Biohacking just made a huge leap forwards. An international team from Brazil, Germany, France, and the USA have, after 2 years of research, released the world's first real-time health and nutrition sensor. A few prototypes have been sent to the public after this successful indiegogo campaign.
To be completely fair, I was very skeptical when I saw the news on this device pass my favorite future-tech websites. It smelled like another scam from the 'natural health' industry. Especially when I read they also plan to give recommendations (or sell them outright?) about supplement intake. But after digging deep into their tech and research documents, I must conclude they might be on to something here.
How does it work?
The One X is just a little ball that fits in the palm of your hand. It measures your skin antioxidant level. Just hold the ball for 20 seconds and it will show you your health. The logic goes that your skin is the biggest organ in your body (which is true), and that your skin carotenoids antioxidant level is a clear indication of how healthy your lifestyle is. The research behind this exists, and links to many scientific studies can be found on their main website here. I'm missing the biological knowledge to really grasp how their technology is able to read this data from the palm of your hand, but it has something to do with 'reflection spectroscopy'.
After holding the One X for 20 seconds, the data gets fed to a mobile app where you can check your antioxidant levels at a glance. This allows you to track your progress and see what effect lifestyle changes have on your body (well, on your antioxidant level at least).
But the real cool part is that it allows you to track your diet. They made a patented software called One X Eye, that enables you go get an analysis of your dinner just by taking a picture of your plate. The app will then give you personal recommendations on your diet. You can also input your own actions into it, such as fitness and alcohol intake.
I just love this kind of disrupting technology, although I would like to see a bit more real-world proof that this is actually an accurate way of checking on your health. I'm still waiting for those nanobots to come and fix up my broken body... :D
You can pre-order the One X at the indiegogo page for $129. They are due to shop in May 2017. And yes, I WILL be getting one, just because it's futuristic nerdy shit!
Steem on!
Menta
More info:
http://one-x.co/home
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/one-x-own-your-health--3#/