Technology

A Sensor In Your Toilet Tests Your Pee To Measure Health

This is a good one for all you health nuts out there. It’s time to test your pee to see if you have any health …

By: Kevin Castle

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sensor in your toilet tests your pee to measure health

This is a good one for all you health nuts out there. It’s time to test your pee to see if you have any health issues.

Numerous options to monitor your health are available with wearables and smart devices, such as the Apple Watch and Oura’s Ring line. A unique method of monitoring crucial health parameters is now under development. Imagine obtaining health information by performing a biological function you perform frequently, like urinating. Withings’ U-Scan, a sensor that attaches to your toilet bowl and analyzes your urine every day you use it, will soon enable you to do precisely that. The world’s largest consumer technology trade conference, CES 2023, is where Withings revealed the sensor this week.

Anyone who has ever provided a urine sample at a doctor’s office is aware that pee can reveal significant information about our health, including whether we are dehydrated, pregnant, infected, or even how well our organs are functioning. With two different versions of its consumer device, which will be made accessible in Europe in the first half of 2023, Withings is focusing on some of these biomarkers. Following approval by the US Food and Drug Administration, US distribution is planned.

By determining the quantities of ketone and vitamin C in your urine and assessing its pH, one cartridge designed for the U-Scan is intended to track dietary and metabolic data (low or high pH can be associated with kidney health and more).

The second is designed for people who want to more accurately monitor their menstrual cycles by detecting LH, or luteinizing hormone, spikes. When ovulation is imminent and fertility is probably at its highest, LH surges. The urine pH will also be measured by this cycle cartridge.

LH surges and ketone levels can already be monitored using at-home urine test strips. Additionally, Vivoo’s urine tests link with an app to provide users with additional health information and explanations of what certain measurements can signify. But compared to the attach-and-go sensors Withings has created, they are more interactive. So basically, attach this new sensor to your toilet, take a leak on it and check the details on the app. Done.

CEO Mathieu Letombe says;

“You don’t think about it and you just do what you do every day,”

Mathieu Letombe

According to Withings, the device is easiest to use when attached to the front of your toilet bowl (which means people who normally pee standing up might also have to sit, or at least get creative). The company claims that a small collection entrance, where urine will flow, can distinguish between urine and outside liquids like toilet water. Urine is transported to a test pod when it is discovered by a thermal sensor. Waste is expelled from the apparatus and flushed away once the analysis is complete.

Wi-Fi will be used to provide results to your phone, and the Withings Health Mate app will allow you to receive daily health insights.

A cartridge of test strips that will last you around three months is included with the gadget. Oh, and since the U-Scan can distinguish based on “distance and speed of the flow,” Letombe said, the sensor will be able to discern your “stream” distinct from that of visitors. That is pretty impressive. Your pee stream can be identified by this product, I love it.

There is currently no price tag for the U-Scan because it has not been approved by the FDA in the US. Later this year, you’ll be able to purchase either the U-Scan Nutri Balance or Cycle Sync cartridges in Europe for 500 euros (about $527 at the moment), or both if you want even more data. The first two consumer sensors from Withings are only the beginning, the business believes, as it plans to introduce more medical devices in the future, joining the extensive list of smartwatches, wearable sensors, and other gadgets that turn our health into data points.

This consumer pee sensor sounds pretty sweet, but the possible price of over $500 bucks doesn’t. We will have to wait and see as it is released for more statistics.

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