Pocket-sized molecular spectrometer can determine the chemical makeup of nearly anything in seconds

Shawn Knight

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Have you ever come across something you couldn’t immediately identify? I don’t mean something like a song, barcode or QR code (there are already apps to help with that), but an actual physical item like a type of food, a pill or even a plant.

kickstarter molecular spectrometer

Sure, you could post a picture of it on Reddit in hopes of finding someone that knows what it is or try your luck on Google but that’d require some research on your part and a bit of luck.

Or you could try a device from Consumer Physics called Scio that recently appeared on Kickstarter. It’s a handheld molecular sensor that can scan virtually anything and determine its chemical makeup in a matter of seconds through the use of near-infrared spectroscopy.

It may sound like wizardry but the truth is, this sort of technology has been around for quite some time. Breaking it down into easy-to-understand concepts, the device beams out a near-infrared light onto the surface of the object in question. This light causes the object’s molecules to vibrate and it’s the vibration that is then passed through the spectrometer and analyzed to determine its makeup.

The keychain-sized device works in conjunction with your smartphone via Bluetooth to display information about each reading.

It’s all pretty fascinating stuff and there are a ton of practical uses for such a device like determining how ripe fruit is through the peel, checking the quality of your cooking oil, gauging the well-being of plants and identifying medications or supplements.

A pledge of $199 is necessary to secure your order although that batch is nearly spoken for. After that, you’ll have to fork over an additional $100 for the opportunity.

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Not really as useful for identifying plants as the first paragraph might suggest :p

Compounds made of carbon, lots and lots of carbon. And carbon, thats everywhere. and lots of water. Did we mention glucose? oh yea, also a lot of DNA and proteins.

That is, if im understanding it right- its able to ID the literal chemical compounds, such as H20 or C6H12O6.
 
Hmmm...my birthday is coming up and this would make for a very cool toy present to myself. :D
 
C18H21NO3•C4H6O6•2½H2O

C8H9NO2

So when I see this (above) for example as the chemical make up. Do I then need to access a Library to determine what the combination of chemicals maybe? Who provides the chemical Library to access?

Oh by the way this Chemical makeup sample above up would be what you get if you sample a Vicodin. But would the device identify it as a Vicodin in addition to chemical makeup?
 
First thing I thought was the Tricorder from star trek. Very cool.
Well it would have to use at least 3 types of sensing to be a Tricorder, right? So maybe technically we should call it a Unicorder? I guess not though, sounds like something involving a Unicorn. Epically misleading.
 
Cool. Samsung should scoop up this start up then they can introduce the gadget on their next flagship Galaxy instead of a heartbeat monitor of dubious value.
 
I'm skeptical about such device being any use for looking at edible products.

Most of things we know about and are warned to stay away from are by far a complex composition of chemicals. And for such device to just list separate chemicals won't tell you anything useful.

It might be handy to a chemist, just not to a food buyer.
 
Would it be safe to scan urself?, since it would vibrate your molcules
 
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