.
• Know the well being of your plants.
• Analyze soil or hydroponic solutions.
• Authenticate medications or supplements.

SCiO was one of the biggest project on Kickstarter, where its creators pledged for $200,000 and reached their goal within 24 hours. They eventually raised more than $2.7 million, and have promised to deliver the first SCiOs, for $149 apiece, to early backers by the end of the year.