A Delicious use for 3D laser scanning
“Look both ways before you cross the street.” “Never take candy from strangers.” We’ve all heard those statements because our parents love us. But I have a new one for you, “Don’t eat your food until you’ve zapped it with a laser.“ That is great advice! Your grandma would have never told you that because laser scanning services were not part of her generation. Today, though, 3D laser scanning services are spreading like yeast in Grandma’s old fashion biscuits. Today, the food industry is using 3D laser scanning, and you are going to like the reason.
3D Laser Scanning your Food
Let me tell you about it. Today, I came across an article about a device that can laser scan your food. “Now why would I want to laser scan my food?” you ask. My response is, “Why would you not want to laser scan your food?” I doubt if you can come up with a quick response to that. Well, If someone has spent the time to make a device that scans your food, I would think that there must be a reason. So my response would be, “Cool! Tell me more!”
Are those spuds safe?
So if you could use 3D laser scanning services to tell you something about your food, what would you want it to tell you? How much fat was in it? Did the person who cooked it wash his hands? When will it go bad? Well, unfortunately, this scanner wont tell you any of those things, but it will tell you the level of the cancer causing chemical acrylamide that is in your fried food, more specifically, French fries. A gal by the name of Lien Smeesters at the University of Brussels, working together with Tomra Sorting Solutions, has developed this scanner. It can inspect a fried spud quicker and better than you can whistle Dixie. By zapping the fries with an infrared laser it can detect what bad thing is sticking to that potato by the light reflected. Pretty cool, huh?
Who’s it for?
It sound like a really cool invention, right? But before you get too excited and jump into the car to find one at Walmart, you should know that these are not handheld scanners for you to take into McDonalds. These scanners are for factory conveyor belts. As the spuds fall onto the belt, the laser scanner is able to detect bad food and separate them from the good food. Even though you can’t hand scan your own fries, it should still make you feel good. These spuds that are packaged and sold in the supermarkets are being pre-scanned for cancer causing chemicals.
Lien Smeester really deserves to be honored for this fan-potato-tastic invention, and you don’t need to ask me. Ask those at the Photonics Public Private Partnership Annual Meeting who gave her a student award for awesome innovation. We all know that french fries are bad for us, but none of us want to give them up. Thanks to Seemster, we can eat our fries with a smile. Now I just hope that she will start working on a 3D laser scanning services project that could zap the calories and onions out of my burger. If she can do that, she will win another award I’m sure.
