A water bottle that glows when you should drink more water
These days, water bottles are colorful and trendy. But smart water bottles that remind you when to drink? Not many.
HidrateMe water bottle emits a glow when it senses you might be dehydrated. Former data analyst Nadya Nguyen and her team developed the smart water bottle, which uses a sensor and smartphone app to act as a friendly little hydration buddy looking out for your best health.
The free Bluetooth-syncing app tracks how much water you drink and also estimates how much you should drink based on your physiology, like height and weight, as well as your location, like elevation and humidity. And if you’re a fitness fiend, it’ll connect to your Fitbit or Jawbone to account for loss of water due to exercise. The team collaborated with physicians at Kansas University to help calculate this information.
The bottle has collected over $200,000 for its $35,000 Kickstarter campaign, with bottles starting at $39 and a delivery date of winter 2015.
The idea came to a sluggish and headache-y Nguyen in July 2014 while on a 10-hour bus ride on a day when she forgot to drink any water. “I thought I was pretty conscious about hydration, and it just reminded me how easy it is to forget when life gets busy,” Nguyen tells Mashable.
Dehydration is often a forgettable and unpleasant occurrence that can range from mild to dangerous. It can cause headaches, dizziness and muscle cramps.
So Nguyen convinced a few fellow University of Missouri alums to join her in the September 2014 Google Startup competition in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 54 hours, they created a prototype using a Nalgene bottle and a sensory board attached with Nguyen’s hair tie. They scored third place.
Their next step was to quit their jobs and join the three-month intensive mentorship program, Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator Program by Techstarters, which aims to fund the next tech in mobile health.
Don’t worry, the Tritan plastic water bottle won’t become another annoying alarm clock. You choose the time intervals you prefer to drink at, such as every 30 minutes, and if the bottle notices you didn’t take a sip, it’ll glow as a reminder. Nguyen calls this feature “really personal,” aimed at being helpful.
So while purchasing HidrateMe becomes a choice of lifestyle preference, the bottom line is remember to drink up.
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