Philadelphia-based startup Fitly has posted a new Kickstarter project promotion for the SmartPlate, a plate that instantly tracks or analyzes the food that one is about to eat.
The SmartPlate is a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi-enabled hardware. It comes fully equipped with sensors and three digital cameras powered by an image recognition technology. It instantly recognizes and quantifies the food on the three sections of the plate's surface, and then transmits the information that includes the weight of the food, with its calorie count and nutritional value to a corresponding free Android or iOS app on the mobile device.
The appeal of Fitly's SmartPlate lies in its ability to track meals over time, and build a database of eating habits that will allow users to make better food choices and stay close to their daily calorie goals. In case users forgot to bring their plates, they can still monitor their meals by scanning the barcodes of the food using the said app.
Fitly is requesting for a minimum pledge of $99 for the limited sale edition of SmartPlate available in three colors (fuchsia, teal and purple), and as of this writing, there is still 99 left out of 200 plates. Fitly mentioned on their Kickstarter page that the intelligent plates can be shipped to any countries, and shipping price will vary based on the buyer's address. Regular retail price of the SmartPlate will be $199 and delivery schedule starts June 2016, as they already have a working prototype, and Fitly said they are ready for production once they reached the $100,000 goal.
There will be a portable, microwaveable lid if one will pledge at least $129; the regular retail price of the plate with the lid is $229. A pledge of $10,000 will avail of their special package consisting of 2 10-case SmartPlates in all three colors plus portable lids with early shipment.
The Kickstarter project has, at the time of writing, collected $16,517 of its $100,000 goal with 153 backers and still got 45 days left.
According to Fitly, SmartPlate's surface design is a result of several researches regarding people's eating habits. Its shape, Squircle, partly square and partly circle, will give an illusion of a larger size plate. According to their study, the average dinner plate is about 12 inches in diameters and with larger plates we tend to eat larger portions as well. For this reason, their design is 10 inches only in diameter with white-colored surface area for contrast. They designed the dinner plate so that every serving is the right amount each time.
