We compare four commercial water bottles in terms of performance and functionality. In this paper, we aim to determine if common commercially available water bottles are a viable solution for researchers and patients alike. The bottles that are available in the market mainly target recreational athletes or health-conscious adults hoping to increase their hydration 3. Unfortunately, most of these studies have not resulted in commercially available products. There are many reports in the literature of attempts to create systems or devices that can aide in tracking and managing fluid intake 3. Therefore, monitoring fluid intake is a useful way to determine if adequate fluid has been consumed 1, 2.
High fluid intake is recommended for patients at risk of recurring stone formation. Fluid intake balance is important especially among the elderly and people with underlying conditions affecting fluid regulation. The Thermos Smart Lid provides the lowest accuracy, as the sensors do not extend through the entire bottle, leading to many missed recordings.ĭehydration is a very serious issue as it can lead to adverse complications, including confusion, falls, hospitalization, and death. The MPE values for HidrateSpark bottles were further improved using linear regression, as they had more consistent individual error values. The HidrateSpark 3 provided the most consistent and reliable results, with the lowest per sip error. The H2OPal had the lowest Mean Percent Error (MPE) and was able to balance out errors throughout multiple sips. One hundred intake events for each bottle were recorded and analyzed versus ground truth obtained from a high-resolution weight scale. These bottles are the H2OPal, HidrateSpark Steel, HidrateSpark 3, and Thermos Smart Lid. This study compares four commercially available smart bottles in terms of both performance and functionality. To the best of our knowledge, these bottles have not been validated in the literature.
Several commercial smart bottles are available, mainly targeting health-conscious adults. There has been a trend in recent years to develop tools to monitor fluid intake using “smart” products such as smart bottles. Fluid intake is important to prevent dehydration and reduce recurrent kidney stones.