Nix is a wearable device company that is developing a single-use bio-sensor to track hydration levels during athletic activity. Here’s our review.
What is Nix Wearable Hydration Sensor?
Nix is a Boston, Massachusetts-based company created through the Harvard Innovation Launch Lab. The consumer diagnostic company has created a series of biometric sensors to track hydration in athletes.
Today, the company’s flagship product is a single-use, wearable hydration sensor. That sensor, according to the company’s official website, “empowers athletes to manage their hydration status in real-time, and thereby optimize performance”.
Overall, the company plans to improve athletic performance by making it easy to monitor hydration. Nix is one of several companies focusing on the hydration-tracking wearable niche. Single-use hydration monitors have value outside of the athletic world: they can also be used by firefighters, soldiers, and emergency personnel to track when they need a break.
How Does Nix Wearable Hydration Sensor Work?
In an interview online, Nix’s CEO explains that even mild dehydration can cause performance impairment of up to 29%. Nix plans to combat that dehydration by giving you the tools to track it.
How does Nix’s sensor track hydration levels? You place the Nix wearable device on your skin (it’s like a skin patch). Then, as you sweat, the patch continuously analyzes your sweat to determine its chemical profile. The patch detects subtle chemical changes in your sweat, then alerts you when levels sink below a certain amount.
The sensor is a hybrid photonic system developed at Harvard that informs athletes in real-time how to stay hydrated – including when to drink, what to drink, and how much to drink.
Should you be drinking water right now? Or do you need electrolytes? Should you really chug a big bottle of water right now? Or should you be taking small sips of a beverage like Gatorade? Nix aims to answer these questions in order to maximize performance.
Nix Wearable Hydration Sensor Features
Here are all of the features included in the Nix biosensor:
- Real Time Monitoring: Nix’s technology lets athletes monitor their hydration levels in real-time during activity.
- Single-Use Sensor: The single-use sensor makes Nix’s technology easy to use. You discard it after each use.
- No Power Required: Nix’s biosensor does not use power. It does not require a battery and does not need to be charged before use.
- Standalone: Nix’s technology is self-contained and standalone. You don’t need to connect it to another device to function. There’s no need to connect it to your phone via Bluetooth, for example.
Overall, Nix calls their technology “bioinspired engineering and materials science”. The sensor itself is described as a “hybrid architecture combining stimuli-responsive hydrogels and nanoscale photonic structures that are micro-environmentally responsive and produce an analog optical signal”.
Nix’s technology could also be used for more than just hydration tracking: the company claims that its platform can be chemically tuned to respond to a wide range of environmental and biological stimuli, which could open it up to use in other consumer diagnostic platforms.
About Nix Wearable Hydration Sensor
Nix, Inc. is based in Boston at the following address:
114 Western Ave
Boston, MA 02134
Nix is part of the Harvard Innovation Launch Lab. The company is led by founder and CEO Meridith Unger as well as co-founder and Chief Market Officer Josh Rowe and Lead Engineer Ida Pavlichenko, PhD.
The company has also partnered with various athletes to bring their technology to market – including four-time Olympian and Rio 2016 marathoner Shalane Flanagan as well as NFL Hall of Famer Orlando Pace.
Nix Wearable Hydration Sensor Release Date
Nix’s official website currently features a list signup form. You can enter your information into that form to get updates on when Nix’s technology will be released. You can sign up to receive notifications for beta tests and future product releases.
To sign up for Nix’s upcoming beta tests, visit their official website here. Stay tuned for more information about Nix’s hydration sensor as the company gets closer to launch!
