New app that scans FOOD, not labels.

Gee_24

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2452714/Tellspec-Future-dieting-Gadget-tells-calories-dinner-scanning.html

The small handheld gadget, which works with a mobile phone app, contains a spectrometer to analyse the chemical compounds in food.

How it works:

he small scanner contains a spectrometer.
Light is made up of particles called photons.
When you beam the low-powered laser in the TellSpec scanner at the food, some of the photons are absorbed, raising the energy states of the molecules in the food.
Lower energy photons are then reflected back.
The spectrometer inside the TellSpec scanner sorts these photons by wavelength and counts them.
The resulting numbers, called a spectrum, describe the chemical compounds in the food.
This spectrum is uploaded to a web server where it is analysed.
Information about the allergens, chemicals, nutrients, calories, and ingredients in the food is then downloaded to you and displayed on your mobile phone.

Hmmmm, I wonder if its going to be accurate?

heybales

No.

Because how much does the item weigh?

You could do the traditional method that mixes the food up and burns it to see how much heat is released, but if you don't know how much that sample weighed, than you have no calories per weight to apply to the full item.

So here - you got the chemical makeup of the item, if that really works accurately, so it looks up the calories per given mass, but how much is your mass you are eating?

Polly758

So then you weight it...

heybales

Considering the use of this, I'm guessing it's not in the home where you could likely look at a food label to actually get the required info, but in a situation of eating out.

i know there are mini scales, but that would be very interesting for each item on your plate, and the resulting mess.