Most of the smart devices that measure your health are wearable devices: smart watches like the apple watchor Oura ring series. Instead, imagine getting health data by performing a bodily function that you perform several times a day: urinate. Soon you’ll be able to do just that with the Withings U-Scan, a sensor that attaches to your toilet bowl and analyzes your urine every day you use it. Withings revealed censorship this week CES 2023The biggest in the world consumer technology fair.
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Withings U-Scan analyzes your urine at home
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Anyone who has ever offered a urine sample at a doctor’s office knows that Urine can tell us important things about our health: if we are dehydrated, if we are pregnant, if we have an infection and even the health of some of our organs. within is targeting some of these biomarkers with two different versions of its consumer device, available in Europe in the first half of 2023, with plans for US availability following Food and Drug Administration clearance of The USA.
Read more: The wonders of CES 2023: 3D laptops, wireless TVs and shape-shifting displays
A cartridge made for the U-Scan is designed to monitor nutrition and metabolic information by measuring ketone and vitamin C levels, and analyzing urine pH (low or high pH can be associated with kidney health and more).
The second is made for people who want to better track their menstrual cycles, measuring LH surges, or luteinizing hormone. LH peaks when ovulation is around the corner and fertility is probably at its highest. This cycle cartridge will also measure the pH of the urine.
At-home urine test strips are now available to track things like LH surges and ketone levels. and urine tests like Vivo Also pair it with an app to give people more information about their health and education about what the measurements can mean. But these are more practical than the plug-and-play sensors that Withings has developed.
“You don’t think about it and you just do what you do every day,” Withings CEO Mathieu Letombe told CNET.
The future of health tracking was right in front of you all along.
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To use it, Withings says the device works best if you attach it to the front of your toilet bowl (meaning people who normally urinate standing up may also have to sit down, or at least get creative). The urine will flow into a small collection inlet, which the company says can differentiate between urine and external liquid, such as toilet water. A thermal sensor detects the presence of urine and is transferred to a test capsule. When the test is complete, the debris is released from the device and washed away.
Results will be routed to your phone via Wi-Fi, and you can read your daily health insights in the Withings’ Health Mate app.
The device contains a cartridge filled with test strips that will last you approximately three months. Oh, and the sensor will be able to differentiate its “flow” from that of visitors, because the U-Scan can differentiate based on “distance and speed of flow,” Letombe said.
Because it is not yet FDA approved in the US, there is no price point for the U-Scan at this time. You’ll be able to get the U-Scan Nutri Balance or Cycle Sync cartridges, or both if you want even more data, in Europe for 500 euros (about $527 today) later this year. Withings is confident that the first two consumer sensors are just the beginning: the company is hopeful of more medical devices in the future, adding to the long line of smartwatches, wearable sensors and others devices that channel our health to data points.
This product has been selected as one of the best products of CES 2023. Check out the others Best of CES 2023 Award Winners.
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to be health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified healthcare provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or healthcare goals.
