Getting health metrics via smart wearables is a tale of the past now. New in the world of tech is checking vitality via urine. After all, we'll know urine can reveal some important details about the overall well-being and we’ll have taken the samples to the lab at some point in time. However, now you can get a urine test in the comfort of your home just by placing the Withings' U-Scan device in your toilet bowl.
The scanner can monitor nutrition and metabolic information by measuring ketone and vitamin C levels and can check the pH that’s often linked with kidney health. And it can also track menstrual cycles by checking surges of luteinizing hormone, thus tracking ovulation in women.
What’s even more convenient is that you can get the results combined with health insights straight to your smartphone on Withing’s Health Mate App.
The U-Scan device comes with a cartridge filled with test strips. Once placed on the front side of the WC, each time you pee some amount of urine will go into a small collection inlet. A thermal sensor then detects the wastewater and guides it through a microfluidic circuit to the test pod. Once the analysis is complete, the sample flows out of the device and disappears with a flush. Every subsequent flush cleans the system, resetting it for the next sample collection.
There is more, the U-Scan device is pretty smart as it can easily detect what’s poured forth onto it. As per the brand, it can differentiate between urine and external liquid like flush water, so it wouldn’t hold that. Furthermore, the sensor can also make out a visitor's stream based on the "distance and speed of the flow". You will have to sit and pee if you want to use the Withings' U-Scan device. And, you will have to wait for it to come to the Indian market. Its price, however, is €499.95 (around ₹43,887).