水杯需要智能嗎 Smart cup and bottle quench thirst you never knew you had

Water is our simplest nutrient. It requires no more preparation than turning on a tap. We know when we need to drink it because we feel thirsty. Fully functioning adults tend not to forget to drink enough water to survive.

對我們來說，水是最簡單的養分。它不用置備，只要擰開水龍頭就好了。我們知道什麼時候需要喝水，因爲我們會覺得口渴。功能正常的成年人不會忘了喝足夠的水以保證自身的存活。

Yet companies old and new want to convince us that humanity has a drinking problem. New “smart cups” from Thermos and San Francisco-based start-up Mark One use an array of sensors that beam users’ real-time data about water consumption to a smartphone app. But does such a simple act as drinking really need all this tech?

然而，新老公司都想讓我們相信人類在喝水上存在問題。膳魔師(Thermos)和舊金山初創企業Mark One的新款“智能杯”通過一組傳感器將用戶的實時飲水數據傳送到智能手機應用上。然而，像喝水這樣簡單的行爲真的需要這些科技嗎？

Being well hydrated can make us feel more alert and focused, as well as boosting our immune system. The apocryphal advice of eight glasses of water a day is actually a little less than the 2.7 litres recommended for women and 3.7l for men by the US Institute of Medicine. But, as the institute concluded: “The vast majority of healthy people adequately meet their daily hydration needs by letting thirst be their guide.”

保持充足的水分可以讓我們更警覺，注意力更集中，還能提高人體免疫系統的能力。經常聽到的建議是人應該每天喝八杯水，但實際上美國醫學研究院(US Institute Of Medicine)的建議量比這還要略高一點——女性每天需要喝2.7升水，男性需要喝3.7升水。但是，該機構的結論是：“絕大多數健康人以口渴爲指引，就足以滿足人體每天的水分需求了。”

Pryme time

Mark One的Pryme Vessyl杯

Nonetheless, Mark One believes its algorithm can do better than humans.

儘管如此，Mark One相信其算法勝過人類的判斷。

When setting up its $100 smart cup, called Pryme Vessyl, I told the app my age, weight, height and sleeping hours. As an optional extra, I also gave it access to my iPhone’s activity and workout data, collected through Fitness trackers such as Apple Watch or Jawbone’s UP.

Mark One的Pryme Vessyl智能杯售價100美元。在設置的時候，我在應用中輸入了自己的年齡、體重、身高和睡眠時長。我還選擇了一個額外選項，授權它訪問我手機裏通過蘋果手錶(Apple Watch)或者Jawbone的UP手環等健康追蹤設備收集的活動和鍛鍊數據。

Pryme Vessyl crunches this data in the cloud to create what it says is a more personalised and dynamic hydration target. But rather than tally this in regular litres or ounces, it uses a curious metric of its own invention, also called Pryme.

Pryme Vessyl在雲端對這些數據進行處理，制定其所謂的更爲個性化、更動態的水攝入標準。但是它沒有采用升或盎司等通常使用的度量單位，而是採用了奇特的自創度量單位Pryme。

This obscurely calculated score is tallied up on the app and also appears as a thin strip of white light on the outside of the cup. The line lights up when you tilt the cup, ending in a blue dot if it judges you are sufficiently hydrated at that moment.

這個晦澀計算得出的數字顯示在你的手機應用上，還會以一道細細的白光顯示在水杯外壁上。當你傾斜水杯的時候，這道光就會亮起來，如果它認爲你此時已經攝入了足夠的水分，白光末端的點就會變成藍色。

This light is an elegant touch on the otherwise minimalist white cup, which at least is not too brash about its “smarts”. The white matt plastic exterior is pleasant to hold and comfortable regardless of whether the cup contains iced water or hot tea.

這道光給這個極簡設計的白色杯子增添了雅緻感，這款水杯至少對自己的“智能”不是太自以爲是。白色啞光塑料外殼握起來手感很好，不論杯子裏放的是冰水還是熱茶都讓人覺得很舒服。

However, the glass interior makes the cup pretty heavy, while its “splashproof” sliding cap does not prevent drips and leaks. This makes it unsuitable for use during vigorous exercise, when hydration monitoring might be most useful.

然而，玻璃內層讓這個水杯相當重，而其“防濺”滑蓋無法防止水滴漏出來。這導致這個杯子不適合在劇烈運動中使用，而那也許正是最需要水分監測的時候。

My main incentive for maintaining Pryme became to silence the constant nag of push notifications that arrived whenever I was short of my goal. My phone often pinged when I had just taken a sip with urges to take another, to “get you to the next level”.

每次我沒達到目標，手機上的應用就會不斷地給我推送通知，我堅持使用Pryme的主要動機變成了讓惱人的通知安靜下來。我的手機經常會在我剛喝一口的時候嗶嗶作響，催促我再來一口以“升至下一個級別”。

Mark One has raised millions of dollars in venture capital to develop a more ambitious cup that claims to track the type and brand of drink inside, including calorie and caffeine content.

Mark One已籌集了數百萬美元的風險資本，以開發一款更加雄心勃勃的水杯，據稱其能夠追蹤杯中飲品的種類和品牌，包括卡路里和咖啡因含量。

However, that product has had more than a year of delays because of problems with sensor reliability, with no shipping date in sight. In the past few months, the company has suffered the departure of its heads of health, design and software, as well as founder and chief executive Justin Lee.

然而，由於傳感器可靠性問題，該產品已經延期了一年多，何時能出貨也還未可知。過去幾個月裏，該公司健康、設計和軟件部門的幾名主管相繼離開，創始人和首席執行官賈斯廷丠(Justin Lee)也已走人。

Thermos 2.0

膳魔師Smart Lid

Thermos’s $60 Smart Lid device is more utilitarian. Its app simply tracks how much water is in the bottle (in case you can’t see through its transparent side), its temperature (in case holding the cup was insufficiently precise), how much water you have consumed and — for fans of pointless statistics — how many minutes you have spent drinking and how many sips you have taken that day. You can set your own water consumption goal (in plain old litres), with a bar tracking your progress, and the total amount drunk can also sync to Fitbit’s app.

膳魔師推出的售價60美元的Smart Lid智能杯實用一些。這款應用只監測瓶中有多少水（免得你通過透明的杯壁也看不到裏面）、水溫（以防捧着杯子感到的溫度不夠精確）、你已經喝了多少水、以及爲那些無意義統計數據的愛好者提供的數據——當天你已經在喝水上花了多長分鐘和喝了多少口。你可以設定個人水攝入目標（以普通的度量單位“升”計），有一個進度條追蹤你的進程，飲水總量也可以同步到Fitbit的應用上。

The plastic bottle and its lid are light and watertight, which at least makes it more practical than the Pryme. But I found the data transfer unreliable. On one occasion, it told me I had spent 1,143 minutes taking one sip, to consume 7ml of water.

塑料瓶身和瓶蓋輕便、不透水，使其至少比Pryme實用一些。但是我發現其數據轉換不太可靠。有一次，它顯示我喝一口水花了1143分鐘，卻只喝了7毫升水。

Verdict

結論

The human body comes with robust hydration sensors — based on input and output — pre-installed at no cost to the user. We may all benefit from the occasional reminder to drink more water, but there are far cheaper ways to do that than these devices.

人體預裝了強大可靠的水分傳感器，根據水分的攝入和排出運作。我們也許都能受益於偶爾提醒的“多喝水”建議，但是比起這些設備，還有便宜得多的方式做到這一點。

Amid the ongoing “internet of things” hype, the argument that a cup or bottle must be “smart” just does not hold water.

在“物聯網”的持續炒作中，水杯或水瓶必須“智能”的觀點是站不住腳的。