Have you ever wondered exactly how many calories and carbohydrates are on your plate? A new gadget promises to reveal the nutritional value of your meal by scanning its chemical composition.
DietSensor, a French startup , launched a pocket-sized, Bluetooth-connected molecular sensor called SCiO at the 2016 International Consumer Electronics Show. It uses infrared spectroscopy (the analysis of how molecules interact with light) to determine the chemical composition of food and drinks. SCiO can analyze substances based on how their molecules interact with light.
While that might sound like a fantastic tool for dieters, SCiO is primarily aimed at helping people with conditions like diabetes or cardiovascular disease closely monitor diet .
In a demo for Mashable, the SCiO scanner is placed over a piece of cheese. After pressing a button, the corresponding app reveals its nutritional value: its fat content, carbohydrates and related advice – for example, that one should not exceed 54 grams of this type of product in a given period of time. Based on the data added to the health profile, a progress chart of daily food intake is also presented.
Founders Remy and Astrid Bonnasse came up with the idea in 2014, when their 9-year-old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, which required tracking carbohydrate intake from every meal and measuring insulin.
Ultimately, the pair developed a diet-guided app and accompanying gadgets that use science to automate the process. The idea uses spectroscopy, which highlights how food molecules in food vibrate in unique ways when they interact with light. While this method has been used in scientific labs before, DietSensor is bringing such a tool to consumers for the first time, the company says.
Although the scanner only reads homogeneous foods (like cheese, crackers, bread) and won’t be able to figure out all the ingredients in a sandwich, the app lets you enter more complex meals manually.
It works for home-cooked meals too, so if you want a piece of cake, you’ll be able to scan its nutritional content first.
The SCiO scanner is available for $249, while the app is free to download but requires a monthly fee of $10.
