Future 'smart' caps will do more than just seal a bottle

Chicago — With lives becoming more connected via the internet, Yoav Hoshen figures now is the time to leverage web-enabled technology in the caps and closures business.

As a co-founder of a company called Water.io, Hoshen and his colleagues see a relationship with containers that can go far beyond the utilitarian.

"Packages and bottles haven't changed in their main functionality for dozens, even hundreds of years," he said. "The main functionality of the billions of packages and bottles that are shipped every day is being a container for the product inside."

But Water.io, which will soon be changing its name, sees how the collection and use of data have impacted so many other markets and understands the potential.

"Unlike other industries that were disrupted by data, this industry hasn't been disrupted yet by data. And we think it should," he said. "We had the phone. Now it's the smartphone. We had the car. Now it's the smart car. Everything becomes smarter, and packaging will become smarter."

So Water.io has developed electronic sensors that can fit into standard caps and closures to provide a variety of functions, helping people with information about product usage and providing data to companies about how their brands are consumed.

The sensors can be programmed to perform a variety of functions, including monitoring how many times a bottle is opened, for example, as well as the level of liquid remaining in a container. This kind of data can be used to help remind people to keep hydrated, or tell grandpa when it is time to take his pill. The smart cap also can signal when it is time to reorder.

Water.io can connect the sensors to consumers' cellphones to push out reminders and provide dashboards for companies to then use data to better understand how their products are being consumed.

This type of two-way communication between companies and consumers represents a shift from the approach of product distribution without much consumer feedback, Hoshen said.

With a connected cap or closure, companies can directly engage the consumer. And that can help drive higher sales.

"These companies are anxious to get data about their customers, but they don't know who they are," Hoshen said in an interview at the recent Plastics Caps & Closures 2017 conference in Chicago. "They invest a lot of money trying to get that discussion by other means, but they don't really have the direct connection to us."

Another company, eAgile Inc. of Grand Rapids, Mich., also sees the impact of smart technology in the caps and closures business. CEO Gary Burns was at the conference organized by Plastics News to explain his company's approach.

The company has developed eSeal, a radio frequency identification, or RFID, product that integrates directly into a cap or closure under the seal.

The popularity of the "internet of things," he said, is rapidly growing. "Like a hockey stick." And caps and closures are ideally situated to take advantage of this opportunity.

"There is an intersection of technology that is happening now," he said.

His technology can provide companies with information that can help drive strategic decisions. Firms also can guard against counterfeiting, he told the conference.

"The caps and closure market, it's ideally situated to launch this type of product," he said. That especially holds true in the health care market where so many products have caps or closures. But the technology certainly is not limited to that sector.

"This is a way to drive more value into the cap and closure," Burns said.

Water.io, based in Rehovot, Israel, was founded with the idea of leveraging connectivity with the use of water bottles. But backers soon realized the potential is far beyond just that market. That's why the firm is in the process of changing its name but has not yet announced the new brand.

Water.io has a goal of eventually driving costs down to "cents" per cap or closure from the current "tens of cents," Hoshen said. With more adoption, economies of scale will help drive down those costs.

The technology was designed to be used with existing caps and closures, so companies do not need to make any changes on their production lines.

Inspiration for Water.io came from co-founder Kobi Bentkovski, whose daughter was having health issues. Doctors eventually determined the problem of adherence. "We thought about how to make young people and old people, and actually every one of us, to remember to drink," Hoshen said.

While it may seem surprising to some that people need a reminder to drink, Water.io actually says dehydration is a common problem. Caps can be programed to blink, vibrate or even sound an alarm to tell consumers when they need to consume.