TellSpec CEO Isabel Hoffmann Speaks and Demos BETA Food Scanner Today at TEDGlobal 2014

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 9th, 2014

Livestream the talk at tedlive.ted.com; TellSpec to speak during the 2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. EDT timeslot

This afternoon, TellSpec CEO Isabel Hoffmann,leader of the company behind the world’s first consumer food scanner, will speak at TEDGlobal in Brazil and give a demo of one of the company’s first BETA units on stage. Hoffmann’s talk will cover the idea, inspiration and technology behind TellSpec, as well as the potential impact of creating a robust, global Food Print or a fingerprint of what people eat across the world. With this Food Print, scientists may one day use the data collected by TellSpec to draw correlations between the food we eat and public health.

“One of the key characteristic of our food analysis engine is that as our database grows with each scan, our learning algorithms become more accurate. The more food scanned by people, the larger the food database and the larger the public memory of food composition and consumption. Essentially our project is a community project, a crowd sourcing project,” said Hoffmann.

TellSpec is made up of a pocket-sized scanner, a proprietary algorithms and mobile app that work together to report what’s in your food directly to your smartphone. TellSpec BETA currently identifies calories, macronutrients (fats, protein and carbohydrates), and limited ingredients, all at reasonable concentrations in food. TellSpec is continuing to miniaturize TellSpec further and build the database to include additional ingredients before delivering to backers in 2015.

TEDGlobal is an annual 5-day conference that celebrates human ingenuity by exploring ideas, innovation and creativity from all around the world. Hoffmann will be speaking in the 2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. EDT timeslot.