Any experience with Vessyl - cup that detects nutritional info of anything?
laurelobrien
Posts: 156 Member
Here's what it is: http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/12/5801106/vessyl-smart-cup-that-knows-exactly-what-youre-drinking
tl;dr it has sensors that can detect at a molecular level how many calories and macronutrients (as well as sugar specifically) are in the liquid you pour in it. This is, frankly, amazing to me but maybe the technology has been around a while.
A lot of comments and reviews remark on how useless it is - DUH, just look at how many calories are in the juice/soda/creamer you're drinking! Almost none of the reviews come from people who actually count calories and track nutrients. I see it being useful for
A) Not having to get out a measuring cup every time I want 1.5 cups of OJ or milk or whatever
Not having to weigh EVERY single fruit I put in a smoothie before blending (usually dirtying a bowl to weigh messy foods like berries)
C) Sharing smoothies and soups with my partner - I can add up all the info (takes a while but I'm used to it) but in the end we usually don't consume the same amount of the total recipe, and keep some of it as leftovers so I end up estimating anyways
D) Foods that have no nutritional info online due to the nature of how they're made. For example, soup stock I made from fresh veggies and beef bones, once all the solids have been strained out I have no idea how calorie dense it is or what the macros are. Or, blending and straining pomegranate seeds to make juice etc
Make an ambiguous soup stock? Just pour a cup of that *kitten* in the vessyl and you know the per-cup info for the whole batch. Make a smoothie by just tossing what looks good into the blender? Pour it in the vessyl and give the rest to the boyfriend. Make some almond milk and not sure how much actual almond is still in there for nutritional purposes? Whatever, now you know exactly.
Basically, you don't have to measure and weigh and enter data for anything anymore, if it's going to be in a liquid form.
What do you guys think?
tl;dr it has sensors that can detect at a molecular level how many calories and macronutrients (as well as sugar specifically) are in the liquid you pour in it. This is, frankly, amazing to me but maybe the technology has been around a while.
A lot of comments and reviews remark on how useless it is - DUH, just look at how many calories are in the juice/soda/creamer you're drinking! Almost none of the reviews come from people who actually count calories and track nutrients. I see it being useful for
A) Not having to get out a measuring cup every time I want 1.5 cups of OJ or milk or whatever
Not having to weigh EVERY single fruit I put in a smoothie before blending (usually dirtying a bowl to weigh messy foods like berries)C) Sharing smoothies and soups with my partner - I can add up all the info (takes a while but I'm used to it) but in the end we usually don't consume the same amount of the total recipe, and keep some of it as leftovers so I end up estimating anyways
D) Foods that have no nutritional info online due to the nature of how they're made. For example, soup stock I made from fresh veggies and beef bones, once all the solids have been strained out I have no idea how calorie dense it is or what the macros are. Or, blending and straining pomegranate seeds to make juice etc
Make an ambiguous soup stock? Just pour a cup of that *kitten* in the vessyl and you know the per-cup info for the whole batch. Make a smoothie by just tossing what looks good into the blender? Pour it in the vessyl and give the rest to the boyfriend. Make some almond milk and not sure how much actual almond is still in there for nutritional purposes? Whatever, now you know exactly.
Basically, you don't have to measure and weigh and enter data for anything anymore, if it's going to be in a liquid form.
What do you guys think?
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Replies
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Neat!0
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I would love that for my coffee, to not have to measure my creamer.0
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My hubbs took one look and was like "I call bull *kitten*."
I think if it is worth it Apple will soon have an iCup and all the Apple junkies will have one.
I can't see myself paying $100 for an electric cup... it doesn't even hold 32 oz! I would have to re-fill it too frequently.
Edit: It was one of the most interesting advertisements MFP has ever shown me though.
( https://www.myvessyl.com/)0 -
That looks really cool!0
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Shalaurise wrote: »My hubbs took one look and was like "I call bull *kitten*."
I think if it is worth it Apple will soon have an iCup and all the Apple junkies will have one.
I can't see myself paying $100 for an electric cup... it doesn't even hold 32 oz! I would have to re-fill it too frequently.
Edit: It was one of the most interesting advertisements MFP has ever shown me though.
( https://www.myvessyl.com/)
This +1.
Or the diet/fitness industry.0 -
Why does your husband call *kitten*? It's been demonstrated to work accurately. It is expensive for a cup, for sure, but it seems like pretty exciting technology.0
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laurelobrien wrote: »Why does your husband call *kitten*? It's been demonstrated to work accurately. It is expensive for a cup, for sure, but it seems like pretty exciting technology.
Demonstrated by whom?0 -
laurelobrien wrote: »Why does your husband call *kitten*? It's been demonstrated to work accurately. It is expensive for a cup, for sure, but it seems like pretty exciting technology.
Demonstrated by whom?
Many, many reviewers, using controls and very similar liquids (i.e. it can detect you've added 2 tbsp of simple syrup to a glass of OJ and updates the sugar/cals accurately) and so on. You can google any one of a hundred youtube demonstrations and blog reviews. It uses similar tech the FDA does to determine accuracy of nutritional information.
It's not, like, space age. No one doubts that's it's possible and that it works. It works. My question was what calorie-counting folks thought about its usefulness.
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A good tip for avoiding dirtying another container when you weigh fruits to make smoothies is to put your blending container on your food scale before you turn it on, so it starts at 0, then add the fruit it. If you're mixing fruits, just turn the scale off and on every time you add a new fruit. The same goes for pouring drinks, just put your glass on the scale, turn on, change to oz or ml, and pour. I find it handy for making/mixing drinks and pouring wine.0
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I don't think it's something I'd ever buy, just because I realistically can't see myself making enough use out of it for the cost to outweigh the novelty, but it's a pretty amazing technology, and I'm not surprised to see it come from a Queen's student.0
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Well, I mostly drink water but the geek in me really thinks it is a cool idea. I would consider it except that I have a windows phone which is not compatible. If they had a windows phone app I would very likely want to get one, but probably my boyfriend would be the one to use it (he drinks things other than water, but also has a windows phone). And it would be nice for the occasions I want to have something and don't know feel like measuring the ingredients to get the calories (this yummy tea drink I make comes to mind). The price is a bit high for me though, so I guess I am glad it isn't compatible for me right now.0
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oh boy, give me something that measures solid foods and I'd be all over that.0
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A good tip for avoiding dirtying another container when you weigh fruits to make smoothies is to put your blending container on your food scale before you turn it on, so it starts at 0, then add the fruit it. If you're mixing fruits, just turn the scale off and on every time you add a new fruit. The same goes for pouring drinks, just put your glass on the scale, turn on, change to oz or ml, and pour. I find it handy for making/mixing drinks and pouring wine.
I would do this except that my blender waaay maxes out the weight capacity of my scale, and most liquids I drink don't offer their measurements by weight (I guess I could measure 1 cup and weigh it and remember the weight, I spose)
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It doesn't work. Yes, I've seen the "reviews".
It doesn't work.
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laurelobrien wrote: »
I think it is more like... you can pay people to review your product positively... especially one that is not openly available to the general public for reviews from sources that were not specifically recruited to promote your product. Thus, they can say tons of wonderful things and edit tons of videos to make it look great, but that doesn't make it true.
I want to think it is possible, but I also don't want to resemble a crazy Apple fan.
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BeTheChange352 wrote: »oh boy, give me something that measures solid foods and I'd be all over that.
^0 -
Shalaurise wrote: »laurelobrien wrote: »
I think it is more like... you can pay people to review your product positively... especially one that is not openly available to the general public for reviews from sources that were not specifically recruited to promote your product. Thus, they can say tons of wonderful things and edit tons of videos to make it look great, but that doesn't make it true.
I want to think it is possible, but I also don't want to resemble a crazy Apple fan.
It's not made by Apple. And I don't see why they'd base their whole product on being able to do 1 thing, and then it is not able to do that 1 thing. I guess we'll find out. I don't really see why there's any reason to doubt what it does, seeing as its accuracy can be verified pretty much instantly, by anyone who uses one.
Again, my question is not whether or not it works, but what ya'll think about it as a calorie counting tool.
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My opinion of it as a calorie counting tool is entirely based on whether or not it works.0
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obscuremusicreference wrote: »My opinion of it as a calorie counting tool is entirely based on whether or not it works.
Well then, let's assume it does work.
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I think that would be a dangerous assumption.laurelobrien wrote: »obscuremusicreference wrote: »My opinion of it as a calorie counting tool is entirely based on whether or not it works.
Well then, let's assume it does work.
I'd also say that if it's seriously sub $500, it is probably far too cheap for it to actually work.0 -
laurelobrien wrote: »Shalaurise wrote: »laurelobrien wrote: »
I think it is more like... you can pay people to review your product positively... especially one that is not openly available to the general public for reviews from sources that were not specifically recruited to promote your product. Thus, they can say tons of wonderful things and edit tons of videos to make it look great, but that doesn't make it true.
I want to think it is possible, but I also don't want to resemble a crazy Apple fan.
It's not made by Apple. And I don't see why they'd base their whole product on being able to do 1 thing, and then it is not able to do that 1 thing. I guess we'll find out. I don't really see why there's any reason to doubt what it does, seeing as its accuracy can be verified pretty much instantly, by anyone who uses one.
Again, my question is not whether or not it works, but what ya'll think about it as a calorie counting tool.
They said they didn't want to resemble an Apple fan, not that it was made by Apple.
Also, I think nothing beats doing it yourself. Paying $99 or $199 for a cup/appliance that takes up counter space is too much for me. I would rather continue measuring myself, because my $20 food scale gets the job done.
Plus, I don't know if I would trust a cup to pick up on EVERYTHING I put into it.0 -
Whaaaat!? Shut the front door! That's awesome sauce. I didn't read the whole article to find out whether it's dishwasher friendly, though. 0
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big_lindsay wrote: »Whaaaat!? Shut the front door! That's awesome sauce. I didn't read the whole article to find out whether it's dishwasher friendly, though.
Yes, it is. Most Apple products are.
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It definitely sounds too good to be true, but if it were, that'd be really neat. It would certainly make accounting for smoothies and such (cocktails) a lot easier.
I'm pretty sure that a lot of my missed calorie accounting comes from beverages (cocktails), so it would be a great way to hold me more to my goals and such. I'm cool with weighing everything (just got a food scale recently) and adding it that way, but if there was a magic cup that measured everything poured into it, it'd be really, really neat (and helpful).
I definitely am very skeptical of this device for a number of reasons. Firstly, the guy won't talk about how the sensor works at all, which is typical for scammers. Secondly, where is the cup getting its data? Is it Wi-Fi enabled, as well? I mean, it can't have every beverage or food programmed into it. I guess it could be able to connect to Wi-Fi, so many other things do nowadays, it just seems kind of inconvenient—you would require a connection whenever you wanted to have a beverage. Alternatively it could perhaps send a signal to your phone via the Bluetooth they say it already does have which gives your phone a command to pull the information from some online source but ... it just seems needlessly convoluted, in a way.
Still, if this were a thing, I think I would probably buy it. I usually drink water but when I'm not I would like to know what's in my cup, how many calories, and track it more accurately.0 -
That sounds really interesting, but I rarely drink anything other than water or black coffee, so not much use for me. Now if THIS thing becomes a reality, I'm willing to pay thousands for it:
http://www.businessinsider.com/ge-calorie-counter-microwave-2014-70 -
[Note: This is long, but informative. Please read everything before flipping a table. Also, I am not editing this because I am a lazy, sodding git and I already have 2.000 pages worth of material to edit.]
Okay, to be perfectly clear, I am not taking one side or the other on this debate. I simply want to present an argument that perhaps has not yet been considered.
Firstly, let's talk about technology, patents, and planned obsolescence. The Tech field demands that clever ideas and the secrets behind new, consumer technologies be closely guarded. I can imagine that they aren't telling you how the sensor works because they don't want other people copycatting them and ruining their business. Then they would have a problem with a long, ugly court battle with a patent law suit. The next thing is, tech companies have technologies you couldn't even imagine locked away, but they don't release it for years after they develop it because they want to keep consumers buying the latest and greatest thing, day after day, year after year. The iPhone you have now (since we're joking about Apple fanboys) is 10 years, at least, behind Apple's current research and development technology. For a startup company, they likely have a few features they're holding back, but the sensor right now is the biggest thing they have. So telling everyone how it works is bad for business.
Secondly, even if the above isn't true, business deals made with investors might preclude said company from revealing anything more than what the product does. They might be legally bound to withhold how it works. At that point, you're just going to have to find an engineer to take it apart and tell the world how it works and hope to God he doesn't get his butt sued off.
Thirdly, even if the above are not true, the actual workings of a chemical analysis sensor are not something anyone actually trying to sell a product is going to put in a video. That's because people go to college for 8 years to learn biomedical computing (combo of biology, chemistry, life sciences, and computer sciences) to learn how a chemical analysis sensor works. If you want to know how the vessyl works, submit an application to MIT. What I can tell you is that chemical analysis sensors take a sample of the fluid and analyse its chemical composition. If it's an FDA grade sensor, either their supplier is the same as the FDA's or they used the same science to create their own. Regardless, you don't need to know how it works, just that it works. And if it is the FDA's sensor, you'll know how it works when the government admits to its deepest, darkest secrets (i.e. never).
Fourthly, on any product development team there are people called engineers. Engineers are people whose entire job is to solve pesky little problems like, oh golly jeez, I put two bananas into my smoothie instead of one! Gosh darn! Now my vessyl won't read properly! The guy in the video is an engineer who likely has multiple degrees in his field. I'm fairly certain if, using the scientific method, which I'm certain he did, there were errors by such vast margins as you claim, they would fix them before releasing a finished product.
Fifthly, fraud will destroy you. No one wants to be convicted of fraud because then you are financially screwed. Can't get a loan, no one will invest in you, badabing, badaboom you went from being rich, to sued out of everything you own, and now you're a filthy bum on the streets pinching your pennies to get your next high. If this is a fraud, and somebody sues the crap out of them, pay attention to the news, you might just get your money back.
Now on to my arguments as to why this is probably a bad idea to buy.
Firstly, there are no consumer reports on the product to give a baseline read as to its functionality. Reviews are only as useful as the intelligence of the reviewer (in other words, pick your review sites well and look for the posts that use proper grammar, spelling, etc. And I haven't been able to find any actual documented tests on the reliability of the Vessyl. Therefore, I'm not entirely convinced by it. It could be a load of crap.
Secondly, there is no verifiable information on their webpage, no outside links to studies or tests, nothing I can see besides marketing. The FAQ is useful, but doesn't answer a lot of questions. You can't even read short biographies on the team, and there is no further information outside of names and positions. Not a big shining star for reputability in my opinion.
Thirdly, like any new publishing house or agency, there is always a black hole of information about the product and the company. They don't have a long history and there's not much to be learned about their product or the business as a whole. In other words, they are given a lot of skepticism not from a bad reputation, but rather the lack of a reputation. And that's a good thing. Don't just blindly accept anything at face value.
My closing statement is thus. Being that this is still a prototype, there is still a lot of room to improve. But being that this is a prototype, you can always wait until they have a finished product and wait until there is more reliable information before buying it.
Final Judgement: Trust but verify. Wait on buying this product until all the Apple fanboys buy a million of them. When reliable, documented tests and studies have been done on the product, review the information, and decide then.
And now to answer the original question. In order for a product to be useful, it has to perform the function it was intended to do. In this case, that is provide an accurate read of the calories and nutrients consumed in any beverage contained within. In this case, useful is synonymous with "work". Thus the question right now is, does the product work? My answer is, I don't know. Whether it works or not is a black hole and until I buy one and verify, I can never know completely for certain. That's why I say, wait for more reputable information on it to surface.
Thank you for bearing with me on my long monologue. I hope this has been informative and helpful.0 -
It doesn't seem very useful if you can only use it for liquids (unless you tend to drink calorific drinks, I suppose).0
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I am so glad someone picked up on that.missiontofitness wrote: »They said they didn't want to resemble an Apple fan, not that it was made by Apple.
Right! $100 to measure my diet coke. Totally worth it... wait a minute.It doesn't seem very useful if you can only use it for liquids (unless you tend to drink calorific drinks, I suppose).
I am with the sounds too good to be true part there for sure... my next question would be, if it wasn't to good and it was true, do you really want to be seen drinking cocktails from it? :Phalobender wrote: »It definitely sounds too good to be true, but if it were, that'd be really neat. It would certainly make accounting for smoothies and such (cocktails) a lot easier.
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Meh, I don't really care what I'm seen drinking my beverages from. It used to be a ball mason jar until my girl broke it. Maybe I could finally convince people more capably that I'm actually from the future.0
This discussion has been closed.
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