It’s time to address an important question that I know has been on your mind … what’s going on with connected water bottles? Okay, maybe passive hydration tracking isn't a mainstream concern, but for some of us, the concept is relevant - and beyond that, the attempts at executing it are pretty darn interesting. While it might be awhile yet before your water bottle syncs with Nudge, that doesn't make it any less entertaining to keep an eye on the latest projects that are popping up on crowdfunding sites.
BluFit
All things considered, the BluFit Bottle looks to me like the best bet to break into production and actually hit the market ... IF they can manage to get the funding they need to launch, that is. Why do I like it? Mostly because it looks like they put a little T.L.C. into the design of both the bottle and the accompanying app.
They used a built-in flow sensor to measure how much you’re drinking, which is exactly how I would expect it to work as a consumer (the idea of designing products to work like a consumer would expect seems oddly underrated). But they also added cool advanced features that are built-in, specifically, sensors that automatically adjust your daily goal based on temperature and humidity. The pretty LED lights that provide a little feedbackare a nice touch as well. Keep your eyes on these guys, but as with all of these, I think the eventual price point is going to become pretty important.
H2O Pal
H2O Pal puts a clever little spin on what you might expect a smart water bottle system to be. Instead of focusing on the bottle itself, H2O Pal is actually a small bluetooth device that can attach to the bottom of your regular, old dumb bottle. The gadget is based on built-in flash memory, and uses a weight measuring sensor and accelerometer to measure how much water is in your bottle - and subsequently - how much you’re drinking.
Their Kickstarter Campaign, launched in 2013 and fizzled out pretty quickly, but that doesn't necessarily mean this idea will just fade away. The team made a showing at CES 2014, and there is reason to believe they could give crowdfunding another go this year. If they can get the price point down, this might actually turn out to be an interesting proposition in the end.
Ilumi Bottle
The Ilumi Bottle, which also kicked-off as a 2013 Kickstarter Campaign claiming to be the "first ever smart water bottle," is similar to the BluFit from a technical standpoint, but a little less dynamic and design-forward. The bottle includes a built in LED light that changes from red, to yellow, to green throughout the day as you get closer to - and eventually meet your daily hydration goal. You simply set your goal in the free app (as opposed to the smart suggested goals from BluFit), which then syncs with your bottle via Bluetooth throughout the day to keep you constantly updated as to exactly how well you’re staying hydrated.
Oh, and before I forget, their Kickstarter page notes that the bottle would retail for about $70 USD. Which is probably too much. And it's also probably - in the end - why we haven’t actually seen any of these high-tech hydration vessels make much of a splash yet. These teams may still be a little wet behind the ears, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see at least one of them dive head first into a new fundraising campaign during the dog days of summer. You know, once they’ve had a chance to really get their feet wet. Hope you were thursty for wordplay.
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