Innovation doesn’t just happen, it takes a concerted effort. DFT began when its founder, PHD student Linus Peng, took notice of an old, outdated, and rather obscure technology, and realized its potential in the internet age.

For a long, long time, digital refraction technology was based on a simple, yet expensive, 1-dimensional sensor that required a very precisely calibrated beam of light to reflect in just the right way. A single bump could wreck the whole system.

As light sensing technology became more commonplace and capable, refractometer technology remained stagnant. That is until Linus wondered what would be possible if one were to combine the new sensor technology and data gathered from such a device, with the power of a smart phone.

This endeavor lead to a revolution in fluid digitization. Not only did this new refractometry method produce a significantly less fragile, faster, and more accurate device, but it already brought what used to be an incredibly expensive purchase as lab equipment down to the grasp of an average consumer.

Whether it’s measuring extraction when brewing coffee, beer, or kombucha, the sweetness of honey, the salinity of ocean water, the concentration of chemicals, or something else, the addition of a companion app for calculations, recording, and exporting data proved to be invaluable.

With this proof of concept selling rapidly all over the world, we at DFT have continued to develop this and other relevant technology to become even more useful to even more people.

Thus far, we have obtained more than 20 international and domestic technical patents in optics, electronics, algorithms, structures, and system solutions, and we’re just getting started!