With that being said, I wanted to share an interesting invention I read about today.
Developers in Israel have created a pocket-sized sensor that uses infrared technology to determine the ripeness and nutritional information of fruits and vegetables.
The SCiO is a handheld device about the size of a large eraser that is used to scan fruits, vegetables and other objects and instantly generate a detailed report to a smart phone with valuable nutritional information about that particular piece of fruit or vegetable. I don't know if Consumer Physics, the company that ran the SCiO Kickstarter campaign has plans to market to mass consumers.
This will be a useful device to take to the grocery store with you to check the quality of fresh fruit and vegetables, but at $299 it may be out of reach for normal shoppers. Perhaps the grocery stores should invest in a few SCiO sensors and leave them attached to the produce stands. That would be a great way to convince the shopper that the fruit that they display as fresh lives up to what the store has advertised.
According to the details on the Kickstarter fund raising site the device you point the device at the fruit and it immediately sends will sends a detailed report to your smart phone with information such as calories and fat grams, as well as sugar and water levels.
SCiO hasn’t hit the market yet, but if the interested generated from their Kickstarter campaign is any indicator than I think SCiO will be an instant success when it hits the market.
