Pryme Vessyl, an iOS-compatible hydration tracking smart cup, launches in Apple stores
Hardware startup Mark One, the company behind the Vessyl intelligent cup that debuted for presale last year, launched a new device on Tuesday called the Pryme Vessyl, which automatically tracks users' water consumption habits and incorporates them into a customized schedule.
The Pryme Vessyl, which is now available in select Apple retail stores in North America, utilizes an algorithm which takes into account a user's age, weight, height and sex, as well as sleep and exercise patterns to automatically assess their hydration needs and suggest an appropriate level of water consumption. This level of specificity is important, the company says, given the diverse set of hydration requirements across people with different lifestyles and levels of fitness.
"It's clear that a marathon runner will have different hydration needs than a sedentary office worker, yet as a society we're content with relying on the myth of eight glasses of water per day, regardless of lifestyle," said Nic Barnes, head of brand at Mark One. "We developed Pryme to help you understand that it's not about how much you need in a day, it's about how much you need right now."
The device captures this data from a wide variety of sources, including the Apple Health and Activity apps on both iPhone and Apple Watch. You can also choose to input this data manually through the Pryme app.
As for the cup itself, the indicator on the side of the device is designed to rise or fall based on your water consumption habits during the day to signify how close you are to reaching your goal. When the blue light at the top of the indicator turns on, you've reached your optimal level of hydration or "Pryme" as the company calls it.
The 16-ounce Pryme Vessyl cup features a wire-free charging system and is said to last two days on a single charge.
The cup is being offered online and in select Apple retail locations for $99. If you preordered the company's first product, the Vessyl, during its preorder campaign last year, you'll also receive the Pryme Vessyl cup for free while the original Vessyl undergoes further development.
The Mark One engineering team is headed by Hamid Mohammadinia, who led Design for Manufacturing at Apple for the iPod and all three generations of the iPad.
The Pryme Vessyl, which is now available in select Apple retail stores in North America, utilizes an algorithm which takes into account a user's age, weight, height and sex, as well as sleep and exercise patterns to automatically assess their hydration needs and suggest an appropriate level of water consumption. This level of specificity is important, the company says, given the diverse set of hydration requirements across people with different lifestyles and levels of fitness.
"It's clear that a marathon runner will have different hydration needs than a sedentary office worker, yet as a society we're content with relying on the myth of eight glasses of water per day, regardless of lifestyle," said Nic Barnes, head of brand at Mark One. "We developed Pryme to help you understand that it's not about how much you need in a day, it's about how much you need right now."
The device captures this data from a wide variety of sources, including the Apple Health and Activity apps on both iPhone and Apple Watch. You can also choose to input this data manually through the Pryme app.
As for the cup itself, the indicator on the side of the device is designed to rise or fall based on your water consumption habits during the day to signify how close you are to reaching your goal. When the blue light at the top of the indicator turns on, you've reached your optimal level of hydration or "Pryme" as the company calls it.
The 16-ounce Pryme Vessyl cup features a wire-free charging system and is said to last two days on a single charge.
The cup is being offered online and in select Apple retail locations for $99. If you preordered the company's first product, the Vessyl, during its preorder campaign last year, you'll also receive the Pryme Vessyl cup for free while the original Vessyl undergoes further development.
The Mark One engineering team is headed by Hamid Mohammadinia, who led Design for Manufacturing at Apple for the iPod and all three generations of the iPad.
Comments
If you feel thirsty then drink, simple as that.
God forbid the population grew without a cup telling us when we had to drink.
And you need to carry this thing with you all day so you don't accidentally drink something without registering it. But it's a nice design, I give them that.
Proper hydration is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your overall health. If this helps people accomplish that then it is far worth the $99 price tag.
Nice design also.
I think its extremely useful, I can quickly identify stupid people that hold it, and avoid them!
Actually, "hydration" IS as simple as "drink when you're thirsty," which is exactly the most recent recommendation from the American Medical Association and the CDC's Institutes of Health. All that nonsense about "8 glasses a day" was never based on reliable research ---- and neither is the silly statistic that "only 40% of the population is properly hydrated."
This device recommends that you drink more when based on what in infers from your various iOS sensors. It has no way to to directly measure your need for liquid.
Hydration while hiking is a serious issue so a hiking bottle could be interesting, the two day charge would at least cover dayhikes or cycling.
Oh and for those that say when thirsty drink? There's a mountaineering saying that's echoed in the bike race community: When you're thirsty it's too late. Reflecting that when thirst is triggered the ionic balance in both your muscles for power and your brain for clear thinking have already been adversely effected. So a reminder isn't a bad idea. For people simply sitting around and not engaged in anything strenuous or complicated going a bit over the edge into being weaker or less intelligent might not be as much of an issue.
Sure Vessyl is expensive, only %u201Cspill resistant,%u201D has a paltry micro-USB connection, badly written marketing lingo-fied (and unconvincing) promo video, screams gimmicky, and the link to buy it lands on Apple Store%u2019s front page with no Vessyl in sight (even upon searching), but some people might need it. But only those that can afford to plunk down $99 will get it (if they can find it) which is probably a very small percentage of the population that would actually benefit from it.
So what I%u2019m saying is: sure this is one (expensive) way to stay hydrated, but it%u2019d probably be more effective to carry a camelback and get into the habit of taking sip every 5-10 minutes or setting a timer to remind yourself if you are doing anything that can dehydrate you (such as taking diuretic medication or other drugs).
So, sure you can joke about something that is a real problem or consider if this is a good solution to a real problem. I like the comment about an AppleWatch (or other monitoring band) sensor the best as a real solution to warn people.
Cheers.
Nice ignorant comments. If it was as simple to drink when you are thirsty we would have more than 40% of the population that is considered properly hydrated.
Proper hydration is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your overall health. If this helps people accomplish that then it is far worth the $99 price tag.
Nice design also.
Could you point me to any peer reviewed articles in medical journals that serve as the basis for the modern mania with hydration?
And yes, it is as simple as feel thirsty, drink - hardware and software 3.5 million years in the making and fully debugged.
Apart from that: soon to be found in the vaporware hall of fame. .
No, that'll never work. This is why Rome fell.
Nice ignorant comments. If it was as simple to drink when you are thirsty we would have more than 40% of the population that is considered properly hydrated.
If you're looking for ignorance, try a mirror. That 40% number is a myth with zero basis in fact.
Here's a recent NYT article debunking the whole concept, written by a Professor of Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/upshot/no-you-do-not-have-to-drink-8-glasses-of-water-a-day.html?_r=4>;
Feel free to follow the numerous links to supporting data.
Here's another article on the subject from the American Journal of Physiology:
<http://ajpregu.physiology.org/content/283/5/R993>;
Here's a 2007 article from the British Medical Journal about Medical Myths. Guess what it says about the hydration craze?
<http://www.bmj.com/content/335/7633/1288>;
Yes there are people who engage in certain unusually strenuous activities such as running marathons, competitive cycling, high altitude mountaineering and so on who need to pay attention to hydration, and they know who they are and what to do. For the other 99.99999% of regular people who just go about their daily business, "proper" hydration consists of drinking water when you body tells you to. Period, end of story.
"know what to do", actually not really which is why in dry climates at various visitor vacation destinations there's a lot of rescues of people who DON'T just know what to do. Though increased signage and educational efforts at places like Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, Yosemite etc. have helped.
Your basic cube farm resident? Probably okay.
And that's just assuming that the 40% figure didn't just spring fully-formed from someone's forehead.
[EDIT] I see my suspicions have been confirmed by earlier posters.
Loving the discussion on this thread. I always felt that the next great war would be because of water!
Seriously, this is too much. We must need an app to remind us to drink?!?!
People get distracted in environments they're not familiar with and suffer from dehydration all the time, endless search and rescues get triggered in a lot of national parks where that's the initiating issue.
I'd rather people carried a variation on this as a water bottle rather than the warning signs slathered all over Mesa Verde last time I was there. The other helpful part might be the more intelligent information rather than some blanket "drink, drink, drink": turns out Grand Canyon's push about water has been almost too successful in that they're recently reporting responding to more cases of hyponatremia than dehydration!
This device recommends that you drink more when based on what in infers from your various iOS sensors. It has no way to to directly measure your need for liquid.
Absolutely correct in that the device/cup/software cannot measure the body's level of hydration because it does not have any physical connection to the user's body. Foods also make a difference such as salt related to retention of fluid. Generally, urologists look at the color of urine to determine a person's hydration level. Adequate hydration will be clear or pale yellow. (Dehydrated will be yellow and darker. Note: some foods, drugs, and supplements alter the color of urine.) Additionally, urologists assert that output is more important than input. A healthy person should output approx. 1.5 liters per day. Individuals with kidney or other health issues should output more per day.
San Francisco Chronicle technology reporter, Benny Evangelista reported his experiences with the "smart cup." He notes a number of design and use issues that one should consider seriously before spending $99.
If one wants to use 8 cups of fluids per day as a target, a simple method is to have two cups of fluids with each meal and one cup in-between meals. (That presumes three meals per day.) No issue with loss connection between app and cup nor potential stealing of info by potential hackers of the software. If you need reminders, just use the alarm or timer feature on your smartphone that you've set to remind you to take breaks from the computer.