This Robot Weed Sommelier Will Scan Your Brain and Pick the Perfect Pot

Impact

Edibles, smokables, capsules, sprays: The burgeoning marijuana industry has led to countless options for recreational and regular users. Thanks to Potbotics, a California-based biotechnology firm, deciding which variety to try is about to become a lot easier.

The group created three different platforms for recommending and producing the best pot. The first, a product called Brainbot, uses EEG brain scans to record electrical activity along the scalp. It zeros in on a patient's brain activity to prescribe a specific strain of weed to address a medical condition — one the smoker might not even know exists.

David Goldstein, Potbotics' cofounder, explains the technology in a video for Cannabis Frontier. He uses an epilepsy patient as an example: "Doctors ... [can] run a diagnostic on the patient and actually get the quantified effect of the cannabinoid," he says. The doctors can then administer the software-recommended cannabinoid ratio and "follow up with that patient and see how it [affected] them."

For example, "someone coming in with epilepsy, those biomarkers do exist. By administering a cannabinoid ratio that we recommend ... through our software, we could follow up with that patient and see how it did affect them."

Potbotics' second, more consumer-oriented platform, PotBot, relies on user-submitted information. Patients can select conditions that apply to them, such as experiences with anxiety, dementia or epilepsy. Based on this data, PotBot suggests a variety of marijuana that's most suitable — sort of like how Netflix recommends movies.

Potbotics

"A patient could walk into this Potbot dispensary or bring it up on their phone and say something like, 'I'm having trouble sleeping,'" Goldstein says. "What comes next would not be a strain name but rather a cannabinoid level or a cannabinoid ratio that's best for that patient — and then followed by a strain list that tends to fall in that cannabinoid level."

The third technology is for the manufacturer. According to the Potbotics website, NanoPot analyzes cannabis seeds to determine how a specific strain would affect different customers based on its chemical composition. The technology makes it easier to breed plants that help with specific conditions, such as sleeplessness or glaucoma.

Potbotics is an incredible service for both weed experts and medical-marijuana patients. It removes the guesswork from the process of growing, selecting and advocating specific strains of pot. Science just got a little greener.

h/t BroBible