Fitness wearable tracks hydration levels through skin

BSX Athletics|BSX Athletics|BSX Athletics

LVL wearable fitness tracker and app monitors user hydration levels by shining red light through the skin to measure blood water levels.

We’ve covered many recent examples of fitness-tracking wearables offering a range of insight into user health, such as supplementary diet recommendations, and now LVL is enabling users to monitor their hydration levels throughout the day.

LVL, from BSX Athletics, is worn on the wrist and works by shining a red light through the skin to measure the blood water level (using similar technology to that used in hospitals to measure blood oxygen). User hydration levels are then reported in simple graphics on the LVL watch-style face, with real-time data also uploaded to the LVL app via bluetooth. While focussing on hydration, LVL is also capable of monitoring a range of other physiological processes, such as heart rate, sleep quality and mood (which can all be affected by hydration levels, according to the developers) and will run on an open API, enabling third party integration with other fitness apps. LVL is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, with full shipping expected late summer 2017. We’ve seen smart water bottles that let you know if you’re not drinking enough, fabric treatments that will indicate low hydration for sportswear, and even gamified hydration monitoring for kids. Will LVL’s ability to monitor hydration in addition to other functions be enough to set it apart in the heavily ‘saturated’ wearables market?

Maintaining appropriate hydration is important for those in good health but for the very young, or those unable to monitor themselves, dehydration can be life-threatening. With elderly people considered to be at higher risk of dehydration – and with 44 million people worldwide suffering from dementia – how could wearable development help this vulnerable demographic stay aware of their physiological needs?