[Ayushmaan] states up front that most of his free time is spent “building things that probably didn’t need to exist”. Well, this one might be an anomaly, because it seems pretty useful to us.
HYDR8, as it says on the tin, is a wearable that knows when it’s time to hydrate. The impetus for this one was something we all chase: the flow state. [Ayushmaan] would sit down, get deep into work, and look up hours later to to find that he had a headache and a full water bottle. Phone reminders were soon swiped away in annoyance.
This wearable is based on a XIAO ESP32-C3. It reads heart rate, oxygenation, skin temperature, and both the ambient temperature and humidity. It also learns your personal resting numbers range.
Taking all of this into consideration, it generates a heat/hydration stress score between 0-100. The thing is, HYDR8 tells you specifically what to do; sometimes it’s ‘drink water’ and other times, it’s ‘find shade’.
The wearable itself, while somewhat chunky, is pretty simple: it only shows the time and a message when it matters. The ESP32 hosts a full dashboard on your phone.
Keep in mind that this is not a medical device, it’s an experiment, a prototype. It can’t measure how hydrated you are. Instead, it measure hydration stress.
If you don’t want to wear anything, here’s a smart straw that uses a tiny turbine flowmeter and a Hall effect sensor to record the volume sipped, and detect whether the sipper is low on fluids. And if you find yourself under the hot lights of a wet bulb event, here’s how to survive it.
Lol wear a massive pip-boy to tell you when you are thirsty, if only there were some pre-existing bodily function that would do this… I like it though, you should bling it out Rolex-wise so it’s a luxury item and you’ll be set. Or maybe more like a Casio 9VT since that’s gonna be your target demo.
I’ve been led to understand that the physical feeling of “thirst” in many people comes way too late, or at least later than it should. Wish I had a citation for that…
I think the “Hydration Revolution” which has been happening recently may have something to do with it… people drink way way more water than our species has historically drank, not to say that’s necessarily a bad thing… ancient is not always correct, regardless of what some people say.
A sense of thirst which was optimized for the hunter-gatherer, to keep the body alive without sending it on excessive dangerous trips to the watering hole (Classic predator ambush spot) (And disease spot…) may not be optimal for an era where you have a pipe ten feet away from you that miraculously produces practically-infinite cholera-free water on command.
That’s getting close to evo-psych, but eh… I also wish I had citations, we’ll both have to write an I.O.U. for next time.
2024 Study (earlier ones likely exist):
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/384263125_Relationships_between_Morning_Thirst_and_Later_Hydration_Status_and_Total_Water_Intake
“… , when individuals experience an increased thirst perception, the body is already experiencing a 1–2% body mass loss, which can indicate mild dehydration [7].”
Not only that but also your body will trigger hunger as a response instead of thirst depending on levels of salt in your blood.
Being hydrated on a schedule helps with both though it does cause overhydration when you start out.
Next maybe invent a sensor attached to your balls to tell you when you need to take a leak.
or to tell you they are in fact blue, thus proving it to your teenage girlfriend who does not believe you (based on a true story)
Hack a little cheap kitchen scale to weigh your water bottle and track it getting lighter throughout the day? I too forget to drink when I’m at my desk
Ah, the hydration craze, another one of those crazy scizoprenic USofA things. Stuffing yourself with ultraprocessed garbage, which, in most other countries, wouldn’t pass basic food safety regulations and drinks that are 108% sugar, are suuuper ok, but GOD FORBID you’re not HYYYDRATED enough…
Geez…
It has electrolytes!
it turns out plants don’t want them!
Yes. Looking at this article – it is the best summary…
Sponsored by mountain dew
See, I was really hoping it would “lead you to water”, like divining rods or an ADE 651
Hilarity commences: The hydration figure of “eight glasses of water per day” is taken from a 1945 U.S. Food and Nutrition Board guideline that omitted the water content of food eaten and the concept of thirst. This was corrected in subsequent editions, but has since spawned a 50+ billion dollar industry repackaging our own groundwater and selling it to us in bottles that never degrade.
https://www.tuftsmedicine.org/about-us/news/medical-myths-drink-8-glasses-water-each-day
(Note the equally daft suggestions that we hydrate with more-profitable soy “milk”)
There are already water bottles with timers reminding you that you’re late for your next slug of water (and more than a few students schlep around truly terrifying water jugs just so they don’t miss their target). Brawndo should have it so good…
The future will be them selling us CLEAN water. Where groundwater and surface is both polluted and scarce.