Lapka Electronics has announced a set of four independent sensors that, when teamed up with an iPhone and its accompanying app, offer information pertaining to the unseen particles, ions, molecules and waves that surround us. The people behind Lapka have labeled it a "personal environment monitor".
The most compelling of the four sensors claims to test a food's level of organicity – as in, is it grown without the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers? This sensor works when the user inserts a steel probe into their meal that is designed to determine the levels of nitrates, commonly used in non-organic fertilizers, contained therein.
The other sensors measure temperature and humidity levels, radiation levels, and EMF. When the sensor is then connected to the iPhone, the free app presents the data recorded in a number of different ways, all of which are intended to make the data intelligible to ordinary people. The sensors themselves look great, with an aesthetic clearly designed to complement the iPhone.
There's scope here for an incredible range of sensors, all of which would link to your iPhone and provide instant information on any number of environmental factors. But for now, Lapka consists of just the four, with no technical information available to determine either how they work or how accurate the data they'll provide the user will be.
Lapka is currently at the prototype stage, with plans to release the product by the end of the year with a price tag of around US$220 for the set of four sensors.
