Vessyl, the smart cup that knows exactly what you're drinking | Hacker News Reader

Vessyl, the smart cup that knows exactly what you're drinking

myvessyl.com

96 pointstfe72 comments

I'm not comfortable buying a $100 cup if I Can't find the "How does it work?" question in the FAQ. I mean, I'm not expecting a full technical detail, but something more than "It’s not magic, but close to it…".

It's easier to find out if it will work as you expect it if at least gives some hint of what kind of technology it's using. Or am I missing any text that says so? I would certainly consider doing a pre-order if I had some more info on its inner workings. It looks like a neat product and even one that I would like to try out just for fun, and also to see if this technology actually works.

(I'm not counting the video which I didn't look at because I really prefer not having to sit through several minutes of pretty pictures and logos and such to find out how the product works)

So am I alone in this? is it so rare for people to ask how a device that claims near-magical properties work?

No, it seems pretty basic. If you had sat through the video it would still be 'magic'.

But hey, you can get it for $99 right now instead of $199 later!

So even the video doesn't explain this? Well that was unexpected. I really really find it odd that people that can engineer something like this don't even want to show a little bit of the magic they created? Sounds like snake-oil to me then.. even if it's not, that's how it looks.

This.

I left the website feeling disappointed. Those are very pretty pictures they have, and a pretty spiffy website, but it feels like the marketing team went a little bit too nuts. The sheer lack of info about how it works honestly left me second-guessing if this was a genuine product or some kind of we'd-like-to-build-this-eventually-but-don't-know-how-yet pipe-dream that they weren't allowed to post to Kickstarter because they didn't have a prototype yet.

Where's the How It Works section? Not on the front page? Forgivable. Not in the FAQ? Not forgivable.

At least it's good to hear they didn't tuck it away in the video, doing that scores even lower than not having it in the FAQ in my books.

What problem is this cup solving? Is it that hard to figure out what you're drinking? (Hint: look at the bottle when you pour, and don't take drinks from strangers.) Is it that hard to keep yourself hydrated? (Just drink when you're thirsty.) And how is a calorie counting cup gonna help me lose weight? (Just DRINK WATER).

I want something that simplifies my life. Not something that needlessly complicates something as simple as drinking without giving me added benefits.

Roofies. It solves the problem of roofies.

The website makes no such claim. So no, I don't think the problem of roofies will be solved until certain men learn that sex isn't something you take by force.

Instead, we have a 100 dollar cup that peforms a neat trick.

There are already cheaper solutions to this: http://www.drinkspikedetector.com/howitworks.htm for example.

Not really. I don't see discotheques or bars buying it. They generally buy the cheapest plastic glass they can find for the former and the later have drink companies offering them free glasses. As for private parties, where your cup is likely to be lost or broken, people won't bring this expensive cups with them.

To me it's more, "lets surf on the Internet of Things". As already said, I don't see the need. Maybe if one day it become as cheap as normal cups. But not now.

Not I saying roofies are not a problem. Just that is not a solution, IMHO.

Keeping track of what you're drinking, how much you're drinking and how many calories your drinking is what this solves. It clearly isn't useful to you but it's automating a task that some people don't want to do manually. Why do you need a pedometer when you can count steps?

We can certainly argue the usefulness of this device for the average joe or how small their market may be but arguing that it doesn't solve any problems is silly.

Almost nobody needs to do that.

If you're trying to lose weight, it's easier to just drink water. Then you know what your drinking, and how many calories it has (none!).

If you're trying to limit caffeine, you don't need a fucking sensor cup to tell you how many cups of coffee you had. Because most people can count the number of cups they've had on their fingers. Counting on your fingers is a lot easier than lugging a $99 dollar cup everywhere you go.

And that's pretty much the only reasons you'd need to watch what you drink. Lets cut the shit. This product is for people interested in "quantified self." People who think they can derive useful insights from looking at 3 years worth of their own toenail clippings. Hey, different strokes for different folks, but I doubt you can learn something from measuring your drinking that you didn't already know (Oh hey, I drink more wine when I'm sad... and soda makes me gain weight! I'm so glad I obsessively poured all my drinks into a $99 electronic cup).

For a copywriter you're pretty boring. Your complaint is the equivalent of begging why have anyone tell you the weather when you can just open the window!

This is a sensor in a cup. It's a companion piece. The future is all about companions surrounding you, nudging you, guiding you.

> For a copywriter you're pretty boring.

His profile says "I'm a copywriter, a web designer, and a deeply cynical person."

I believe that is utterly congruent with his comment.

That future sounds dystopian. And just because I get paid to talk up worthless products doesn't mean I use them myself.

I'd expect this to be possibly useful for diabetics. I don't expect this to be useful for detecting allergens, because I don't expect it to have small enough detection thresholds.

I rarely think to drink water, because I rarely feel thirsty. When I do, I usually drink coffee.

It took a trip to the doctor to find out I was chronically dehydrated. I used to only drink 1 - 3 glasses of water a day.

I'm not sure why exactly I would need this (I don't need a cup to tell me what I'm drinking, and I don't find it difficult to keep track of my beverage habits).

This is interesting from a technical perspective, though. How does it know what's in the cup?

I'm going to take a guess and say that it contains a small device which uses an absorption spectroscopy technique (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_spectroscopy) or something similar. Given a large database of known beverages and their constituent parts, it could compare and find a match based on a known set of gaps in the spectrum.

Thx for the link. It's interesting that a couple of years ago this technology would have required thousands of dollars of chemistry equipment and now you can build it into a cup.

Very cool.

> a couple of years ago this technology would have required thousands of dollars of chemistry equipment and now you can build it into a cup.

A $200 cup. http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/vessyl-smart-cup-knows-the-diffe...

I don't think the chemistry side of the technology was what would have made this difficult "a couple years ago." I think what has made this possible today is the slew of "connected" devices before this like the fitness bands.

And honestly, I believe it is the entrepreneur's imagination, the market and people's perception that has really caught up to technology that already existed.

Another option is that they use a capacitive sensor, which reminds me of the smart pill bottles being developed by AdhereTech and others (http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/8/5289022/adheretech-smart-pi...).

Although, I think this is less likely- I like your guess better.

Need? I didn't need a smartphone when I bought one, but it changed my lifestyle such that it is now irreplaceable. How do they do it? I really don't know but this article on electrochemical biosensor arrays for "electronic tongue" is interesting: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijelc/2012/986025/

A smartphone is a telephone, maps, address book, games, music player, ebook reader, web browser, GPS, microphone, pedometer, barometer, and more.

This thing is a cup.

Did you really just type this? haha

Well this thing is a cup, spectroscopic device, hydration tracker,and daily caloric planner, that integrates with your smartphone through bluetooth, while charging wirelessly.

It is all of those things, but it's raison d'être is to hold liquids until they are consumed.

It's a very advanced cup. And in order to be useful, you need to drink everything with that cup.

> And in order to be useful, you need to drink everything with that cup.

This is a very important point and really limits the usefulness of this cup. Lots of empty calories that happen from drinking happen on the go at places like bars, restaurants, or coffee shops - are we expecting people to bring their cups with them everywhere and empty out their beverages into their smart cup before drinking?

Some things that seem useless surprise you with their utility. But most things that seem useless are in fact useless.

It's so that everything is better and you know everything about everything all the time and then everything is better because you know all the things and can track it and turn it into data.

I'm getting a little tired of the onslaught of products which attach technology to items/habits/lifestyles that (IMO) are obscured by technology. Does the jawbone bracelet improve my understanding of my own habits and body better than care contemplation and meditation would, or does it add an (incomplete) layer of abstraction to an already complicated system? Do a few meager data points help me better understand what's going on with my body?

With these technologies we must force ourselves to weigh the negative impacts against the perceived values.

What is the environmental impact of creating this item?

How much does this item increase my power consumption?

How is the data collected by this device used, who has access to it?

Is there a problem that this product solves?

What kind of impact does this product have on the people around me?

If this item is just a toy, does its environmental impact justify the purchasing of it?

I hope they are taking a page from the Tesla playbook. The people who need this device are not the ones who are going to pre-order it today or buy it when it comes to retail. But to reach the broader consumer market they need to target high-end, trendy, and rich consumers, so they can eventually produce an affordable (or better yet, ubiquitous) technology. To complete the analogy, I hope this is the "Roadster" with a clear goal of an affordable sedan in the future.

Who do I think needs this technology? People who drink soda and don't know how many calories they are consuming. Not only does it cause a huge percentage of obesity cases (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/sugary-drinks-fa...) but the large doses of caffeine and phosphoric acid in Colas can do serious damage to your bones! (http://www.webmd.com/osteoporosis/features/soda-osteoporosis).

Unfortunately there is a strong correlation between poverty and soda consumption. (http://www.livescience.com/35127-poverty-soda-pop-consumptio...) So if you want to make a real impact you're going to have to make this cheap and easy enough to be sold in bulk at Walmart. (Please excuse the stereotyping, it is, of course, not this simple.)

I think really what the people who "need" this device need is better access to good food, and the money to buy it.

I mean, really, I am pretty sure most poor people know they kinda eat like shit. If they had the money to spend on good food (prepared or raw materials), and the time to sit in a restaurant for a half hour, or to cook stuff, they probably would. A higher minimum wage, maybe even a basic income, would go a lot further than "here is a $5 cup that can make you feel guilty about not being able to afford to drink good things".

IMO it's an education problem. I used to work in bone density testing and almost universally people were shocked to learn that cola might hurt their bones. Ironically being heavy means higher estrogen levels and a heavier load to carry (which is exercise for your bones) so the effect was sometimes canceled out. But if you don't know that there is a lot of sugar in some beverages, or you don't do the math to figure out how many servings of the "low cal" beverage you're getting when you drink multiple 2 liter bottles a day then you're screwed!

Just like activity trackers can help improve health by improving awareness (and yes, maybe some guilt) I still think any food/calorie tracking technology could help. And remember here we're talking about nourishment for which there is a nearly free and readily available alternative; water.

I wonder if there is a more concise and general term for starting with the high end to develop technology and move to the mainstream when scale and technology becomes more affordable and usable.

It's basically a specific subset of crossing the chasm, right?

Something something "trickle down".

I keep bouncing between "this is an excellently executed troll!" and "…does this actually work?!"

I'm guessing that it either uses absorption spectrography or a motor, two electrodes, a balance, and a large database of mass/conductivity/viscosity data.

Up next: C'mode, the smart toilet that knows what you've been eating, and offers helpful advice intended to prevent indigestion and weight gain, while optimizing your grocery list and restaurant reservations.

Hahahah, I feel that would be difficult to market but probably really useful. I'm sure you can learn all types of things about yourself from your stool. I guess when you sat down, it would have some voice recognition to know it was you, like "Hello C'mode!"?

Weight and body fat, like the Withings scale.

It would be nice to know how it works, literally the only question I have is not answered on the FAQ page.

$99 for a smart cup that will add to the list of items I have to regularly charge.

Seems like a cool concept, but it's too expensive and the idea of having YET ANOTHER item to charge really pushes me away.

I love that people are doing these kinds of things, though.

This sounds absurdly stupid. I thought it was a joke.

> "We know being active is important, so your Vessyl connects with popular activity trackers for more accurate net calories and hydration awareness."

Phew, I was worried about this. If I can't sync my Vessyl to my fitbit to my strava profile with nike+ misfit shine integrations, how the hell am I supposed to know exactly how many steps I need to take to optimize my area under the fun curve subject to the constraints that I lose 1.6 pounds but can still eat artisanal cuisine?! The other day I almost went for a walk in the woods, but my Vessyl was dropping its bluetooth connection, so I retreated to the safety of my San Francisco apartment.

Exactly my thought, the video seems satirical. Especially when the guy pours beer in the cup and it tells him that it's beer, after which he gives it a "that's right" nod.

It's more that it puts the info into your phone automatically. Of course you know it's beer, but writing it down in a food journal is a bit of a hassle, and doing math on it to see how many calories you drank each day this month is tedious enough to be worth automating.

I'm wonder if this means we've hit peak 'smart<x>', or if we're still some distance out.

Although I do like the hydration level stuff, I'm just not certain I think a $200($99 if you get in early) cup is the best solution for it.

I'm going to wait until I get more information before I pass judgement on it...

But I wonder if they purposely delay displaying the contents of the liquid. It seemed a bit comical in the video when the guy pours something into the cup and it takes a couple of seconds for the animation to run before it displays, "beer"

I think you'll get a lot of poking at that aspect of it because humans generally know what they are pouring into the cup, so taking so long to identify it makes it seem slow/laggy. It gives the feeling of "why does it need 5 seconds to tell that it's water. I know it's water instantly, why doesn't it as well?"

His expression is _fantastic_, though. "I _am_ drinking beer!"

What happens if you pour in american light beer? Does it say it is water?

I wonder if it can tell when you're drinking Soylent.

No information on how it works, what material it's made of, etc. The last thing I want is all my liquid intake to go thru a plastic cup.

The FAQ states the inside is made of glass

I'm pretty sure it wasn't there when I checked as the TV show joke is below that I read up to it, but anyway. Now they say "specialized glass". Still not clear enough.

Do I have to take this to the pub for my beer too?

April fools comes early.

This is pretty nifty.

Of course the problem is I need to carry it everywhere and empty my drinks into it for it to really work. If I have to carry it everywhere, I have to make sure it's charged. So now before I go out in the morning I have yet another device that I need to ensure is fully charged for the rest of the day.

I have only one question.

Can that web page be any more resource-intensive? It's basically a slideshow as I scroll.

This can really sample how much sugar is in a custom smoothie? If so that's amazing.

Can you determine the amount of sugar in a liquid using a low-voltage current? Then possibly, yes.

After some quick googling, it appears this may use the same principal that diabetes glucose monitors use.

That's very damn cool technology-wise. It would probably be useful in some sci-fi setting where you are provided with many unknown substances and you need to detect whether something is drinkable or not.

This is very interesting. Automating parts of self-measurement is a good way to get people to do it.

I could use this to cut down on the caffeine... lol... would be cool if the lid locks shut after 400mg of caffeine. No more!

The product seems pretty cool, but people really do use the spacebar to scroll.

Headers like the one on this site make doing so very difficult. There's probably a CSS correction that can be applied.

The monetization on this seems extremely likely to be selling drinking habit data to specific brands, since it can recognize brands and even varieties within brands.

>In most cases, you will see the specific brands and flavors of what you are drinking when you open the app.

It'd be very interesting to know how the heck this thing works.

I'm interested to see how it handles minestrone soup...

Whoever writes the first beer pong app for this will be an instant billionaire. Or will be invited to a lot of parties. One of those two.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

I like this. I would also like a toilet that analysed my waste and tell me things.

OMG, At least a device to tell me when i'm thirty ! I'm just waiting for another device to tell me when i'm hungry and then, i could replace my brain, stomac and body by stupid pieces of hardware. That's the product i was looking all my life, for sure ! ...

For people with no short term memory or taste buds, wave of the future...

I thought it was mac pro

You've gotta be fucking kidding me.

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