Startup Israeli: Consumer Physics
Ever wanted to grab a snack, but aren’t sure how many calories are in it? Ever wanted to know if your plants need more more water, but you’re not sure if you’re going to drown them? Aren’t sure which pills you have in your unmarked pill bottle? No problem. Let Consumer Physics’ new invention, SCiO, give you a hand.
The company, which is based in Tel Aviv, was founded by Dror Sharon and Damian Goldring who met while attending the Technion- Israel Institute Of Technology in electrical engineering. Together, they created Consumer Physics in 2011. Building the SCiO from the ground up from the confines of a basement, neither Goldring nor Sharon ever thought their company, or their scanner, would be what it is today.
SCiO aims to provide consumers with accurate, up to date, information on the world around them by scanning objects and breaking down their molecular information. It maps the chemical fingerprint of an object (be it food, plants, or even your own body) and tells you everything you need to know about it.
As Consumer Physics explains on their website, it’s the first molecular scanner you can fit in your pocket.
While the technology to noninvasively breakdown and analyse anatomic data isn’t knew, making the near-infrared spectrometer affordable and portable for a consumer market it. As Sharon explains, as reported by Takepart, “smartphones give us instant answers to questions like where to have dinner, what movie to see, and how to get from point A to point B. But when it comes to learning about what we interact with on a daily basis, we're left in the dark.”
The way the SCiO device works is you point the device, scan your food/plant/human, and the information is sent to your smartphone via the app software that you need to install on your device. It takes less than a minute between scanning and receiving the detailed information. And don’t worry if you’re not a science buff; the information sent is easily understandable by just about anyone, not just science Majors. What’s even cooler is that the information scanned is uploaded to a community database allowing members to have pinpoint accuracy in a matter of seconds.
Consumer Physics launched a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year with the goal of raising $200,000. To date, they’ve gotten over $1.8 million in funds, with 8,600 backers and counting. As a result, their long-term Kickstarter goal is now $2 million and from the way things are going, it won’t be long until they’ve reached it.
While SCiO is still not available for consumers to purchase, Consumer Physics hopes to have the device up and running for its backers by the end of this 2014.
Caitlin Marceau