Electronic Utensil Tells You When You’ve Had Enough … To Eat
A lot of us not in third-world countries constantly battle with our appetites, usually for dietary reasons. Eating too much is one of the factors in dieting that everybody latches onto and rarely follows through.
Well now there is a fork that tells you when you’re overeating.
The electronic fork is one many gadgets getting attention this week at the Las Vegas International CES, an annual showcase of the latest TVs, computers and other electronic devices. The HAPIfork is a fork with a fat handle with electrical components and a battery. HapiIabs, based in France, uses the slow eating habits of its home country to regulate your consumption, says Yahoo News.
The HAPIfork contains a motion sensor to determine when it’s being raised to the mouth. If it senses that you’re eating too fast, its vibration and a blinking light warns you. The company believes that using the fork 60 to 75 times during meals lasting from 20 to 30 minutes is ideal. Between meals, you can connect the fork to a computer to upload data on how fast you’re eating and track your progress. It will train you to slow the fork lifts, if you will pardon the pun.
It’s okay to wash it in the sink, but for the dishwasher it is suggested that you remove the electronics.
It is recommended that you eat slowly because it takes about 20 minutes to start feeling full. The fork is also designed to space your forkfuls so that you have time to chew each one properly, says TUAW. The fork has no clue about the nutritional value of your food or how much is on it. It can’t tell if you’re shoveling lard, stabbing peas individually, or holding a slab of pork and tearing off pieces with your teeth. It also isn’t that useful if you usually snack on packaged meals such as Pop Tarts or chips, because who uses a fork for that?
After initial funding via Kickstarter.com, participants need to put down $99 for a fork, which is expected to ship around April or May. Those forks will connect to computers through USB cables, though hapiIabs is working on a BlueTooth version for an as yet undisclosed price.
