The other day we found ourselves stuck out in Nowhere-ville where the only place to get something remotely healthy to eat was a Chipotle. We almost splurged on some chips+guacamole until we noted the Mex-fast food joint listed the calories range of each ingredient subset, something we actually ended up appreciating, since we really did not need an additional 550+ calories. What if your dinner plate at home could do this actively, but in realtime and with almost any food placed upon it?

Industrial designer, Hannes Harms, envisions a day when our dinner plate will provide automatic feedback using edible RFID chips (!). Called the NutriSmart, the plate is basically a data reading diet management system which identifies what you're eating and how much via safe to ingest RFID tags (do these count towards daily dietary fiber?), with the additional feature of uploading data to an application which converts what you've ingested into an easy to understand infographic.

We could see this type of system being useful in specific situations where weight management/loss is a medical emergency and when individuals aren't adapt at tracking their portions and food choices. But the idea of RFID chips inside of our food makes us more appreciative of the local farmer's market and our CSA, where eating food isn't about data, but a pleasure without worry or guilt. For now, we're okay with just relying on calorie counting and a hi-tech weight scale. But how knows, stranger things have happened when food meets science...anyone remember, Olestra?

[via Yanko Design]