Imagine a bottle that does more than just hold water—a bottle that communicates with your smartphone, tracks your hydration levels, and nudges you towards healthier habits while conserving the environment. That’s the reality we’ve created with a solution that marries the simplicity of hydration with the complexity of technology. By integrating the bottle with iOS and Android apps using the energy-efficient Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol, users gain the power to monitor their daily water intake and, simultaneously, contribute to environmental protection. Every refill is a pledge to the planet, a commitment to minimize waste, and a step away from plastic bottles cluttering our ecosystems. Continue reading to uncover the technical details and functional capabilities that make our smart bottle an essential companion for anyone looking to make a positive impact on both their health and the environment.
Functional Overview of Hydration App
Let’s begin with a general overview of the functionality provided by this solution, before delving into a more detailed examination of specific features. At the forefront of this experience is the effortless pairing of the smart bottle with mobile applications. Users find the synchronization process intuitive, thanks to Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, which provides them with real-time updates.
Users stay informed with real-time data on water consumption, battery status, and temperature, all fed directly to their mobile application. For those interested in delving into the technical nuances of Bluetooth Low Energy and understanding the inner workings of a smart bottle, we have crafted a blog post entirely dedicated to the BLE communication protocol. This post comprehensively covers the general data protocol, encompassing formats and commands, and unveils the mechanisms of precise and structured data exchange via BLE communication.
The user’s engagement with the bottle is multifaceted. It begins with the monitoring of water intake, as the bottle records each sip and supports the user in reaching their personal hydration goals. The journey with the bottle evolves as the user discovers its environmental impact, with each refill reducing reliance on single-use plastics, and the bottle’s tracking system displaying the cumulative effect of their choices. The user’s experience is further enriched by the health insights provided by the app, which analyzes drinking patterns and offers suggestions for maintaining optimal hydration levels. The app integrates with Apple Health and Google Fit. This integration allows for a two-way flow of vital information. Each time a user consumes water, these ‘consumption events’ are logged not only in our app but also synced with these health platforms. Conversely, the app retrieves data on calories burned from Apple Health or Google Fit, considering the user’s physical activities and sports engagements. This information plays a crucial role in refining our dehydration algorithm, ensuring that it accounts for varying levels of activity. By incorporating these dynamics, the app offers more personalized hydration recommendations, helping users maintain optimal hydration levels in sync with their overall fitness and health data.
Midway through the user’s experience, the bottle’s interactive ranking system becomes active, blending individual objectives with communal involvement. Users value seeing their personal hydration achievements contributing to a wider, cooperative effort, fostering health and sustainability in a group context. The Web Admin Panel facilitates the organization and oversight of these groups. It also provides administrators with an expansive perspective on hydration patterns, empowering them to guide and inspire users toward shared health and environmental goals.
Smart Water Bottle In-Depth Guide Features
Now that we’ve gained an overview of the solution’s functional capabilities, let’s delve into a more detailed examination of some of its features.
Smart Water Bottle Calibration
The first step in using a new device for water intake monitoring is crucial: calibrating the bottle. This ensures accuracy in water level readings. The app guides the user through simple instructions for this process: start with an empty, dry bottle, secure the cap, and place it upright on a flat surface. The user then presses the “start calibration” button, and the app indicates the ongoing calibration, asking to leave the bottle still for a minute. A successful calibration results in a confirmation message, while a failure prompts a retry. Additionally, the app facilitates a full bottle calibration, essential for precise water consumption tracking. This involves starting the calibration with the bottle filled to the top, allowing the device to set a benchmark for future measurements.
Synchronization and measurement features
The application’s time synchronization ensures that interactions between the smartphone and the smart bottle are precisely timestamped, crucial for tracking accurate water intake. The bottle confirms the current time back to the app, which then accurately logs hydration data. Temperature is measured via the bottle’s Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor with an integrated temperature sensor. It converts the thermal condition it detects into an electrical signal that can be interpreted by the device’s processor, in this case, the microcontroller within the smart bottle. This data is then relayed to the mobile app, providing the user with information about whether the water is at a suitable drinking temperature. Water level monitoring is conducted through the bottle’s sensors. The app receives real-time updates on how much water is consumed and how much remains, promoting healthy hydration habits efficiently. Data synchronization ensures all information regarding water consumption, temperature, and other metrics is preserved even when the bottle temporarily disconnects from the mobile app. This automatic process saves data in the bottle’s memory when the app connection is lost. Upon reconnection, the accumulated data is transferred back to the app, maintaining a continuous record of water intake and other vital metrics. This feature provides users with the assurance that their data remains current and won’t be lost due to temporary disconnections with their phone.
Autonomous LED Notification System
Within the user’s reach, the smart bottle evolves into an interactive guide for hydration, independent of the phone. It harnesses the simplicity of an LED Display to convey a spectrum of notifications, each color and pattern meticulously designed to communicate specific statuses and alerts. The bottle, equipped with this LED system, autonomously provides reminders set by the user, ensuring the user’s hydration routine is on track without needing to check their phone. This LED system signals various statuses and actions through distinctive color codes—green for a full charge, flashing red when the battery is low, and a gentle blue for hydration reminders, to name a few. These colored notifications are carefully crafted to be discreet yet noticeable, ensuring they catch the user’s eye without causing a distraction.
During the night, the bottle’s LED behavior is considerate, dimming or turning off to preserve the user’s comfort. With each flash and color change, the bottle informs the user of different states and interactions, from charging status to lid detection, creating a silent dialogue that enriches the user’s experience. Users can customize their hydration plan via the app, setting reminders to nudge them every two hours between 6:00 AM and 10:00 PM, the default schedule. These reminders are cleverly designed to activate only when the bottle is upright, ensuring the prompt is noticed and acted upon. Should the user miss the first alert, the bottle is persistent but patient—it will flash again at ten-minute intervals, up to three times, unless it detects movement or the user takes a drink, indicating that the reminder has served its purpose.
For those who prefer a tailored schedule, the reminders can be adjusted down to the minute, with the ability to turn off all notifications if both the start and stop times are set to midnight. Similarly, the night mode can be personalized, offering the flexibility to set silent hours according to the user’s sleep schedule. The bottle is also attuned to its own needs, signaling a low power indication when the battery dips below 15%. This alert is triggered when the bottle connects to BLE or when the lid is opened and closed, ensuring the user is aware and can recharge the device as needed. With such a dynamic notification system, the smart bottle does more than remind—it engages with the user in a harmonious blend of technology and personal care, making hydration a smart, interactive experience. Nearly all the logic detailed earlier has been executed within the firmware of the bottle’s microcontroller, which our team expertly developed. We welcome you to explore our focused blog post that delves into the myriad technical intricacies involved in creating the firmware for the smart bottle.
Default Settings Recovery
The app includes a factory reset feature that restores the device to its original state. This tool is crucial for troubleshooting technical issues and ensuring device functionality. Additionally, it’s essential to remove personal data before transferring the device to a new owner.
Smart Water Bottle Solution Architecture
We crafted native applications for iOS using Swift and for Android using Kotlin to serve as the primary user interfaces for our smart water bottle solution. These applications enable direct interaction with the bottle’s smart features, allowing users to track hydration in real time and customize their experience.
For the backend, we implemented Firebase, capitalizing on its reliable data storage and comprehensive notification system to support the solution’s scalability and user engagement. We chose Node.js for scripting the backend processes because of its asynchronous nature, which is ideal for handling real-time data and ensuring swift, uninterrupted communication between the smart bottle and the user applications.
For administrative control, we created an admin panel with React.js, enabling a reactive and modular environment for system management. This setup allows administrators to oversee user activity, analyze data, and update system configurations with ease. 
Let’s innovate together
Are you searching for an expert team specializing in the development of mobile and web applications, including the integration of smart connected devices at the firmware level? You’ve come to the right place. With a decade of experience working on IoT projects, we confidently undertake projects of any complexity, managing them from inception to successful launch.
Contact us, and we will provide you with much more information about our capabilities and achievements in developing comprehensive IoT applications across various sectors, from healthcare to entertainment.
