Abstract:
A method of active reminding water drinking to help people nowadays who often forget to drink water because of busyness or assist caregivers of senior and aged people and patients to record regular water drinking conditions. The method calculates total water drinking amount within a preset time period and a staged water drinking amount within a staged time period, and issues a reminding alert signal in the event of insufficient or excessive water drinking condition. Thus it helps users to develop a regular water drinking habit to maintain a healthy physical condition.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to a method of reminding water drinking and particularly to a method of automatic reminding water drinking that calculates water drinking amount within a preset time period and issues alarm signals for insufficient or excessive water drinking condition. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    According to medical reports, normal people have to produces at least 1500 milliliters of urine every day to maintain normal operation of body and keep urinary system in a healthy state. To meet this end, an adult is recommended to drink water of 2000 milliliters or more a day. 
         [0003]    It is generally not recommended to drink the total amount of needed water at one time, but replenish the daily required amount of water regularly at a constant amount each time. However, people nowadays often are busy at work and not easy to maintain a habit of drinking water regularly at a constant amount. Moreover, many senior or aged people require assistance and care of other people. When caregivers are busy, to maintain regular water drinking habit is more difficult. This creates concerns and problems of caring the aged people (maintain regular excretion also is difficult). As a result, people&#39;s health condition could suffer. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0004]    The primary object of the present invention is to provide a method of active reminding water drinking to help users to develop a healthy water drinking habit through a thoughtful and delicate fashion. The method provides a main function of calculating total water drinking amount within a preset time period and water drinking amount in each stage, issues reminding alert in the event of insufficient or excessive water drinking amount and informs users the water drinking condition. 
         [0005]    Another object of the present invention is to provide a passive calculating function to allow users to press a pushbutton to count water drinking frequency to calculate water drinking amount. 
         [0006]    The method according to the present invention includes the procedures as follow: 
         [0007]    Step S 1 : set a total water drinking time period and a total water drinking amount within the total water drinking time period to get an average value thereof, and calculate a staged water drinking amount; 
         [0008]    Step S 2 : a user starts drinking water, and counts water drinking amount each time and total water drinking amount in an automatic counting or passive counting manner after drinking water each time; 
         [0009]    Step S 3 : compare whether water drinking amount each time at step S 2  coinciding with the staged water drinking amount at step S 1 , and judge whether user&#39;s water drinking progress is normal, ahead or lagged, and generate actively a reminding alert signal; and 
         [0010]    Step S 4 : finish counting water drinking amount by fulfilling the conditions set at step S 3 . 
         [0011]    The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]      FIG. 1  is a procedure flowchart of the method of active reminding water drinking according to the present invention. 
           [0013]      FIG. 2  is a schematic view of an embodiment of the structure for implementing the present invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 3  is a schematic view of device configuration according to the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0015]    Please refer to  FIG. 1  for the implementation procedures of the method of the present invention. The method aims to calculate total water drinking amount of a user within a preset time period and actively remind the user the progress of the water drinking amount in each stage. The method includes steps as follow: 
         [0016]    Step S 1 : set a total water drinking time period and a total water drinking amount within the total water drinking time period to get an average value thereof and also calculate a staged water drinking amount; 
         [0017]    Step S 2 : a user starts drinking water, and count water drinking amount each time and total water drinking amount in an automatic counting or passive counting manner after drinking water each time; 
         [0018]    Step S 3 : compare whether water drinking amount each time at step S 2  coinciding with the staged water drinking amount at step S 1 , and judge whether user&#39;s water drinking progress is normal, ahead or lagged, and generate actively a reminding alert signal; and 
         [0019]    Step S 4 : finish counting water drinking amount by fulfilling the conditions set at step S 3   
         [0020]    In addition, the step S 1  further includes another step P 1  in which no settings are made for total water drinking amount and staged water drinking amount, but they can set the total water drinking amount and staged water drinking amount through parameters set in the system. At step S 4 , different reminding alert signals are issued in the event that water drinking amount is excessive or insufficient within the staged time period. 
         [0021]    Please refer to  FIGS. 2 and 3  for the structure and device configuration to implement the method of the present invention. The structure includes a microchip system  20  equipped with a case  10 . The microchip system  20  is located on a cap  31  of a water drinking container  30 . The microchip system  20  comprises a control unit  21 , a total water drinking amount setting unit  22 , a water drinking time setting unit  23  and a reminding alert unit  24 . 
         [0022]    Also referring to step S 1 , the total water drinking amount setting unit  22  is connected to the control unit  21  to perform calculation and inputs at least one total water drinking amount message. The water drinking time setting unit  23  is connected to the control unit  21  to perform calculation and inputs at least one water drinking time period message. The reminding alert unit  24  is connected to the control unit  21  to perform calculation, incorporating with step S 3 , in the event that water drinking standard is not met within the preset time period, the control unit  21  transmits a signal to the reminding alert unit  24  to generate at least one reminding alert signal. The reminding alert signal is generated by the calculation of linking control unit  21 , total water drinking amount setting unit  22 , water drinking time setting unit  23  and counting unit  25  to generate a water drinking time reminding alert and a water drinking amount reminding alert. The reminding alert unit  24  can generate different types of reminders and alerts according to insufficient or excessive staged water drinking amount. The staged water drinking amount is an accumulated water drinking amount or an average water drinking amount should be achieved within the staged time period. The reminders and alerts may be selected from a group consisting of sound, text, graphics, vibration or a combination thereof. 
         [0023]    The control unit  21  is connected to the counting unit  25 . The counting unit  25  provides an automatic amount counting function and a passive amount counting function. The automatic amount counting function is a sensing method selected from a group consisting of a probe sensing method, a weight sensing method, an infrared sensing method or a combination thereof to automatically sense water amount in the water drinking container  30 . The passive amount counting function allows users to press a pushbutton  281  to count water drinking frequency, thereby to calculate water drinking amount. 
         [0024]    Moreover, the control unit  21  also is respectively connected to a power supply unit  26  and a display unit  28  to perform calculation. The display unit  28  is located on an outer side of the case  10  and at least includes the pushbutton  281  and a progress display strip  282 . The pushbutton  281  is connected to the counting unit  25 , and the pushbutton  281  is activated when the passive amount counting function is used. The progress display strip  282  is provided to show the total water drinking amount message. The display manner of the display unit  28  is selected from a group consisting of numerals, graphics, text or a combination thereof. 
         [0025]    Refer to  FIGS. 1 ,  2  and  3  for an example. Given 3000 milliliters as a user&#39;s total water drinking amount needed in a period of eight hours in one day as a standard. Enter 3000 milliliters, 8 hours and information about total water drinking amount and staged water drinking amount of each drinking time period to the total water drinking amount setting unit  22  and water drinking time setting unit  23 . Assumed setting eight hours as water drinking time period, drinking water once per hour, namely drinking 375 milliliters of water each hour. Set the counting unit  25  in the automatic counting operation mode. After the setting is finished, execute step S 2  and start amount and time counting. Step S 3  judges whether total water drinking amount and staged water drinking amount are accomplished within the preset time period. If the user regularly drinks 375 milliliters of water each hour, the control unit  21  and progress display strip  282  present the total water drinking amount message. The control unit  21  orders the reminding alert unit  24  to generate a water drinking progress conformation indication. In the event that the user drinks an excessive amount of water at the staged time period, the reminding alert unit  24  generates a water over-drinking reminding alert; on the other hand, if the user drinks an insufficient amount of water at the staged time period, the reminding alert unit  24  generates a water drinking insufficient reminding alert. Therefore, the process and method set forth above can help the user to manage healthy water drinking habit. 
         [0026]    The user can also select the passive amount counting function as required. Each time the user drinks water, the pushbutton  282  is pressed manually to count water drinking amount by pressing frequency. By setting of the total water drinking amount setting unit  22  and water drinking time setting unit  23 , the control unit  21  can perform calculation and comparison, and through the progress display strip  282  to present the total water drinking amount message at a given time to keep the user informed. The control unit  21  and the reminding alert unit  24  also generate reminding alerts of water drinking progress conformation, excessive water drinking and insufficient water drinking. Thus when the user is in the excessive or insufficient water drinking condition, namely water drinking does not perform regularly at a desired amount can be timely alerted to the user via the reminding alert unit  24 . As a result, a healthy water drinking practice can be accomplished. 
         [0027]    As a conclusion, the present invention provides a method of active reminding water drinking that sets total water drinking amount and staged water drinking amount within a preset time period to remind and alert users in excessive water drinking or insufficient water drinking condition. The present invention also provides a passive amount counting approach to keep users informed of their water drinking amount in the preset time period. It is a thoughtful and delicate approach to help the users to develop a healthy water drinking habit, and also help caregivers to take care of several senior and aged people or patients at one time to drink proper amount of water and record accurate water drinking amount to improve nursing quality.