Hardware Accelerator Team Creates Smart Food Tray

Do you ever wonder how healthy you are eating when you dine out? Some fast food establishments show calorie counts and ingredients, but self-serve meals at cafeterias and at hot bars like those found in supermarkets are not required to have accurate information available to consumers.

CalcuEATor seeks to solve this problem by providing nutritional information based on the amount of food selected in self-serve meals. The CalcuEATor is a smart food tray featuring an interactive screen that can tell you the calories, ingredients, and other nutritional information found in food.

Haroon Sheikh, Juan Berrio, Rose Buchnann, and Dylan Neal, founders of CalcuEATor and students at Cornell University, met in a Mechanical Synthesis class where they had two weeks to develop an idea, put together an initial prototype, and present their findings. After that experience, the team wanted to take their idea farther, so they applied for Rev’s Hardware Accelerator.

“The idea originally came about while we were thinking about the freshmen 15. Obesity is a growing epidemic and we want to make a positive impact on people’s health through this innovation,” said Berrio.

The team has enjoyed learning about their customer market and getting hands-on experience in the lab where they have been improving their prototype.

CalcuEATor is excited to take what they’ve learned at Rev’s Hardware Accelerator and apply it to their classes at Cornell University in the fall.

“We’ve learned so much about what it takes to turn an idea into a tangible business,” said Neal.

CalculEATor will present their prototype and progress with their business plans on August 9, 2018 at Rev’s Hardware Accelerator Demo Day.