NerdBeach

Intelligent Plastic Sensors Hold the Key to Freshness Meters

FreshMeter "How long has the lettuce been out there?", I ask myself as I examine the crate of produce that has washed up from the Cyber Sea.  I am almost tempted to ignore the find, until I spot a fresh-o-meter tag on the packages.  With a glance I see that the veggies are in perfect health, so it looks like there will be a salad in my immediate future as a castaway at Nerd Beach.

Intelligent Plastic Sensors are low cost "smart meters" that can tell the freshness of the package you are holding. The meter aspect can be presented in a variety of styles, from bars and graphs to disappearing and appearing words  The uses include:

  • Food and beverage products – freshness monitoring
  • Health care product efficacy monitoring – vaccines, blood, pharmaceuticals
  • Human & animal physiology monitoring
  • Air and water quality – emissions monitoring
  • Residual life of filters, monitoring the concentration of sanitizers e.g. pool chlorination and hospital hygiene
  • Pollution control – toxic emissions monitoring
  • Electrical equipment – corrosion from exposure to moisture vapor
  • Agriculture – soil quality, plant nutrition, fermentation processing

So far the proof of concept has been passed by an independent assessment, so it could be appearing on products near you in the foreseeable future.  Although I do have to wonder – will they ship in a package that has a fresh label on it?

Aloha from the Beach

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