Water is our simplest nutrient¹. It requires no more preparation than turning on a tap. We know when we need to drink it because we feel thirsty. Fully functioning adults tend not to forget to drink enough water to survive.

对我们来说，水是最简单的养分。它不用置备，只要拧开水龙头就好了。我们知道什么时候需要喝水，因为我们会觉得口渴。功能正常的成年人不会忘了喝足够的水以保证自身的存活。

Yet companies old and new want to convince us that humanity has a drinking problem. New “smart cups” from Thermos² and San Francisco-based start-up Mark One use an array of sensors⁴ that beam users’ real-time data about water consumption to a smartphone app. But does such a simple act as drinking really need all this tech?

然而，新老公司都想让我们相信人类在喝水上存在问题。膳魔师(Thermos)和旧金山初创企业Mark One的新款“智能杯”通过一组传感器将用户的实时饮水数据传送到智能手机应用上。然而，像喝水这样简单的行为真的需要这些科技吗？

Being well hydrated can make us feel more alert and focused, as well as boosting our immune system. The apocryphal⁵ advice of eight glasses of water a day is actually a little less than the 2.7 litres recommended for women and 3.7l for men by the US Institute of Medicine. But, as the institute concluded: “The vast majority of healthy people adequately meet their daily hydration needs by letting thirst be their guide.”

保持充足的水分可以让我们更警觉，注意力更集中，还能提高人体免疫系统的能力。经常听到的建议是人应该每天喝八杯水，但实际上美国医学研究院(US Institute Of Medicine)的建议量比这还要略高一点——女性每天需要喝2.7升水，男性需要喝3.7升水。但是，该机构的结论是：“绝大多数健康人以口渴为指引，就足以满足人体每天的水分需求了。”

Pryme time

Mark One的Pryme Vessyl杯

Nonetheless, Mark One believes its algorithm can do better than humans.

尽管如此，Mark One相信其算法胜过人类的判断。

When setting up its $100 smart cup, called Pryme Vessyl, I told the app my age, weight, height and sleeping hours. As an optional extra, I also gave it access to my iPhone’s activity and workout data, collected through fitness trackers such as Apple Watch or Jawbone’s UP.

Mark One的Pryme Vessyl智能杯售价100美元。在设置的时候，我在应用中输入了自己的年龄、体重、身高和睡眠时长。我还选择了一个额外选项，授权它访问我手机里通过苹果手表(Apple Watch)或者Jawbone的UP手环等健康追踪设备收集的活动和锻炼数据。

Pryme Vessyl crunches⁶ this data in the cloud to create what it says is a more personalised and dynamic hydration target. But rather than tally⁷ this in regular litres or ounces, it uses a curious metric of its own invention, also called Pryme.

Pryme Vessyl在云端对这些数据进行处理，制定其所谓的更为个性化、更动态的水摄入标准。但是它没有采用升或盎司等通常使用的度量单位，而是采用了奇特的自创度量单位Pryme。

This obscurely calculated score is tallied⁸ up on the app and also appears as a thin strip of white light on the outside of the cup. The line lights up when you tilt⁹ the cup, ending in a blue dot if it judges you are sufficiently¹⁰ hydrated at that moment.

这个晦涩计算得出的数字显示在你的手机应用上，还会以一道细细的白光显示在水杯外壁上。当你倾斜水杯的时候，这道光就会亮起来，如果它认为你此时已经摄入了足够的水分，白光末端的点就会变成蓝色。

This light is an elegant touch on the otherwise minimalist white cup, which at least is not too brash about its “smarts”. The white matt plastic exterior¹¹ is pleasant to hold and comfortable regardless of whether the cup contains iced water or hot tea.

这道光给这个极简设计的白色杯子增添了雅致感，这款水杯至少对自己的“智能”不是太自以为是。白色哑光塑料外壳握起来手感很好，不论杯子里放的是冰水还是热茶都让人觉得很舒服。

However, the glass interior makes the cup pretty heavy, while its “splashproof” sliding cap does not prevent drips and leaks. This makes it unsuitable for use during vigorous exercise, when hydration monitoring might be most useful.

然而，玻璃内层让这个水杯相当重，而其“防溅”滑盖无法防止水滴漏出来。这导致这个杯子不适合在剧烈运动中使用，而那也许正是最需要水分监测的时候。

My main incentive¹² for maintaining Pryme became to silence the constant nag¹³ of push notifications that arrived whenever I was short of my goal. My phone often pinged when I had just taken a sip¹⁴ with urges to take another, to “get you to the next level”.

每次我没达到目标，手机上的应用就会不断地给我推送通知，我坚持使用Pryme的主要动机变成了让恼人的通知安静下来。我的手机经常会在我刚喝一口的时候哔哔作响，催促我再来一口以“升至下一个级别”。

Mark One has raised millions of dollars in venture capital to develop a more ambitious cup that claims to track the type and brand of drink inside, including calorie and caffeine content.

Mark One已筹集了数百万美元的风险资本，以开发一款更加雄心勃勃的水杯，据称其能够追踪杯中饮品的种类和品牌，包括卡路里和咖啡因含量。

However, that product has had more than a year of delays because of problems with sensor³ reliability¹⁵, with no shipping¹⁶ date in sight. In the past few months, the company has suffered the departure of its heads of health, design and software, as well as founder¹⁷ and chief executive Justin Lee.

然而，由于传感器可靠性问题，该产品已经延期了一年多，何时能出货也还未可知。过去几个月里，该公司健康、设计和软件部门的几名主管相继离开，创始人和首席执行官贾斯廷丠(Justin Lee)也已走人。

Thermos 2.0

膳魔师Smart Lid

Thermos’s $60 Smart Lid device is more utilitarian¹⁸. Its app simply tracks how much water is in the bottle (in case you can’t see through its transparent¹⁹ side), its temperature (in case holding the cup was insufficiently²⁰ precise), how much water you have consumed and — for fans of pointless statistics — how many minutes you have spent drinking and how many sips²¹ you have taken that day. You can set your own water consumption goal (in plain old litres), with a bar tracking your progress, and the total amount drunk can also sync to Fitbit’s app.

膳魔师推出的售价60美元的Smart Lid智能杯实用一些。这款应用只监测瓶中有多少水（免得你通过透明的杯壁也看不到里面）、水温（以防捧着杯子感到的温度不够精确）、你已经喝了多少水、以及为那些无意义统计数据的爱好者提供的数据——当天你已经在喝水上花了多长分钟和喝了多少口。你可以设定个人水摄入目标（以普通的度量单位“升”计），有一个进度条追踪你的进程，饮水总量也可以同步到Fitbit的应用上。

The plastic bottle and its lid are light and watertight, which at least makes it more practical than the Pryme. But I found the data transfer unreliable. On one occasion, it told me I had spent 1,143 minutes taking one sip, to consume 7ml of water.

塑料瓶身和瓶盖轻便、不透水，使其至少比Pryme实用一些。但是我发现其数据转换不太可靠。有一次，它显示我喝一口水花了1143分钟，却只喝了7毫升水。

Verdict

结论

The human body comes with robust²² hydration sensors — based on input²³ and output — pre-installed at no cost to the user. We may all benefit from the occasional reminder²⁴ to drink more water, but there are far cheaper ways to do that than these devices.

人体预装了强大可靠的水分传感器，根据水分的摄入和排出运作。我们也许都能受益于偶尔提醒的“多喝水”建议，但是比起这些设备，还有便宜得多的方式做到这一点。

Amid the ongoing²⁵ “internet of things” hype, the argument that a cup or bottle must be “smart” just does not hold water.

在“物联网”的持续炒作中，水杯或水瓶必须“智能”的观点是站不住脚的。