We asked each of the Kickstarter backer levels what they plan to do once they receive their spectrometer. Backers at the $35 level are receiving the desktop spectrometer next week. Here's some of the ideas that people listed from this backer tier.

Responses from other backer levels: $10 backer level $100 backer level $200 and $400 backer level

Related to light

• Mostly solar light experiments and nature observation
• Try it out with OpenIR
• Plan to scope displays and lights
• I plan to build a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy rig in the long term. I also want to try stellar spectography.
• LED testing
• Testing spectra of residential light sources, other general uses.
• Solar cell efficiency
• Science fair displays. LED spectra.
• Monitor light during the day
• Seeing if I can differentiate different "Vaseline Glass" samples via their respective fluorescence.
• I have some possible experiments relating to photo and video source image analysis
• Color testing, Solution analysis
• Surface reflection spectra
• I'll check different room lights and compare them to natural sunlight
• To check the artificial light quality
• Measure lighting spectra
• To check color
• Experimenting with color measurement
• Investigate alternate light sources eg LED for medical equipment / examination
• I am going to use it to examine solar lights and to teach some of my students chemistry and physics
• Measure changes in daylight spectrum for use with solar energy applications
• Teaching my kids about light and optics.
• I work in remote sensing and am also a PhD student. I will be using it side by side with a traditional backpack spectrometer to test its suitability for collecting ground truth data for hyperspectral and multispectral aerial and satellite imagery.
• Investigate spectra of white and color LEDs
• First I shall test it with known substances then tinker with it and see if I can extend the capabilities with novel light sources and filters
• Measure spectra for LED and other lamps. I am interested in spectral distribution optimization for work and leisure tasks. We are an Energy Efficiency Lighting Company, http://www.etap-eco.com/. Would love to be in a range bit lower that 400 nm.
• EL lighting educational kit
• led spectrometer for reef tank
• Measuring spectrum of LEDS and marine fish tank light bulbs and grow lights
• Exploring environmental sensing & water testing applications
• Checking various lights, bulb types, displays, small flames, just sort of having fun with it.
• Optical absorbance measurements

Related to Water and Soil

• Looking at water, dirt and algae in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
• Check water samples
• If it's possible, test for mercury or other things that might taint my water. Maybe do a comparison test of filtered and unfiltered well/city water.
• Canal Water at Discovery Bay CA
• Analyze the liquids around me
• Check my aquarium water quality
• Water Analysis for Aquaponics Automation
• Environmental remediation research, soil/atmospheric testing, spectroscopy of living
• Measure pollutants, in water, and even in air (organic comp.)
• To test samples and to see if i could get it to analyse a constant water flow
• Water Quality Monitoring of stormwater runoff
• Algae testing
• Water and soil analysis for long-term environmental project
• Soil test for asbestos, and other things.
• Sample drinking water for carcinogens, in the Miami area
• Water treatment for fountains
• Check water quality and related environmental integrity.
• Testing the air, soil, and water.
• Analyze lake water samples
• Analyze seawater from various locations
• Look for contaminants in ocean water
• Testing springs along the appalachain trail.
• I plan to compare soil samples for gardening.
• Plans are to show it off to some friends who are in the ecology field. As a fun toy for one and a possible tool for the firm of the other. Also I just want to play with it because I think this kind of thing is really fun. I'll likely do mostly soil and water samples. Maybe foods....
• Test local water from streams to tap
• Evaluate waters and other things in Macau
• analyze water and soil in Calafou ecovillage.
• Test water sources on my family farm.
• I want to look at the water in the river close to my home, and chemicals I use day to day.

Related to Food and Drink

• Analyze my food :)
• Maybe do some testing with coffee
• Examining tea
• I plan to provide it to my local hackerspace to analyze our beer production.
• Analyze wine
• I'd like to examine the make up of scotch.
• Correlate electrical conductivity of bananas with spectral properties as they ripen
• Beer and snow spectral signatures
• Analyse homebrew
• Analyze food samples
• I plan to attempt to use this device to determine the appropriateness of container materials for food storage (i.e. whether or not a container leaches anything into its contents), soil testing, and small engine oil contamination. The possibility also exists for extra-solar astral-spectrography. Or I might us it to teach my small child about invisible rainbows. I haven't really decided yet.
• Water and biological testing
• Analyse my homebrewed cider, local water, soil, etc
• I would like to test beer in my brewery.
• I plan on checking the contents of food, water, and in my community's environment.
• Looking at oils, beer, wine, and coffee.
• I plan to use it in distilling spirits.
• Analysing common processed food content with the kids
• Determination of beer SRM values and other experimentation.
• Spectrophotometric analysis of beer (especially own-brewed) and wine *Testing cooking ingredients
• Run some tests on soft drinks and other beverages and generally play around with it.
• I run a homebrewers collective called Brewlab (brewlabsf.com) and we're going to play with this and learn from it in any way we can! Probably gonna analyze a lot of yeast samples and stuff, can't wait!
• Look for pollutants in animal feed.
• Find out what toxic substances the things I eat may contain
• Random experiments in our local hackerspace "brmlab" - so, can we distinguish Club Mate from beer?
• I hope there is something that is useful to gardening and raising mushrooms.
• Examine sundry kitchen items
• Test flavors and commercial food chemicals and ingredients.
• Will try to check whether food contains certain additives, e.g. glutamates, and other compounds some people react to (e.g. lactose, sorbitol, histamines, ...).
• Coffee tests (brew time, water temp, grounds fineness).
• Along with testing the beer and mead I homebrew I intend to explore my local environment and mess around with analytical chemistry beyond work.

Related to Household items

• Testing various household products
• I have no plans yet, I simply wanted to support the project and perhaps learn more about the substances around my home.
• Not sure, will probably test every liquid in my home!
• Analysis of dyes, natural and synthetic.
• I'll use it to analyze household items
• Check out various liquids around the house and in the neighborhood.
• Study the spectra of organic dyes and colorants
• I plan on using it for analysis of common household elements and in /around the neighborhood ;use as science teaching moment with friends and family
• Everyone needs a spectrometer at home. Perhaps try identifying chemical composition of household and natural substances.
• Look at coffee and soap
• I'd like to use it to find out if the essential oils I use have been adulterated or contaminated.
• I am excited to test the liquids I ingest, put on my body, and use in my home, to see what is really in them!

Related to biology and chemistry

• Cell density (e.g. for log phase growth)
• Analysis of dissolved solids
• Gel filter analysis
• Inline electrochemical monitoring
• Analyze the makeup of lithic material
• I'm a biochemist and plan to use this at home while fermenting various and sundry things.
• Look at different tissue types
• I would like to use it for measuring nutrients concentrations in river, estuary, and ocean.
• Biometrics
• Perhaps to test seeds - wether GMO or not
• Measuring colors of flowers
• Check nutrient concentrations in water and algae cultures.
• Coffee, beer, blood? In college i had to do whats in this bottle and hated it. Mostly bought it to avoid that situation ever happening again.
• Yeast health measurements
• identifying and cataloging unknown psychoactives found in street drugs
• Analize Resveratrol. Resveratrol is usually from China and batches have tested positive for mercury.
• Digital forensics
• Nutrient meter
• Chlorophylle analyse
• Synbio stuff

Related to Astronomy and Atmosphere

• Astronomical spectroscopy
• See if I can get it to work for astronomy spectra.
• I'm a Ph.D. student in astrophysics, and my first idea was to take solar and telluric spectra, try to construct a stellar library. I'd also like to use it for outreach events-it's a nice example of the instruments we use in astronomy.
• Astronomy filters analysis
• Test air quality, test the constituents of distilled spirits
• Use for astrophotometry
• Atmospheric pressure plasma emission spectroscopy
• Use with my telescope on stars

Related to Chemicals (general)

• I'll use it at KCC Urban Farm to test for post-Sandy contaminants and in my backyard just for fun
• First, I'll calibrate it against some of the bench-top instruments in the lab, then when I have an idea of its performance, develop a few different methods for analysis of various chemicals of interest. Then I'd like to build several dozen more and distribute them to high schools for them to use - hopefully they'll be accurate enough for some basic useful procedures, like colorimetric assays and whatnot. Mostly, I'd like to use it as a cheap, portable solution for my basic visible spectroscopy needs.
• Test local surroundings for contaminates and such.
• Attempt to identify metals.
• Analyzing gasoline engine deposits and by-products
• I'm going to apply a machine learning algorithm for automated detection of unknown substance.
• Analyze various chemicals
• Test used moter oil so I can figure out it's H2SO4 level. This will help me know when to change it when I loose track.
• Test for fuel contamination.
• Chemical fingerprinting
• For fun, personal use, and maybe car-related stuff (oil composition, etc)
• Analysis/monitoring of chemical reactions, as a LED spectrum analyser and for fun with my kids..
• Would like to test for heavy metals
• Exhaust analysis

Related to Education

• Kids Science Fair Project
• Home science
• Teaching others about spectrometers and how cool they are
• Dazzle my kids
• Pique childrens' interests!
• I plan to test it for educational purposes in primary and secondary schools.
• Using to motivate and engage students in science and scientific research
• I would like to work it into our public Neuroscience lessons on sensory systems.
• Use it for lectures in atomic physics.
• Teaching High School Chemistry
• Teach my son about chemicals
• Record spectra in college labs
• Compare the curves for various products for educational reasons
• My daughter will use it for Uni.
• Teaching kids about solutions, testing water/wine/beer/etc
• I plan to use this in my 8th grade physical science class with my students.
• A group of high school students I teach are building a spectrometer and will test various configurations. We then plan to use it as a teaching aid.
• Show my niece and nephew how much fun science is.
• Teaching my daughter and her classmates about materials in their water
• Own children education and workshops with hackidemia
• Use it in physics club
• As part of my plan (along with some of my colleagues) to develop a more science-y, open-source curriculum for middle schoolers. Relatively cheap equipment can open doors in education.
• Use in a course on Visualization in Science.
• Work with some HS kids as part of a STEM oriented program
• I'll let me high school club figure it out. High altitude balloon experiment or rocket experiment.
• We plan to use it in a high school to study fluorescence and color.
• Teach my daughter (10 years old) some color science.
• Classroom demos in human perception class
• Biotechnology class
• I help manage the labs for a community college physics department. Planning to bring this in to play with/assemble, and see if it can be used alongside any of our spectrometry demos.

Miscellaneous

• Scan random things and see what I can figure out from that.
• Building an FIA (flow injection analysis) system.
• Measure everything I can, maybe even some profesional use (I am a conservation scientist), I usually don't use a VIS Spectrometer, but who knows?
• Experimenting in my garage laboratory
• No clue yet! That's part of the excitement!
• Use it in my work in environment laboratory and with my friends
• Look for every use and improve the tool.
• Donate it to someone in the New Orleans area
• Taking over the world!
• No plans yet beyond evaluation
• Diabolical Scientific Investigations...
• Test stuff like Abby from NCIS
• Test as much as I can and share results
• Giving it to my brother who is a chemist. He's going to have so much fun with it!
• Schauen wir mal, vieleicht baue ich daraus einen Fluxkompensator
• Use it in my sustainability lab.
• Giving it to my science teacher. His can only do one wavelength at a time.
• Learn about our environment in Brazil
• Checking out how 100% pure NZ really is!
• Acquisition of spectrum for computer generated images.
• Occupy Spectroscopy
• I'm a physicist. analysing the world.
• After building and testing the spectrometer, I plan to collect and test environmental water samples in the Las Vegas area
• Get it working with ActivTable
• Supplement XRF spectrometer
• I plan to help build the public library of spectroscopy data and have tons of fun doing it.
• I'll be sharing it with my fellow hackerspace members at Hive76.
• I love coffee, beer, opensource, and science so there will be lots of data uploaded. We have some novel ideas about how the PLDIY - Spectrometer will change the way we SEE the world!
• I'm interested in experimenting with affordable spectrometers to integrate into resin based 3D printers.
• A new way to see means a new way to ask questions. This will be the first time I've explored the world in this way, I can't wait!
• Test its capabilities
• Not sure yet, but I'm a chemist and I'm bound to have fun geeking out over compositions
• I dunno, but the thought of NOT having the option to perform spectrometry on a whim simply hurt to much...