You cognize that utmost paranoia you person astir dropping your favourite instrumentality successful the toilet? Withings wants you to hide each that for its latest health-tracking device, the U-Scan, which is not lone specifically designed to beryllium utilized successful a toilet bowl, but to beryllium urinated connected arsenic well. Stick with us; it’s not arsenic gross arsenic it sounds.

There’s lone truthful overmuch wellness accusation that tin beryllium collected from strapping a smartwatch to your wrist, clipping a pulse oximeter to your finger, oregon wrapping an inflatable humor unit cuff astir your precocious arm. That’s wherefore doctors volition often bid humor samples to beryllium taken oregon petition that patients pee successful a cupful for elaborate urine investigation astatine a laboratory earlier making a diagnosis.

Urine tests that tin beryllium performed astatine location aren’t a caller idea, but the info they supply is often limited. Pharmacies merchantability strips that tin beryllium utilized to trial for urinary tract infections, portion urine tests stay the cheapest and easiest mode to corroborate a gestation without a travel to the doctor. With the U-Scan, Withings is expanding the wellness accusation that tin beryllium gleaned from urine without sending it disconnected to a lab, portion besides making the postulation process wholly hands-off.

The hardware is reminiscent of Google’s Chromecast dongle, but alternatively of plugging into a TV’s HDMI port, you bent it successful the beforehand of a toilet bowl, wherever you past deliberately urinate connected it. The U-Scan’s smooth, pebble-shaped plan funnels urine on its aboveground down into a postulation inlet astatine the bottom, wherever a thermal sensor detects the beingness of the fluid and activates a pump, which draws the illustration wrong and done a “microfluidic circuit.” While a idiosyncratic is urinating, a “low-energy radar sensor embedded into the device” tin besides admit and separate betwixt respective users by detecting their “unique urine watercourse signature” done a diagnostic Withings calls Stream ID.

Inside the U-Scan is simply a replaceable cartridge, bully for astir 3 months, filled with dozens of trial pods into which urine is injected. Chemical reactions past hap erstwhile 1 oregon respective biomarkers are detected, producing circumstantial colors that are analyzed by an optical sensor. After the trial is complete, the remaining fluids are pumped retired of the U-Scan and backmost into the toilet. The instrumentality itself is cleaned during each flush, though you inactive mightiness privation to scope for a brace of gloves erstwhile swapping cartridges oregon giving it a charge, which you’ll request to bash each 3 months.

The results of the U-Scan’s tests are shared implicit wifi to Withings’ backstage servers and made disposable done the company’s accompanying mobile apps, which allows the results and each user’s idiosyncratic wellness information to beryllium tracked implicit time. There’s nary timeline for erstwhile U-Scan volition beryllium disposable successful the United States—Withings is inactive processing it for the US marketplace and it volition necessitate FDA clearance first—but the starter kit volition spell connected merchantability successful Europe adjacent twelvemonth for €499.95 (about US $530) and volition see 1 of 2 antithetic three-month cartridges, with the enactment to bargain much done a subscription program oregon standalone.

The U-Scan Nutri Balance cartridge and app volition supply accusation connected a user’s pH, vitamin C, carb balance, and ketone levels to assistance “monitor their metabolic intake to optimize their regular hydration and nutrients” and urge “workouts, dietary suggestions, and recipes to execute identified goals.”

The U-Scan Nutri Balance cartridge and app is alternatively designed specifically for “cycle tracking, coaching, and journaling” and provides accusation connected “cycle predictions and ovulation model based connected hormonal detection alongside cardinal hydration and dietary biomarkers.” The idiosyncratic tin besides papers different symptoms the U-Scan can’t detect, including play flow, mood, nutrient and h2o intake, and cervical fluids. The anticipation is that, together, the U-Scan and the journaling volition supply much close predictions and insights into a idiosyncratic rhythm than apps that trust connected journaling and self-collected information alone.