A new device promises it can help ensure you stay in good health via an unusual method - monitoring your pee. Health tech firm Withings’ U-Scan is billed as a breakthrough in-home biomarker analysis platform and a miniaturised health lab.
It debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2022. The U-Scan sits hygienically within any toilet bowl and can unlock a wealth of health information in your daily urine. With more than 3000 metabolites, urine is an extraordinary witness to assess and monitor one’s health.
Just 90 mm in diameter, the rechargeable U-Scan reader is engineered to distinguish between external liquid and urine and automatically funnel samples for analysis. It can analyse pH, vitamin C and ketone levels and help you monitor your metabolic intake to optimise your daily hydration and nutrients.
The U-Scan can even recommend workouts, dietary suggestions, and recipes to achieve identified goals. When working, a pump is activated when a thermal sensor detects the presence of urine, which starts a sample’s fluidic journey within a microfluidic circuit.
After its collection, the urine sample is injected into a test pod where the chemical reaction is read by an optical module which can even detect who is going to the loo thanks to a stream ID feature that detects the movement and distance of the stream.
U-Scan will first be available in Europe from Q2 2023 with consumer cartridges Nutri Balance and Cycle Sync. A starter kit will cost €499.95 to get one U-Scan reader and one cartridge providing 3 months of testing.