A crowd-funded Israeli startup company is about to ship its first sensors to the 13,000 people who funded the project via the Kickstarter website.

The SCiO pocket molecular sensor is a handheld near infrared (NIR) spectrometer, which is paired with a Smartphone application and cloud-based database to enable consumers to better understand the contents of foods and other products they buy.

Conventional spectrometers are very large and expensive, and not something a consumer could utilize. However, Consumer Physics’ founders felt that a pocket NIR spectrometer could be very handy for consumers, for example checking the ripeness of fresh foods they select at a grocery store. However, as one potential use of the technology is to check ripeness of fruits and vegetables it could find a use with growers and agronomists.

Consumer Physics is beginning to ship software development kits (SDKs) to the researchers, coders and scientists who backed the project. Each SDK includes a SCiO scanner, case, mini-USB charging cable, as well as access to the SCiO SDK software.

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