Have you had enough water today? I know I haven’t.
With jam-packed schedules charting the weeks ahead, fitting in a healthy dose of water each day easily falls by the wayside. The LVL wearable wristband monitors overall hydration, providing individualized recommendations to best keep dehydration out of your future for good. In addition to screening water levels, the LVL also tracks heart rate, sleep, mood, activity and calories.
Green light sensors are widely used in most consumer devices that relay information about the human body. Relying on photoplethysmography (PPG), small green-light-emitting sensors penetrate the top layers of the skin. Green light is absorbed by hemoglobin, which gives a general guideline to the vein’s blood flow.
This wearable ditches the popular green light sensors and uses red light, which utilizes near infrared wavelengths (NIR). Using wavelengths that range from 650 to 1100nm, the same sensor can record several physiological parameters, which helps paints an in-depth overview of our internal health, all originating from a lone optical basis.
Because the body is very poor at absorbing red light, the signal passes ten times deeper into the body than green light. This depth enables the sensor to output a richer source of information. Red light also allows for sensors to scan multiple tissue layers at once, which is vital for noise reduction and signal purification, each contributing to a rise in overall accuracy. For instance, most wearable gadgets can detect your heart rate within a range from 14 to 40 beats per minute. The LVL is accurate to within 3 beats per minute.
The LVL slips easily onto the wrist and comes with a touchscreen, accelerometer, battery and Bluetooth antenna. Using a complementary phone app, algorithms use the recoded data and “learn” your usual routines and typical behavior. With each calibration, specific hydration instructions are given to optimize your body’s water levels.
After you grab yourself a nice, cold bottle of water, check out this anti-dehydration device on Kickstarter.
