I have a new toy.

It's this set of tiny little blocks that are barely larger than Lego pieces (pictured above), and each little block can be connected to your phone to measure, collect and analyze the hidden qualities of your surroundings.

It's called a "MyLapka Personal Environment Monitor". The Lapka is a tiny, beautifully designed personal environment monitor, and in today's podcast, I interview the designer, Vadik Marmeladov.

In the interview, we talk about how the Lapka works, what it measures, how you can use it to quantify your environment to get healthier, and much more. Each little block is equipped with a set of precise sensors which respond to the invisible world of particles, ions, molecules and waves.

But Lapka doesn’t just quantify what it measures. You get results that are specific to where you happen to be at the moment. On the street, at the office, inside your baby's bedroom, or on an airplane - it actually compares readings to average guidelines for each individual environment.

The Lapka is actually comprised of four different devices that measure radiation, electromagnetic fields, humidity and how organic your produce is.

The first is Lapka Radiation, which measures all of the radioactive particles around you and is sensitive to levels of beta and gamma particles. Legal limits for radiation vary, and Lapka provides health guidelines for each. For example, a baby’s bedroom's legal limit is much lower than that of an airplane at 10,000 feet. Lapka knows to analyze in relation to this when you choose either the Airplane or Baby preset in the app.

The second is the Lapka Electromagnetic Field, which measures EMF’s caused by electronic devices, wireless transmitters, nearby power lines, etc. Lapka EMF takes measurements of both High Frequency and Low Frequency fields and can detect cell phone antenna activity, microwaves or exposed wires to reveal the spots with the least electromagnetic pollution. That’s where you might want to put your yoga mat.

Next is Lapka Humidity, which measures both the temperature and humidity of your environment. It combines and compares the results with a knowledge base of comfort standards to help you better understand your personal climate at any moment and ways that you could sleep better or think better based on temperature and humidity. Different scenarios - for example, wine storage and sleep comfort — call for different temperatures and levels of moisture (don’t sleep in your wine cellar, by the way).

Finally, Lapka Organic detects whether or not your fruits and vegetables were really grown organically. The little probe simply measures ionic conductivity, which correlates to the quantity of nitrates left behind from nitrogen-based fertilizers. Each fruit and vegetable has a defined limit for nitrate concentration, and conductivity that significantly exceeds these limits suggests the use of non-organic farming practices. So you can find out whether that organic carrot is really organic.

Do you have questions, comments or feedback about the Lapka? Do you have one and if so, how are you using it? Leave your thoughts at BenGreenfieldFitness.com!