You've undoubtedly heard of the self help book.
Now, meet the self help fork.
The HAPIfork, from Hong-Kong based HAPILABS, has got to be the most checked out, buzzed about, griped about product at this year's CES. And it's a fork.
OK, not just a fork. HAPIfork is a high-tech fork that tracks you. Specifically, your eating habits. It tracks how long you take to eat. How many bites you take when you eat. And it actually buzzes if it feels that you're eating too fast. Mayor Bloomberg's big soda thing has nothing on this guy.
In this era of big data and tracking everything, HAPIfork will, after every meal, sync with your computer or smartphone to track what you've eaten (and how fast you ate it), with the goal of helping you to lose weight. It's kind of like the technology that tracks your daily run or bike ride for you. Except, it's a fork.
It costs $99, and I really don't know if that's a good price or not. It seems to be an expensive fork, unless you're registering for your marriage to Paris Hilton. Then again, if it helps you drop ten pounds, I'd call it a bargain.
When I spoke to the HAPIfork executives at their modest CES booth, they seemed surprised and a bit overwhelmed by all the attention. At this point, some of the forks upload data to your devices via Bluetooth; others have to be tethered to a USB cable. That's cumbersome, not to mention ridiculous. Think about it: Your fork, tethered to a USB cable.
It's too early to tell whether the HAPIfork will catch on. It goes on sale soon, though, and like diet books to read and hot coals to walk on, it will likely find an audience eager for improvement.
Scott can be found on Twitter: @scottbudman
