Your Phone Could Soon Tell You When to Hydrate, Just by Touching the Screen

If you want to prevent dehydration, health experts recommend drinking water before you actually feel thirsty. But how do you know when it’s time to sip? A recent study suggests your smartphone screen might soon be able to give you that answer.

Wearable Tech Exists, But Isn’t for Everyone

Although wearable devices like sweat-analyzing patches or temporary tattoos already exist to monitor hydration levels, they come with drawbacks. People need to buy them, learn how to use them, and wear them—steps that many, especially those who aren’t tech-savvy or rarely face high dehydration risk, simply avoid.

To make hydration tracking more accessible, Prof. Tareq Al-Naffouri and his team at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia turned their attention to capacitive sensors—the same kind used in smartphone touchscreens.

These sensors not only detect the electrical signals from a fingertip but can also sense variations in skin capacitance, which reflects the skin’s ability to store electrical charge. Previous research has shown that as hydration decreases, so does skin capacitance.

Using AI to Interpret the Data

Building on this idea, the KAUST researchers developed a machine-learning algorithm that translates skin capacitance readings into five distinct hydration levels. They tested the system with 45 volunteers, who simply touched a capacitive sensing surface similar to a smartphone screen. Participants also provided basic personal data, such as weight and gender.

Among the test subjects, 35 were observing Ramadan and were tested five times a day during fasting, while the remaining 10 were athletes measured before and after intense workouts.

Compared to conventional hydration tests, this new method demonstrated impressive accuracy—87% for fasting individuals and 92% for athletes. The researchers believe these results will improve further with continued development and integration into a mobile app.

“We imagine a future where users can monitor their hydration in real time with a simple touch of their smartphone screen,” says team member Soumia Siyoucef.

Read the original article on: New Atlas

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