Category: Food and Beverage

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Connected Objects Food and Beverage

Proscan scans food for nutritional content

It’s always best for everybody to know exactly what’s in the food they’re eating -– especially if they’re on a diet or have a serious allergy to foods such as peanuts. Unfortunately, a list of ingredients isn’t always available.

Proscan is a water resistant device that quickly scans any food and displays a list of the calories, energy, carbohydrates, protein, cholesterol and dietary fiber that it contains. The device works by using a load sensor, optical sensor (spectrometer), other advanced sensors and complex algorithms to analyze food and then display its nutritional content on the device’s touch-sensitive display screen or on a Bluetooth-connected iPhone, Apple Watch, Android device, or Windows Phone. In speaker mode, all scan results are read aloud via Proscan’s speakers.

Provided that a $50,000 goal is reached by April 14, Proscan will ship in December in a choice of a Beam (rectangular) model or a round version. The entry price is about $349 for a regular model. Proscan Mini versions will cost about $238, while customized versions with color options and engraved wording will cost about $419. The Indiegogo campaign is slated to end on April 14.

There have been other food scanner campaigns in recent memory. The SCiO is one product that comes to mind, although that product was designed to analyze surrounding environments as well. If Proscan works as easily and seamlessly as it appears to in its Indiegogo campaign video, the product may very well hold some promise. Still, a pocket device like SCiO seems much more practical, especially when dining at a restaurant or traveling, which would seem to be when users would want it most.

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Connected Objects Food and Beverage

Tlinkle connected tumblers keep couples connected

Technology has the bad reputation of being anti-social, and it isn’t hard to see why. With the way the devices available on the marketplace dominate the attention span, most agree on the negative effects it can have on relationships and behavior. In response the growing trend of humanizing technology is springing up, offering products that aim to connect, rather than disconnect, those who choose to use it.

The Tlinkle is a prime example of this sort of technology. The product is a Bluetooth-enabled tumbler that lights up when another designated Tlinkle is used. By leveraging a touch sensor below the tumbler’s frame, the embedded LED lights up with the corresponding color of who’s drinking from it. The Tlinkle is ideal for couples, but also shines between friends or within a family, all in the name of letting loved ones know you’re thinking about them.

Although the product is well intentioned, the amount of sips taken throughout the day will quickly make each moment of lit-up refreshment lose their importance. The companion app aims to alleviate that with community features, but even those seem half baked. Something like Smartstones is a bit more ambitious, and because of that ultimately more exciting.

A Tlinkle is awarded for $70, and is expected to ship in October of this year, given a successful $40,000 campaign.

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Food and Beverage

Snackadium: build it on your dining room table, and they will come

There’s something about having a house full of people who love football, food and fun that makes watching a game on that big screen TV the perfect day. Especially when the food is arranged on the table to look like a Snackadium. It adds a perfect pizzazz to the party atmosphere when the snacks are arranged in the shape of a stadium.

The unique food storage container comes with eleven pieces that make up the field, grandstands, and end zone. It’s touted as being customizable, easy to assemble, clean, and microwavable, but it’s not clearly stated if it’s safe for dishwashers. Even so, it might actually be worth the inconvenience of washing this item by hand just because of how clever it looks and the ooohs and aaahs it will inspire from guests. Super Bowl-loving backers might also like to check out the Bottleloft, the Kickoff Kaddy, the GrillOven, and the Rotissa-Fry.

This campaign seeks to raise $250,000 by March 8. Backers can get one product for $100, with an expected delivery in August of this year.

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Food and Beverage

Ican warms office grinch’s heart by keeping coffee warm or soda cold

While the product’s video doesn’t seem to have much of a point to it as it plays the Grinch song, the point of ican itself seems to be that it can function as a personal drink warmer or cooler. The hot coffee poured into one’s mug at the office can stay hot during that excruciatingly boring board meeting; or that cold can of soda can stay cool while crunching headache-inducing numbers.

The personal drink heating and cooling unit plugs into a standard outlet, and there are plans in the works for it to be able to plug into a car cigarette lighter and run off of the car battery for all of those road warriors out there.

Ican seems to be an interesting idea worth checking into further. Backers who like having their drinks delivered on demand might like to check out the Rover remote control cooler.This campaign seeks to raise $40,000 in funding. For $125, backers get one product with an expected delivery in July of this year.

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Food and Beverage Technology

SalivaScanner scans salads, sandwiches, soup for spit

If an order placed at a restaurant isn’t to one’s liking, there’s always the recourse of complaining or sending it back. Letting the food out of sight, however, leaves it open for all kinds of potential revenge if one has been something less than a gracious guest.

Tpatent-claimedhe SalivaScanner from San Diego-based Klein Electronics is a handheld device that scans food and can detect certain enzymes that are only found in human saliva. The company’s CEO notes that detecting saliva in one’s food has become more important than ever because Ebola can be transmitted through the exchange of bodily fluids. The scanner’s LCD will indicate if there is saliva in food and, if so, how much. An accompanying Android and iOS app will display more details and track data including the location of the incident and potentially report it to social media sites. No pricing for the device is listed at the Kickstarter campaign and none of the three rewards for pledges that are listed include the device itself. But Klein says the target price is $199. He is looking to raise $85,000 in order to finish developing the product.

The device might have some appeal as a novelty. But using the Ebola outbreak to help sell the device borders on fear mongering. And consumers who are so paranoid that they need to scan their food for saliva would likely be better off not eating out at all, or at least consider complaining to restaurant staff in a more civil way.

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Food and Beverage

Pop & Stop pops open a cold one, stops beer waste

It’s frustrating when a beer drinker opens up a cold one and somebody carelessly knocks it over–especially when it’s an expensive brew. Equally frustrating is when somebody wants to save the rest of that bottle of premium beer for the next day (or up to 48 hours later) after passing out drunk before being able to finish it.The two-in-one bottle opener and sealer Pop & Stop was created mainly to address the catastrophic problem of beer waste.

The keychain-sized product is designed to be portable and replace the bottle opener that many people already carry. It won’t cut your leg if it’s in your pocket and move the wrong way, like some traditional metal bottle openers will. More importantly, it has the added advantage of also serving as a sealing device for a bottle after it’s opened. Backers who pledge $6 will get a molded unit when it ships in May, while those who pledge $8 will get a 3D printed one immediately. The Denver inventor who made it is looking to raise $8,500 by Feb. 21.

There is a huge potential market for Pop & Stop. Unfortunately, it won’t work on some twist-off bottles. So, if the drinker’s favorite beer only comes in that kind of bottle, the product will have little appeal to that person. The molded version has a smoother texture than the 3D printed version, and also features stronger plastic. But the molded version is not recyclable, a distinct drawback.

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Food and Beverage

Brewski lets you create signature beer, wine or cider at home

Creating one’s own drinks can make for a great conversation starter at a party or when entertaining at home. And Brewski allows those who enjoy exercising their creative muscles in this area the opportunity to make beer, wine or cider and flavor it to personal tastes.

The drink creation station makes about 2.5 gallons at a time (or 30 standard beer bottles) and stores easily on a shelf or convenient counter space. Brewski offers video tutorials that explain how to create beer using the product and included brewing kit, or it is compatible with other brewing kits. Beer bottles with non-twist tops can be washed, refilled and recapped with the bottle capper.

Interested backers might also want to check out Brewie, a similar home-brewing product, but one that doesn’t offer wine and cider like the Brewski does. This campaign seeks to raise $150,000 NZD (~$112,000 USD) on Kickstarter. Early bird backers get one product for $369 (~$275 USD) with an expected delivery of July 2015.

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Food and Beverage

Handle This Cup helps keep your brew where it belongs

Some people would say that there’s nothing that rounds out a great sporting event like a cup of beer. But getting that golden delight from concession stand to stadium seat without spilling it can be challenging. Especially when one has been delegated as the group beer-run-boy.

In order to help keep as much brew in everyone’s Solo cup as possible, Handle This Cup was created. The plastic cup carrying system allows for multiple cups to be carried in one hand, and the only apparent limit is how much beer one can lift and how rapidly one’s head happens to be spinning from any previous beers. The product can be customized to have the logo and colors of one’s favorite team, or with one’s business logo for advertising.

Even though this product is really for those game-loving beer drinkers, it’s still useful, albeit slightly silly. Beer-loving backers might also enjoy checking out Kickoff Kaddy, Das Kühling, and Brewie. This campaign seeks to raise $13,421 by February 9, 2015. Early bird backers get one product for $10 with an expected delivery of May 2015.

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Food and Beverage

Hailstonez ice spheres chill your drinks, won’t ruin them with dilution

While the right drink can be the perfect complement to a well-cooked meal, a drink that’s watered down certainly distracts from it.

So Hailstonez is changing the way that drinks are kept chilled. The product was thought of using the concept of heat transference through solids; in this case, cold retention. Since a sphere has the lowest surface-area-to-weight ratio of all shapes, a sphere of frozen ice is better than an ice cube. Less surface area of the ice in contact with any liquid means that ice spheres won’t melt as quickly, which in turn means drinks dilute less rapidly. The vertical stack method that Hailstonez uses allows for the ice mold to be filled faster, and it takes up less space in the freezer. The mold makes 96 ice spheres. Plans are in the works for both 1.5 and 2.5 inch ice balls.

This particular product seems like it has some potential, and is much more clearly explained than the Glacious LE ice sphere campaign. This campaign seeks to raise $58,000 on Kickstarter. Early bird backers get one product for $30 with an expected delivery of May 2015.

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Food and Beverage

Forkeo adds a touch of sophistication to enjoying milk and cookies

One of the best combinations in life is Oreos and milk. Whoever thought of this was just a food genius. Some people enjoy the feel of a wet cookie in between their fingers and licking the chocolate crumbs off their fingertips in between each cookie. Some, however, do not.

Forkeo has great appeal to those who enjoy a cleaner dining experience. The two-pronged fork simply gets stuck into the icing in between the cookie parts and then dunked into one’s favorite glass or mug full of milk. While a regular fork works just a well, Forkeo is disposable. So no one has to do any dishes if that and a paper cup are used.

Of course disposable forks could be used, but they don’t look as cool. The cookie dunking aide appears to be compatible with Hydrox cookies, too. Interested backers might also like to check out Dunkin’ Buddy. This campaign seeks to raise $8,500 on Kickstarter. For $5, backers get a pack of 15 with an expected delivery of March 2015.