Withings’ Toilet Sensor Scans Your Pee to Measure Your Health

Most of the smart devices that measure your health are wearable — smartwatches like the Apple Watch or Oura’s Ring series. Instead, imagine getting health data by performing a bodily function you do several times a day: urinating. You’ll soon be able to do just that with Withings’ U-Scan, a sensor that attaches to your toilet and analyzes your urine every day you use it. Withings unveiled the sensor this week during CES 2023, the world’s largest consumer technology trade show.

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Anyone who’s ever been offered a urine sample at a doctor’s office knows that urine can tell us important things about our health: whether we’re dehydrated, whether we’re pregnant, whether we have an infection, and even the health of some of our organs. . Withings is tapping into 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 after approval by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Read more: CES 2023 wonders: 3D laptops, wireless TV and shape-changing displays

A cartridge made for the U-Scan is intended to monitor nutritional and metabolic information by measuring ketone and vitamin C levels, and testing the pH of your urine (low or high pH can be associated with kidney health and more).

The second is designed for people who want to better track their menstrual cycles by measuring surges in LH, or luteinizing hormone. LH peaks when ovulation is near and fertility is likely to be highest. This cycle cartridge will also measure the pH of your urine.

Home urine test strips are now available to track things like LH surges and ketone levels. And urine tests like Vivoo’s also pair with an app to give people more insight into their health and educate them about what the measurements might mean. But these are more practical than the attach-and-go 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 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 (meaning people who normally pee standing up might have to sit down too, or at least get creative). Urine will flow into a small collection inlet, which the company says can distinguish between urine and external fluids, such as toilet water. A thermal sensor detects the presence of urine and it is moved to a test array. When the analysis is complete, the residue is released from the device and disappears with a rinse.

The results will be sent to your phone via Wi-Fi, and you can read your health insights every day 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 distinguish your “stream” in addition to that of visitors, because the U-Scan is able to distinguish based on “distance and speed of flow,” Letombe said.

Because it has not yet been cleared by the FDA in the US, there is no price point for the U-Scan at this time. You’ll be able to get either the U-Scan Nutri Balance or Cycle Sync cartridges — or both if you want even more data — in Europe for €500 (roughly $527 currently) later this year. Withings is convinced that the first two consumer sensors are just the beginning: The company has hopes for more medical devices in the future, adding to the long list of smartwatches, wearable sensors and other devices that channel our health into points of data.

This product has been selected as one of the Best of CES 2023. See other Best of CES 2023 award winners.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have about a medical condition or health goals.