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Dining with the electric fork that could save lives
This prototype fork can help you eat less salt and could save lives. It sends a gentle electric current to your tongue as you eat, fooling tastebuds into experiencing a salty, (sometimes sour) taste -- even when there's little to no salt in the food itself. Despite the awkward notion of willingly putting an electric current into your mouth, the "electro-fork" can potentially tackle some legitimate health issues. According to the World Health Organization, we consume 10 grams of salt a day -- double the amount it recommends. This increases one's chances of hypertension, heart disease, strokes and more. So, in the interest of my health (and morbid curiosity), I went for a taste test.
HAPIfork smart fork now available for pre-order
HAPIlabs has announced that its unique HAPIfork smart fork is now available for pre-order and will ship on October 18. The HAPIfork was first demoed at CES this year and has successfully raised over US$100,000 on Kickstarter. HAPIfork monitors and tracks your eating habits by tracking your arm motion while eating with it. An LED will light up and the fork will vibrate if it registers that your plate-to-mouth speed is too rapid, which suggests you are eating too fast. The fork uses Bluetooth to send the data to an iOS app, which provides stats on your eating habits such as how long it took to eat your meal, the amount of "fork servings" taken per minute and the intervals between "fork servings." If you want a HAPIfork, go on over to their website where they'll redirect you to their reseller Brookstone. HAPIfork comes in your choice of five different colors and retails for US$99.
HAPIfork will tell you when to chew for $99 starting October 18th
The bossy utensil that got the mainstream media all worked up at CES will be available for purchase for $99 starting October 18th at the premiere purveyor of all things you didn't know you needed: Brookstone. HAPIfork, a Bluetooth-enabled fork that vibrates when you shovel food into your mouth at a pace that exceeds pre-programmed intervals, is already shipping to Kickstarter backers. Pre-orders start today, with direct purchases available exclusively from Brookstone online and in-store starting the 18th. If you're having trouble measuring your mastication, check out the press release after the break.
HAPIfork Kickstarter campaign goes live
Stick with us on this one: Yes, the HAPIfork is still just a Kickstarter project, as its US$100,000 campaign has just gone live on the fundraising site. And yes, most Kickstarter projects make better ideas than actual products. But the HAPIfork, unlikely as it may seem, was one of the biggest stars of CES 2013 back in January, so we figured it only right to let you know that you can now back and buy it if you're so inclined. Our friends at Engadget got to go hands-on with the latest version of the fork, which purports to help you track how quickly you eat (with the option to send your eating information back to an iPhone app if you like), and will vibrate to warn you if you're chowing down too fast. The bad news about the fork is that it's apparently very big -- the onboard electronics make the thing way bigger than your standard fork, which makes it a little unwieldy. But Engadget reports that the idea generally works: After a few vibrations, you get the idea, and the fork could actually slow down quicker eaters. At any rate, if that kind of thing sounds appetizing to you, you can get the HAPIfork at a discounted rate of $89 through the Kickstarter. That price is limited to the first 2,500 buyers, and then the price goes back up to the usual $99 (the company is planning to expand that in the future, to a cheaper model and a more premium model with a few extra features). If you've been waiting to get your hands on one of these since CES, there you go.
EaTheremin utensils add an eerie soundtrack to dinner (video)
Besides the constant worry, the worst part of being a parent to small children is the noise -- oh the noise, noise, noise, noise. Dozens of cheap disposable toys squabble over the attention of your toddler by piercing the memory of your formerly carefree existence with sound. Enter the EaTheremin, with its goal of making blanched kale a fun to eat game for even the most finicky of kids. Here's how it works: touching the EaTheremin fork to the moist mastication factory of a human completes the electrical circuit to emit "music." The sound varies based upon the quality of the connection (the wetter the better) and resistance of the food. For example, foodstuffs with a different outer and inner consistency will create richer and more complicated sounds as you bite into them, whereas chicken skins will create a vibrato effect as the dermis stretches against your carnivorous ways. Boy, that does sound fun! See a rather overzealous demonstration on video after the break.
