Withings, finest recognized for its good scales, watches, and different health-focused shopper tech, launched a brand new gadget at CES in Las Vegas as we speak. Making a splash in an underserved market, U-Scan goals to assist clients observe what’s happening of their urine, with out having to fret about catching their wastewater in a cup or messing about with check strips. The system syncs to the corporate’s ever-expanding Well being Mate app and guarantees to present actionable insights.

The U-scan is designed to be put in in the bathroom bowl, which supplies customers hands-free entry to urine evaluation. Whereas routine in medical settings, Urine is a rarely-tapped alternative for at-home well being monitoring. That will change fairly a bit over the subsequent few years if Withings has its manner. The corporate factors out that urine has greater than 3,000 metabolites, giving an instantaneous snapshot of the physique’s stability and well being.

“The power of U-Scan to carry out every day urine evaluation from house will permit Withings to take its mission to assist shoppers absolutely make the most of urine knowledge to a completely new degree,” stated Mathieu Letombe, Withings CEO at a press convention. “It’s one of the vital thrilling and complicated merchandise we have now ever introduced. We start this journey with U-Scan Cycle Sync and Nutri Stability and look ahead to saying extra cartridges on an ongoing foundation in addition to medical functions of the expertise.”

The rechargeable U-Scan reader is aware of the distinction between flush water and urine and ensures it collects solely the samples it wants. When in use, urine flows effectively to a set inlet, activating a pump when a thermal sensor detects the presence of urine. The pattern is guided via a microfluidic circuit and injected right into a check pod. Right here, the response is learn by an optical sensor and reported again to the app. Each subsequent flush of the bathroom cleans the system, resetting it for the subsequent pattern assortment.

In Europe, the U-Scan Nutri Stability app exhibits an evaluation of particular gravity, pH, vitamin C and ketone ranges. The mix of those measurements helps folks monitor their metabolic consumption to optimize their every day hydration and vitamins. The ‘actionable’ a part of that’s that the system can advocate exercises, supply dietary recommendations, and recipes, all to assist health-conscious customers obtain their objectives. The corporate factors out that US performance of Nutri Stability might differ, relying on what the FDA has to say in regards to the matter.

The product will make its debut in Europe with dwo totally different well being cartridges geared toward shoppers. Medically centered cartridges will comply with within the not-too-distant future. The worth tag is €499.95, and contains one U-Scan reader and a cartridge offering 3 months of testing. The primary two cartridges which might be changing into accessible are Cycle Sync, which can assist individuals who have month-to-month cycles observe them, and a Nutri Stability cartridge, which can provides an in depth metabolic information for vitamin and hydration. The corporate isn’t positive when the system will likely be made accessible within the US, as its launch will likely be relying on FDA clearance.

Extremely, U-Scan can inform the distinction between varied customers (and due to this fact assigning the outcomes to the proper particular person utilizing the system), via it’s amazingly named Stream ID characteristic. Low-energy radar sensors embedded inside the reader measure a number of variables to establish a person’s “urine stream signature”, by detecting the motion and distance of the stream. Stream ID info will be affirmed within the app.

Along with the consumer-focused product, Withings Well being Options, the corporate’s business-to-business division serving the healthcare supplier market, is making the expertise accessible to companions for analysis functions.

The corporate advised TechCrunch it’s planning to make the cartridges accessible on a subscription foundation, or on a person foundation.