World’s first pocket spectrometer

[sunshaker]

Looks a cool toy, I expect we will all soon be scanning our food.

 

 

This $250 device, is a wireless scanner that registers the light reflected off of an item. It transfers the information to an online database which immediately returns the chemical makeup of the scanned item. It is, essentially, a blend of a lab spectrometer and a smart phone camera.

 

https://www.minds.com/blog/view/491749598549778432/world%E2%80%99s-first-pocket-spectrometer-lets-you-measure-the-molecular-makeup-of-nearly-anything

[Sato]

I'm pretty sure I've read about pocket sized spectrometers a few years ago, if only for industry applications. But this one looks like it's to be commercial, which worries me that they dampened to quality, but very cool otherwise.

 

Here's a somewhat relevant paper about using a laser pointer to build a small, low-cost raman spectrometer, http://sites.northwestern.edu/vanduyne/files/2012/10/2004_Young.pdf. May be of interest.

[Lyudmilascience]

this is very interesting. but can it find out the material make up of anything useing this light? how accurate is it? i think if its so small and cheap it wouldn't be as accurate as non commercial lab spectrometers. I have never used one, but i have used a gigercounter/meter for testing radiation.

[John Cuthber]

Looks like dross to me.

At best it might be able to tell carrots from turnips- it certainly won't tell you if they are fit to eat.