SCiO: Molecular scanner in the palm of your hand

The small machine relies on spectroscopy, the same kind of light-based technology that astronomers use to determine the composition of stars.

Do you ever wonder how to pick that perfect piece of fruit? Do you find yourself at the farmers market poking, prodding and sniffing every watermelon to figure out what's juiceist? Well,  what if we didn’t have to rely on our senses to pick out the ideal piece of fruit? What if instead -  technology could tell us what to buy? Thankfully some innovative minds have developed this idea and it’s called SCiO:

SCiO is the first molecular sensor that fits in the palm of your hand. It scans the regular fingerprint of an object and scans and provides relevant information about it's chemical makeup.
Imagine if there was a way which watermelon is sweeter, when is that avocado going to ripen? how many calories are in that shake? How is that plant doing? Imagine if there was a way to know the chemical make up of everything you came into contact with…the applications are endless.
PHIL ON CAMERA:  SCiO isn’t on the market yet but it’s enormous success on the fundraising site Kickstarter is one indication that the finished product will be in high demand. Within 20 hours of the campaign’s May launch, it $200,000 goal was fully funded; the company quickly announced a new $2 million goal that was met well in advance of its mid-June deadline.

?So, how does it work? The small machine relies on spectroscopy, the same kind of light-based technology that astronomers use to determine the composition of stars. Spectrometers are used in labs everywhere, but are too large and expensive to ever be considered for consumer use. So the innovative team behind SCiO decided to recreate their own, much smaller and cheaper.   3 years later they came up with SCiO. When performing a scan, SCiO’s tiny optical sensor captures the item’s molecular footprint, then measures how those molecules interact with light, creating a barcode-like readout that SCiO’s in-house app converts into the data it sends to your phone.

And while consumers can delight in never having to sniff around for that perfect piece of fruit again,  the device will also help farmers figure out the ideal time for harvesting crops by assessing a fruit or vegetable’s firmness, acid composition and level of sweetness.
But while sensors may be the future, let’s be careful not to lose what mother nature gave us