This $500 at-home urine lab sits in your toilet and tests your pee — then sends results to your smartphone

Travis Clark
Updated ·2 min read

  • Withings' U-Scan is a new at-home urine-testing device.

  • It will be available in Europe in Q2, with plans to launch in the US if it receives FDA approval.

  • A thermal sensor detects urine after you pee on the device, and it syncs with an app on your phone.

If you wish you could test your urine just by peeing on a device in your toilet, well, soon you'll soon be able to.

After four years of development and 13 patents, electronics company Withings announced on Wednesday U-Scan, an at-home urine lab that is placed in your toilet and sends results to an app on your smartphone.

The goal is to make urine analysis more regular and accessible for consumers in order to "potentially help prevent diseases, improve quality of life, and reduce healthcare costs," Withings said in its announcement.

But it won't necessarily be cheap. Withings will launch U-Scan in Europe the second quarter of this year. The starter kit, including a U-scan reader and one cartridge worth three months of testing, will cost €499.95, which equates to a little over $500.

Withings said it plans to launch U-Scan in the US at a later time following clearance by the Food and Drug Administration.

Two kinds of cartridges will be available in Europe: U-Scan Cycle Sync, focused on women's cycle tracking, and U-Scan Nutri Balance, focused on hydration and nutrition.

withings u-scan
The U-Scan includes a thermal sensor that can detect urine.Withings

The cartridge goes inside the pebble-shaped reader, which is placed on the side of the toilet bowl. Pee on that, and the results are synced with the Withings Health Mate app.

How's it work? The device's thermal sensor detects urine, which is "injected into a test pod where the chemical reaction is read by an optical module," according to Withings.

It's all hands-free, except when you have to change the cartridge.

"Why urine? Because it contains tons of information about your daily health," Withings CEO Mathieu Letombe told The Verge.

He added: "We have this vision of this dream where you can have a lab at home that wouldn't require any effort or process where you send something to someone."

Read the original article on Business Insider