A lot has changed in the world of consumer electronics since the HAPIfork debuted at CES. Back in 2013, the smart utensil was one of the show's great oddities. In a world littered with me-too smartphones and tablets, the notion of a connected utensil seemed downright silly.
I'm not suggesting that the whole thing isn't still at least slightly amusing, but in these heady days of crowdfunding, smart everything, the world may finally truly be ready for the HAPIfork — or at least its smart utensilular brethren, Spün.
The product is more than just the titular tool. It's a sensor-packed handle that's bundled with interchangable spoon and fork heads. The idea here is to use the utensils to complete your calorie-counting fitness tracker, taking some of the guesswork out of the input.
Fire up the company's app when you sit down to a meal, snap and upload an image of the food, and it goes to working using image-recognition technology to figure out what you're eating. If it can't (say you're not the world's greatest cook or you're just eating something weird), you can just input that information manually, and that information will help the system create a more robust database of foodstuffs.
Sensors on the utensils measure the weight of each bite, which, when combined with the food information it has on hand, will calculate a total calorie count. The utensil heads can be detached from their sensor-filled handles for washing.
The company didn't actually have the finalized product on hand at CES, just prototypes of the final units and tethered versions that were in operation. When they're ready, they set will run around $75, shipping in a travel case because you're going to have to take them everwhere if you're really committed to the calorie counting cause.
