Imagine being able to tell, in a matter of seconds, how much alcohol the bartender put into that margarita you ordered, your body’s water content (hydration), or the amount of fat in that fast food meal you just consumed—with a device small enough to be on a keychain. Science fiction? Not for a couple of upstart, crowd-funded companies, TellSpec and SCiO, both about to release similar devices which will allow you “to get instant relevant information about the chemical make-up of just about anything around you, sent directly to your smartphone” for the low, low price of $249.
These tiny devices use something called Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy, used in science labs for decades, to identify the molecular makeup of anything and everything. While the technology is not new, availability to the public has been almost non-existent due to the cost and size of the equipment required to conduct NIR spectroscopy analysis. TellSpec and SCiO have both come up with an idea that changes that—by miniaturizing the device used to zap samples with the proper light spectrum and a cloud-based analytical method involving math and algorithms. Both companies claim that anyone can use the devices on just about anything to find out what stuff is made of.