There’s no shortage of smart water bottles on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. But when a brand like Thermos enters the game with a new smart lid for its bottles that tracks hydration and even monitors the temperature of your water, you better pay attention.
Thermos’ expertise is safely storing and preserving foods and liquids, not the technology needed to realise a smart bottle. So for its new Smart Lid Hydration Bottle it teamed up with a company called EXOS to develop a connected iOS app that helps athletes, and the rest of us, ensure we’re all staying properly hydrated.
To set up the free accompanying app that connects to the bottle over Bluetooth, users simply specify their age, weight, how often they exercise, and for how long they plan to be active during their next workout. The app then provides a customised hydration goal, so users know exactly how much they should be drinking to compensate for sweat and their body’s increased need for hydration.
But even if you don’t plan to be particularly active, your body still needs plenty of H2O to function properly. So less active users can also set up reminders and alarms to ensure they’re drinking enough water, even if their idea of a workout is a just Netflix binge session.
The Smart Lid Hydration Bottle also features a smart straw senses how full or empty the bottle is, and remind fill up when you’re headed out for a run. It’s even got a thermometer in there too, so if you prefer your water at a specific temperature — like very cold — you won’t be surprised when the next mouthful is tepid and lukewarm.
Does it sound like overkill? Of course it does. After all, you can easily gauge the temperature of a bottle of water by just picking it up. But if spending $US60 on a water bottle that needs to be recharged every couple of weeks is all someone needs to start drinking more water instead of coffee or soda, there’s no reason not to endorse it