This Star Trek Gadget Scans Your Lunch And Tells You How Many Calories It Has

An Israeli company has created a machine which could turn out to be dieters’ best friend - or worst enemy.

The Scio is a handheld scanner which fires a beam of light at foodstuffs, and comes back with how many calories you are about to scoff.

It can also be used to tell, for instance, if an avocado is ripe or not - and to identify what drugs are in a tablet.

The technology is eerily similar to the handheld scanners used in Star Trek - and was shown off identifying a Viagra tablet.

The Scio uses near-infrared spectroscopy to analyse what it’s looking at, detecting what sorts of molecules are in food.

The app compares the data from the scanner with a list of known foods to come up with a calorie count (although you still have to tell it how much you are eating).

Company CEO Dr haron said: 'Our pill-scanning application is all about identifying the pill itself. In fact, it can distinguish between a brand-name aspirin and generic aspirin.'