NutraCast: Intake Health’s device that measures hydration in real-time
Intake Health's InFlow urinal testing device provides users with anonymous hydration results without saving identifiable data. Drawing on light spectrum analysis, InFlow uses multiple wavelengths and a proprietary algorithm to instantly assess user hydration.
“We've been around for about seven years and most of the early years were around research. So how do we track diet Indicators like your dietary protein, carbohydrates, sugar, calories, how do we track micronutrients, riboflavin folic acid–all from the toilet environment itself. So we wanted to make it extremely passive and easy for everybody to integrate this into your daily life. You go to the bathroom, you don't have to do anything special, and we're able to use the flush water to quantify a lot of these indicators. So in research, in the lab, we're able to identify 40-50 different indications around diet quality. And I suspect there's thousands more,” explained Michael Bender, CEO of Intake Health.
As of right now, the company uses its technology to measure hydration, but Bender said the plan is to expand into other commercial environments and eventually home toilet environments where diet can be measured on a daily basis to track nutrient intake and medication adherence.
“We do have a road map of the future products that I don't have the details to release on that right now,” said Bender. “And we'll continue to add new things around diet tracking and health monitoring.”
One thing the company is working on is a device for toilets so that women can more easily measure their hydration too. To hear more on the plans for this,
listen to the NutraCast.
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