Gatorade's smart cap takes rehydration to the next level
Wearable tech is moving beyond chic rings and outerwear.
Gatorade doesn't just want you to wear your tech, it wants you to drink your tech with its smart-cap and chip-enabled skin patch, currently in development.
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The smart-cap has a microchip that "will share real-time hydration data of the athlete." The skin patch (about two inches by one inch, reports the Wall Street Journal) works in conjunction with an app to determine factors like the wearer's sweat level, electrolyte needs and fluid intake requirements.
Gatorade's Sports Science Institute has developed an algorithm to give the user suggestions on hydration according to the cap, app and patch's readings. Gatorade says sweat loss has a large range, from half a liter to greater than two liters per hour of activity; this makes sense considering anyone from a professional basketball player to your grandma on her power walks around the block engages in exercise of some sort.
Gatorade is creating 12 different egg shaped pods that snap onto the bottle and deliver different combinations of electrolytes, carbohydrates and calories, Xavi Cortadellas (Gatorade's senior director of global innovation and design) tells Digiday.
Cortadellas emphasizes the personalization aspect of the bottle cap, including team logos and LED lights displaying whether the user is on target with hydration goals.
Gatorade began testing the smart caps with Brazil's national soccer team during the 2014 World Cup and plans to release a version to professional athletes in summer 2016, but a commercially available version isn't projected until 2017 or 2018.
This is just part of Gatorade's foray into the future, with items like an overnight-recovery focused yogurt laced with protein and "nitrate shots" to enhance endurance also in development.
If this smart cap and patch works the way it says it does, your mom won't have to worry about you hydrating when you train for that marathon anymore. Now your sports drink can nag you for her.
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Sarah Spigelman Richter is a contributor to Mashable's Food channel. Sarah covers everything edible, from the food industry to D.I.Y. recipes. She was previously the community manager for Tastemade NYC and her writing has been seen on The Today Show's food blog, Refinery 29, the Food Network, and Gothamist. She has also developed recipes for Tabasco and other nationally recognized brands and has blogged for 5 years at "Fritos and Foie Gras." Sarah is obsessed with "Orphan Black" and chili-cheese Fritos and is still depressed that Loehmann's closed.
