ISRAEL-MOLECULAR SENSOR Israeli firm makes sense of sensing

Record ID: 398789

  • Title: ISRAEL-MOLECULAR SENSOR Israeli firm makes sense of sensing
  • Date: 18th November 2014
  • Summary: DROR SHARON, CONSUMER PHYSICS CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, STANDING NEAR COMPANY EMPLOYEES WHILE LOOKING AT COMPUTER SCREEN 'SCIO' MOBILE DETECTOR (SOUNDBITE) (English) CONSUMER PHYSICS CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, DROR SHARON, SAYING: "We feel that while this is incredibly powerful and gives you incredible information like knowing which restaurant to go to tonight or knowing where to navig
  • Embargoed: 3rd December 2014 12:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8G9TQJJKCLU3ECJDBKZ3MY4UO
  • Story Text: We often eat food or buy products without knowing exactly what they contain. But a new Israeli device aims to completely transform this often mundane chore.
    'Scio', a portable sensor developed by Israeli start-up 'Consumer Physics', can identify the structure of materials based on the world's first and largest database of matter, the company says.
    "We feel that while this is incredibly powerful and gives you incredible information like knowing which restaurant to go to tonight or knowing where to navigate anywhere in the world, when it comes to the actual things around you, for example this tomato or these pills, you have no idea what you're actually getting," said Dror Sharon, the company CEO and Co-founder.
    "So we invented 'Scio', and 'Scio' is the first molecular sensor that fits in the palm of your hand. It scans the molecular fingerprint of materials and sends instant relevant information to your smartphone," he added.
    According to Sharon, the device uses a tiny optical sensor - a spectrometer - which absorbs light reflected back from an object and breaks it down into a spectrum light. The spectrum is then sent to the database in the cloud for analysis, and algorithms send back the analysis results to a regular smartphone application.
    "Scio uses spectroscopy - the science of light matter interaction. That interaction creates a fingerprint. That fingerprint is sent to our cloud for analysis. That fingerprint and the analysis create chemical understanding of the material using only light. That result is sent to your smartphone," Sharon said.
    In order to achieve this ability, Sharon said, the company has been measuring a myriad of everyday samples, in order to create the world's first and largest database of molecular information of materials that surround us. Excluded are materials which do not interact with light such as metals or crystalline substances.
    Sharon said that initial studies have shown that 'Scio' can check nutritional values and the ripeness of fruits. It cannot detect below a minimum amount of matter and it is limited to the area in front of the scanner.
    The company says the technology could eventually be applied to industries as diverse as food, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, healthcare, cosmetics, rubber or petrochemicals.
    Currently the company is in the initial stage of building its database and aims to mass produce its 'Scio' prototype in a far smaller version next year, Sharon said.
    He envisages a complete transformation of everyday experience with 'Scio'.
    "Potentially the product can completely transform either your shopping experience or your lifestyle experience. So, for example, you can imagine going travelling to a Third World country, you are going and you have a headache, you didn't bring your Advil, you go to the pharmacy and you ask 'can I get an Advil please?'. So they'll give you a pill but you have no idea what it says, you have no idea what's written on the package, you can sense it immediately. If you, for example, go every week to a farmers' market, you just like to go to a farmers' market and they tell you 'this kind of cheese, it's very low fat', you measure it on the spot and you know exactly what you're getting," he said.
    "I think in ten years' time we will be able to know much more about the world around us, learn about it much more, children will take it for granted that they can actually go around and teach themselves about the world and explore the world around them without mamma or papa telling them, you know, 'this is, be careful of this, this is what this exists', because there will be such a richness of applications and the ability to immediately know kind of the physical stuff around you, will be very powerful," he added.
    Sharon said that the device, with its cloud-based technology, will be marketed directly to consumers next March, and will cost $250 USD.
    The company says it has raised over $10 million USD in the past three-and-a-half years.
    It has been financed by various crowdfunding campaigns and strategic investors. It raised almost $3 million USD from 13,000 backers on Kickstarter this summer, he said, adding that the next step would be to ramp up to mass production and make the device smaller.
    Within a few years, Sharon said, he expects a minimised version of the sensor to be embedded in every smartphone or wearable device like a camera, used by millions of engaged consumers world-wide.
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