Yes, it is theoretically possible to figure out how much alcohol is in a drink by reading the labels.
But now let’s check in on the real world. Somebody hands you a frozen margarita. Are you going to measure its weight and volume, figure out the recipe for how it was made, convert the ingredients into percentages, check the labels to find out what percentage of every ingredient was alcohol, and then multiply and add all the numbers? I think a lot of people would find it easier to push a little button on the side of their glass and be told “this drink contains 32 grams of alcohol.”
I’d like to point out that based on what the company has claimed so far - this device doesn’t simply figure out that the cup holds Pepsi - and then gives the nutrition info on it by lookup. Yes it is clear it has an impressive database (one article claimed it was able to identify any of I think about 10-12 off the shelve items in it) - but also any home brewed smoothie or such.
It if could do such a thing - I will be very impressed. I have my doubts. This is an astonishing claim to be able to perform. It does claim it can’t differentiate between different brands of apple juice - as they are too similar.
How useful it is? I love how whenever something cool like this comes out - everyone claims it isn’t useful. So what - don’t want it - don’t buy it. It isn’t that “useful” as in 99% or people will never buy one. Who cares - it is cool as shit.
I don’t think they will reach the point of having people walking around using their vessyls as intentded, but this is awesome technology if true. Presumably (if true again) you could smoothie up almost anything and figure out with some dilution built in at least something about what is inside.
So far I haven’t seen any reports on the accuracy of homemade beverages - I mean the device isn’t magic. It has to be using some sensors to determine something. How accurate are they?
I’m tempted to put in a preorder for one.
I don’t believe it is real - there has to be some catch, but am happy to be proven wrong.
As I said above, I don’t believe there’s a way to determine alcohol content from a quick scan, so I don’t believe what you’re picturing this doing is possible. I defer to people with more knowledge of chemistry and electronics than I, but the more I think about this thing the less I expect from it when it’s finally released.
You’re at a gathering, and somebody hands you a frozen margarita. You turn and pour it into your stainless steel computer mug, and start checking your phone for the content and alcohol readout. And everyone else in the room slowly backs away.
Or you could do it at a bar. That would really mark you as one of the cool kids. It would be even better if you were wearing Google Glass at the same time.
That it can analyse anything you can drink - and specifically mentions very hot coffee (saying that anything that couldn’t measure something at the temperature you’d drink it at wouldn’t be useful)
It can measure the fat/calorie/protien content of a beverage
And knowing that butter melts at a much lower temperature than safely drinkable hot coffee + that the fat conent of I can’t believe it’s not butter & actual butter are markedly different
You should easily be able to tell the difference between the two if they are telling the truth
It wasn’t clear. The article says it could detect alcohol but didn’t explicitly state it could measure the amount. But I figure if they can measure the amount of calories in a drink (which is mentioned) then measuring the amount of alcohol is on the horizon.
Like questions about the cost, questions about the specific features are a separate issue from the discussion of whether those features are useful.
Hi it’s your insurance agent. We see you’ve drunk more than the Nationally Recommended Average for soda so we are raising your insurance premiums 300%/or disallowing any future claims. Have a great day?"
I’d totally buy one of these and go everywhere pouring random crap into it just to see what it said. But that’s most likely just because I’m a strange person.
Yes, but if I buy coffee and pour ‘some’ milk into it, how much fat content did it actually get? An actual fat content report may help me make better decisions about my diet.
If your diet is so strict, or so unhealthy, or whatever, that you need the EXACT fat content of the dollop of milk that you pour into your coffee, then your problems probably are too big to be solved by a computerized mug.
I don’t get why you’re so antagonistic about this product. Much more stupid gadgets have sold extremely well and made their creators very wealthy. The guys who invented and are marketing this know full well that the smart cup isn’t ever going to be a necessity or save lives. They think, and I wouldn’t bet against it, that there will be a big market for it. Firstly, it will sell to fad dieters for people trying to lose weight and extreme exercisers. Secondly, like the Apple Ap Store, other people will come up with uses for the tech that hasn’t occurred to anyone yet.
You keep mistaking me. I’m not really mocking the product. The technology, and the implementation of it, seem quite impressive, at least if the claims of the maker turn turn out to be true.
I’m mocking anyone who would buy one.
Edit:
Amend that to: I’m mocking anyone who would buy one without some medical need to strictly monitor the intake of particular types of nutrients, fats, or whatever.
Even if this particular product isn’t very useful, it seems to me that the technology behind it could have many medical uses. Just off the top of my head, a device that can measure the sugar content of a soft drink should also be able to measure the sugar content of a diabetic’s blood, for instance. Don’t current testers rely on disposable test strips?
