Have you wanted to be able to keep better tabs on your health, or know if you're ovulating without having to go to the doctor or send away for lab results? Well, urine luck!
At CES 2023, Withings (Wee-things?) unveiled the U-Scan, a hockey-puck shaped device that sits inside your toilet bowl and analyzes your pee, and then sends the results via Bluetooth to a smartphone app.
When it's time to go, simply sit on your porcelain throne and let 'er rip; your stream flows over the U-Scan and into a small hole in the device; a tiny pump then pushes a sample into the test chamber, where a cartridge looks at what's in your urine.
Update: The Withings U-Scan is one of our picks for the Best of CES 2023 Awards. Find out what other products took top honors at this year's show.
The company is initially releasing three cartridges. One is for women who want to track their menstrual cycles; the second provides more general health markers, such as fluid balance, protein-vegetable balance, and Vitamin C levels. (The third cartridge is for professionals who want to conduct medical studies.) Each cartridge should last about three months, according to the company. The battery in the U-Scan also lasts about the same amount of time; to recharge it, you pop open one side and plug in a USB cable.
In addition to analyzing your urine, the Withings app will also provide recommendations to fix any perceived deficiencies in your diet, such as eating more veggies or drinking more water.
The U-Scan is a whiz at knowing who's on the pot; a temperature sensor can tell if it's pee or water flowing over, and a radar sensor can detect the speed and the distance of the stream — the company recommends that men sit down, rather than stand, to use the device.
The U-Scan is set to be released first in Europe and then in the U.S. later this year. The device will cost $499 and ship with one cartridge. Replacement cartridges will cost $90 each, but you'll be able to sign up for a subscription, so you'll pay $30/month. That's one way to piss away your money, unless you have a golden shower.
Because we live in such magical times, Withings is not the only company that's announcing a new urinalysis device at CES; Vivoo, a company that makes at-home kits, is releasing its own toilet clip-on device that also looks at your pee for such things as water, magnesium, pH, protein and sodium levels.
You slide one of the company's urine test strips (which cost about $10 each) into the device, do your business, and then an optical reader interprets the results and sends them to a smartphone app. However, based on the image Vivoo provided to Engadget, it's a much bulkier device that sits on the outside of the toilet.
Be sure to follow all of our CES 2023 coverage for more news and leaks like this.
