We asked each of the Kickstarter backer levels what they plan to do once they receive their spectrometer. Mini-foldable spectrometers that can attach to your smartphone are shipping this week and here's some of the ideas that people listed from the $10 backer tier.

Responses from other backer levels: $35 backer level $100 backer level $200 and $400 backer levels

Related to light

• Measure light sources
• Investigate indoor lights spectrum
• Light analysis
• Film lighting
• compare light bulbs, ...
• Measuring output of LED arrays for a NASA-funded project for growing plants inside extraplanetary habitats. Someday we'll do some detailed spectroscopy but this gets us going!
• Colour experiments.
• Experiment with home theatre displays (projectors, plasmas & lcd tvs)
• Figure out what's in the ceiling lights in the lab!
• Analyze led light sources for reef aquarium
• Testing fluorescent materials in our lab
• Getting reliable RGB readings from withered surfaces

Related to Water and Soil

• Check for calcium in water from fountain
• Start with the tap water in my house
• Checking the purity of water, measuring other things for fun and possibly science.
• Will probably look at my tap water before and after filtration just to see if there is a difference.
• Aquaponics, Led Light, water quality, food quality.
• Hopefully I'll start sampling some groundwater around my area.
• Test the possibility for deriving water quality parameters or Chlorophyll content with forward transfer models
• Testing water
• Test water in the Charles River, test local tap water.
• Check water quality, have fun
• Test the water in Greenpoint!
• Check and see what's in the rain drops
• Water and soil samples
• Check out rock pieces and dirt

Related to Food and Drink

• Catalog what's in my drinks
• I want to test spectrometry on food - liquid and solid. Most importantly - to measure the content of nutrient on particular pieces of fruit and vegetable (if feasible).
• Look at coffee + beer?
• Analyzing food
• Find out what I'm drinking
• Home brewer.
• Analyze home brew beer
• Check what I'm eating and other fun things
• Check what I drink? Processed bottled drinks.
• Home brewing
• Mainly using it on edible items I guess + wines
• Initial plan is to use it to analyze coffee
• Classify all kinds of neat liquids I can find!
• Test food, water, compare...
• Testing whiskey
• Study fruit we produce.
• Measure organic compounds in home-brewed beer
• Maple syrup and whatever else I can think of.

Related to Household items

• Examine various household items
• Experiments with common liquids and materials
• Test leather
• Analyze stuff I run across. If it works really well, might check for contaminants on supplies at work.
• Analyze household light sources, household materials
• Mainly interested in testing supposedly chemical-free or natural products.
• Look at water, and various things around the flat and neighbourhood
• Seeing what's in my aquarium water.

Related to biology and chemistry###

• Cell culture / immunofluoro
• Analyze bodily fluids
• Local air quality
• I plan to get involved based on whatever your site recommends! My interest is in biology, so, probably I'll be analyzing living tissue.
• I will be checking blood in specimen.
• Examine my feces and sperm
• Set up spectroscopy in an IEC reactor to detect gas mixture!
• See if they're contaminating our precious bodily fluids.
• Try it out in my lab (i'm an analytical wood chemist), around town, at home, etc.
• Spectrometerizing all the liquids I can find!
• Gas analysis

Related to Astronomy and Atmosphere

• Astronomy demos
• Hobby astronomy, and fun education with the children
• Measure the Dark Side of the Moon
• We are building the space elevator. Our Kickstarter campaign is launching a tethered balloon experiment to 7KM high. We will host the spectrometer at that altitude to identify atmospheric conditions.
• Teach astronomy!

Related to Chemicals (general)

• Chemical discovery
• I will be using it for quick chemicals analysis in my Lab.
• Chemistry!
• Checking oil samples
• Testing local environment and know hydrocarbons with an aim of tracing them through the environment.
• Composition of some plastics for extrusion.

Related to Education

• My son is a super scientist. He will be using it to replace the DIY one he made recently.
• Use it to explore the world around me and as a teaching tool with my kids.
• Public high school for science - looking for alternative spectrophotometers
• Informal teaching
• I plan to experiment with it in the high school science class I teach.
• I'm an educator, and I hope to evaluate this project's classroom suitability.
• Home schooling physics
• Exploring my world with my kids.
• Use it to show my young children about spectroscopy.
• Science!
• Hope to use it for public engagement events.
• I love teaching kids about science, so Ill figure out some way to use it.
• Science training for my home-schooled grandson
• Showing it to my nerd friends
• Show it off at MyScience.com
• I'm a biologist & lab automation engineer. I enjoy science advocacy in general and plan tip share the spec with kids & science educators.
• Use in high school science lab as a teacher.
• Whatever I can! First I'm going to show it off to my father, the head of a high school science department and fellow chemist.
• Play around, teach, test chemometric methods
• Teach chemistry to my grandchildren
• Share with students... to help them understand spectroscopy and see science all around

Miscellaneous###

• Backyard experiments
• Make it available in Africa
• Just for fun
• Awesome experiments!
• Use as an example of interesting technology+crowd sourcing environmentalism
• I'd eventually like to conduct real experiments with this. I will post my efforts online.
• Exploring and learning.
• Analyze some items
• I plan on testing everything I see
• Looking at spectra for anything at anytime
• I would like to learn more about the daily application of spectrometer.
• Make an Android app resembling a tricorder
• Examine the makeup of my surroundings
• First generate awareness of accessibility of measurement techniques.
• Impress my friends
• Help to enlarge the Spectra database
• Learning about what can be analyzed
• Skies the limit. We plan to futz with it!
• Ridicule it publicly
• Top Secret!
• Want to test its accuracy and ease of use.
• Tests. I'm working on an enhanced spectrometer already, thanks a lot for the idea/kickoff.
• Tests to see how to improve the spectrometer
• Extemporaneous observations of the local environment