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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

SCiO

ImpactVision Raises $1.3M to Combat Food Waste with Hyperspectral Imaging

ImpactVision, which uses hyperspectral imaging to determine food quality, raised $1.3 million to further develop its technology. Agfunder News reports that the seed round was led by Acre Venture Partners (which is backed by Campbell’s Soup).

Using a combination of digital imaging, spectroscopy and machine learning, Impact Vision’s technology allows food companies to take a picture of food, analyze the unique spectral reflections of the light, and determine nutritional content, fat and protein content and freshness level.

With this automated and non-invasive technique, ImpactVision hopes to help make the food chain more transparent, improve the quality and freshness of food available, and reduce food waste.

According to its site, ImpactVision currently offers software packages that can work with beef, white fish, bananas and avocados. These packages include a camera for acquiring the hyperspectral data, and the software platform to provide analysis and results.

Digital imaging and AI analysis is getting its moment in the sun when it comes to food production. At our recent Smart Kitchen Summit, Consumer Physics showed off its handheld SCiO spectrometer food sensor, which, in conjunction with machine learning in the cloud, identifies various components of food like salmon. The SCiO has been used up the food chain to better identify the quality of feed given to milk cows.

ImpactVision is currently in paid pilot programs with a handful of food companies. It says the money raised will go towards developing its technology, and expand its platform to work with a range of hyperspectral sensors.

Bosch Shows Off Food Scanner, Hints At Appliance Integration

It looks like Consumer Physics may have some competition.

At IFA last week, Bosch showed off a food and stain scanner concept called the X-Spect. Bosch’s Dr. Arndt von Bieren told CNET the technology is similar to that of Consumer Physics’ SCiO in that it scans food and can determine their molecular makeup. One major difference with the SCiO, however, is that the processing and algorithmic “secret sauce” happens in the cloud.

The X-Spect marks the first time a big consumer appliance brand has publicly announced a molecular spectrometer project.   In a way, Bosch’s announcement validates Consumer Physics’ strategy, who told The Spoon in July that they were working with appliance makers to integrate their technology into their kitchen lineups to enable instant food scanning. With Bosch’s announcement, it’s clear that the startup may face competition from appliance makers themselves.

The X-Spect’s cloud-based processing and integrated connectivity are interesting for a couple of reasons. One is that it makes it easier for information to be sent to Bosch’s connected appliances. Bosch, like other appliance brands, has been busy the last couple years adding Wi-Fi and more processing power to their products. By allowing the X-Spect to talk to these devices, appliances will be able to leverage the results from the X-Spect without the full integration of the scanner into the appliance itself, which could mean faster time to market.

Bosch X-Spect Scanner: Wie reif ist das Obst?

Secondly, cloud processing could also be a way to sidestep some of the intellectual property in this space established by Consumer Physics and others. As reported by the Spoon back in July, the Israel startup has been issued a number of patents in the area of infrared spectrometry and food scanning. This means their IP portfolio was established well before the X-Spect, a project which Bosch’s Von Bieren said originated five months ago. And of course, Bosch is a company with a well-established research apparatus, so it could be the technology behind the X-Spect utilizes some of the company’s own previously established IP.

I’m personally excited to see a major appliance maker throw their hat in the “food sensing” ring. Over time, our appliances will increasingly have “digital senses” that can tell us how fresh our food is, detect for allergens and caloric/nutritional makeup.  We already have instant gluten sensors from the likes of Nima, and there is a company in France that is creating what is essentially a “digital nose” to smell food for us. With the X-Spect, it looks like appliance makers are interested in adding “digital senses” as a feature to our appliances.

Don’t miss the Wall Street Journal’s Wilson Rothman discussing digital sensing tech with Consumer Physics CEO Dror Sharon and others at the Smart Kitchen Summit.  

SCiO Food Sensing Tech Moves Both Up Food Chain And Towards The Kitchen

Look up or down the food supply chain, and you’ll see an increasing use of technology. Dairy production is no different, where farmers are relying more on modern technology to optimize their milk output.

Perhaps the biggest lever dairy farmers can pull in creating better output is making sure dairy cow inputs – aka feed – is highly optimized. This is where Consumer Physics come in. That’s right, the company behind the somewhat controversial SCiO handheld near-infrared spectrometer has partnered with one of the world’s biggest food commodity conglomerates in Cargill to create a scanner that uses the same technology to analyze cattle forage – the corn silage and haylage fed to milk cows – for the amount of dry matter.

So what is dry matter and why does it matter?

Dry matter is the amount that remains after water is removed. It matters to farmers because the amount of dry matter in feed has a significant impact on milk production.

According to Shane St. Cyr, Cargill Strategic Dairy Services and Technology Scout for Cargill, changes in the dry matter means changes to “the ration. Cows may be getting too many nutrients which may not be a health or production risk, but it can certainly impact the bottom line. On the other hand, if the ration doesn’t match what we think is being fed to the cows, they may have a nutritional loss, and a cow can’t physically eat enough to make up for it.”

For Consumer Physics, this move into big ag is further validation for a company that continues to have skeptics. The reason for doubters is a canceled Kickstarter page that is a is a result of naming dispute with SCIO Health Analytics. Because of their Kickstarter struggles, some have called the company’s technology “too good to be true.”

Here’s the thing, though: Not only did the company finally ship its handheld food scanner to backers and has legitimate intellectual property that’s been validated by the issuance of US patents, but they keep partnering with large, established companies like Cargill and Analog Devices. These size companies would likely not launch a product without doing their due diligence.

I caught up with the CEO of Consumer Physics, Dror Sharon, who told me this latest deal is part of the company’s strategy to push the SCiO platform further up the food chain and into a wider set of products and applications. Fueling this move is the company’s app developer kit, which they released last year and, according to Sharon, is now in the hands of three thousand developers.

And while the company is working with everyone from agricultural health to mobile phone makers to get SCiO tech built directly into devices, Sharon sees the home appliance market – in particular, the kitchen appliance market – as the lynchpin for mass market adoption.

“The mass consumer strategy is to get it embedded into kitchen appliances,” Sharon told me. “Smart stoves, smart blenders, smart ovens, smart refrigerators. Anything that makes sense to have this sensing capability in it.”

He said that having SCiO technology could not only help consumers better understand the freshness of food as well as its nutritional content but also help them to reorder the type of food “that doesn’t have bar codes on it.”

“It will help you reorder the kind of apples you like.”

While Sharon didn’t say exactly when we can expect to see SCiO built into appliances, he did say Haier, a Chinese appliance conglomerate, showed off a proof of concept of a fridge with the SCiO technology in March.  The Haier news came just months after French manufacturer Terraillon announced they would build the SCiO technology into their Nutrismart scale.

So as the company continues to build credibility through more deals with established partners and to add commercial use cases to its application list, it also looks like it is slowly but surely pushing its technology towards the consumer kitchen.

If you want to see Dror Sharon talk about putting SCiO technology into kitchen appliances, he will be speaking at the Smart Kitchen Summit. Use the discount code SPOON to get 25% off of tickets. 

The Future Of How (And What) We Eat

As connectivity is transforming the way we live, work and shop, there is a heavy focus on technology’s role in our everyday lives. The internet pushed us into a global economy and the internet of things will connect us to our stuff and to the people who make our stuff. What about food? We’ve explored the way kitchen appliances are evolving and the way grocers and retailers are shifting the way our food gets to our plates. Could the revolution change the way we eat?

VR Comes To Dinner

Picture this: you’re sitting at a dinner table, but instead of a fork and a knife in front of you, it’s a bunch of electrodes connected to your tongue and jaw. With the right amount of electrical and thermal stimulation on your taste buds and muscles, those electrodes can actually trick your brain into thinking your tasting – and chewing – something sweet. Sounds like something from a sci-fi movie, but it’s real work being done by food scientists.

But this is all stuff in a lab – could it ever be commercialized? One group calling themselves Project Nourished thinks so and have developed a type of virtual reality tourism around it.  The experience involves a VR headset but also a diffuser to mimic food aromas and even a “bone conduction transducer” which creates the sound of chewing. The future of VR eating might mean some day you could sit at a table in Cleveland and experience the sites, sounds and tastes of a restaurant in southern Italy. In addition to tourism, the diet and nutrition industry could also capitalize, developing programs where people would think they were snacking on their favorite treat – without the calories and guilt that come with it.

Looking Inside Your Food

We’ve become hyper aware of the food we eat – where it comes from, if it’s healthy, organic, or non-GMO. But usually , we have to rely on labels to tell us if something is good – or safe – for us to eat. Seeing an opportunity, startups are addressing this problem with different types of scanning technology.

One of the more well-known and embattled companies in this space is Consumer Physics, makers of the SCiO,  an infrared spectrometer. The device was designed to read the molecular makeup – including calories and nutrients – of food. The company struggled to bring a solid product to market and faced legal challenges and since then has moved to putting its software inside mobile phones. Others like French kitchen device company Terraillon are developing kitchen scale with an embedded SCiO that scan food and read the nutritional info – less revolutionary, but still attempting to provide visibility into what we eat.

Perhaps the most promising in the sensor-powered food monitoring category is Silicon Valley startup Nima. Nima’s flagship product is a portable gluten sensor, able to detect small amounts of gluten – a largely hidden ingredient – inside of food. The science behind the product involves a chemical reaction that takes place using elements inside a disposable pod. Food placed inside the pod is then tested for antibodies and a simple happy or sad face reading is given based on the result. Nima’s advisors claim the same technology could be used to detect other allergens like peanut butter or dairy.

So – could technology make you think you’re eating chocolate when you’re actually consuming just air? Could a portable device tell you exactly what’s in the food you’re about to enjoy or even better – warn you of a potential allergic reaction?

It looks as though the future of eating might include more technology than we think.

This post was originally by The Spoon as part of a Smart Home magazine distributed at the Home and Housewares Show.

Consumer Physics, Maker of Controversial SCiO Food Sensor, Pursues A ‘SCiO-Inside’ Strategy

Back when Consumer Physics debuted the SCiO on Kickstarter back in 2014, the tech world was amazed at what the company claimed its handheld $200 device would eventually do: determine the molecular makeup – including the calorie count and nutrients – of food by scanning it with an infrared spectrometer. The amazing claims helped the company raise over $2.7 million on Kickstarter.

However, since a highly successful crowdfunding campaign, the road has been a bit rockier for the Israel-based startup. First was a delay in shipping the product, and last year the company’s Kickstarter page was taken down due to what was described as an “intellectual property dispute”, which the company claims is not about the actual technology, but instead a naming dispute.

Despite their Kickstarter issues, the company did finally ship its handheld molecular scanner. While the initial reviews have been mixed and some remain skeptical about SCiO’s claims, the company has actually found a new way to bring its technology to market: through third party OEMs.

At CES this year, the company announced a partnership with Chinese mobile phone maker Changhong, which has worked with both Consumer Physics and silicon manufacturer Analog Devices to put the Scio tech for the first time into a mobile phone. While Changhong isn’t exactly Apple or Samsung, the integration of Scio’s technology is an encouraging since for Consumer Physics. Adding additional credibility is the fact Analog Devices – one of the biggest mobile silicon manufacturers – had lent its name to the announcement.

Another intriguing announcement came in the form of the Nutrismart scale by Terraillon. The French kitchen device company announced its kitchen scale would be able to scan food and give a read of the nutritional information. Terraillion has said they will launch the smart scale in Europe this year and hope to bring it to the US by 2018.

So despite the continued Kickstarter suspension, Consumer Physics seems intent on pushing forward with its technology.   The company’s recent deals may mark a new way forward that could allow it to reach more consumers through a “SCiO-Inside” type of strategy.

We’ll keep an eye out for early reviews from the initial customers of its partner products later this year.