A new app called Nutriray3D allows people to scan their food and determine how much calories content it has. However, the company behind it is still raising $50,000-worth of funds, with only $2,000 raised in an Indiegogo campaign.

PC Mag has reported that NutriRay3D is a smartphone accessory that really scans the users' foods and give their nutritional value. The Seattle-based company behind it still needs $50,000, and so far it has only raised about $2,000. It only has 40 days to go to raise that additional $48,000.

NutriRay is now available for people who are after their New Year's diet plan. It is priced at $199 for the early bird buyers. After that promo, it will cost $224 and it will reach $299 during its official launch.

According to Engadget, calorie-counting apps became popular in smartphones before, but they have to identify the food via camera and barcode scanning. Those apps also have expensive subscription fees and they would direct the food images to people who will know what users eat. Nutriray3D is a hardware connected to the smartphone, which is more convenient as it simply uses laser to determine calorie and nutrient content on a food.

"If you're trying to lose weight, there are a lot of cell phone applications out there but you still have to measure or somehow guesstimate how much you're eating," said Sep Makhsous, the doctoral student from the University of Washington who is working on the project.  

Ubergizmo posted a description of the product, which states, "NutriRay3D uses a (such and such) laser technology to obtain a scan of any food item, and with the help of image processing, is able to accurately calculate the volume and calorie intake. Its portability and accessibility allows users to efficiently and effectively measure their diets." 

The NutriRay 3D works with 9,000 different kinds of food. Those tests proved to be 87.5 to 91 percent accurate.