Once again, health tech is a big focus at CES 2023, with gadgets and gizmos of all kinds designed to help you live a healthier life, monitor important vital stats, motivate you to exercise, and more. Here are some notable products we have come across so far at the show. Stay tuned for even more from the health and fitness space.
Withings U-Scan In-Home Biomarker Analysis Platform
Withings makes everything from smart scales to thermometers, and its latest device, the U-Scan, can analyze urine. The pebble-shaped, rechargeable reader sits in the toilet bowl and has swappable analyst cartridges that assess specific biomarkers without requiring external sample captures or strips. As you urinate, it flows to a collection inlet that sits inside, near the front of the toilet bowl (note that men will have to urinate sitting down in order for the stream to come in contact with it). A pump is activated when a thermal sensor detects the presence of urine. The urine sample is then injected into a test pod where the chemical reaction is read by an optical module.
At the end of each measurement, the circuit returns to the idle position and the remaining liquid is purged through a waste outlet. The system is subsequently cleaned every time you flush. A Stream ID feature can identify different users’ and their unique streams based on the movement and distance. The device will come with a pair of health cartridges (each one lasts for about three months’ worth of readings).
According to Withings, urine’s 3,000+ metabolites can provide a snapshot of your body’s balance and help monitor for a large variety of health conditions. Once the reader and cartridge are in place, you can analyze the data after urinating in the Withings Health Mate app. The app provides details like coaching, women’s menstrual health tracking, and journaling. It will show cycle predictions and ovulation window based on hormonal detection as well as details about hydration and dietary biomarkets, pH levels, and more.
It is scheduled to debut in Europe first in Q2 2023, and there’s no word yet on when/if it might arrive in the U.S. and Canada. Nonetheless, The U-Scan marks an interesting direction the health tech industry is going. Rather than leaving medical testing to once a year in a doctor’s office, all kinds of testing, from blood pressure to Spo2, heart rate, and now even urine health, is becoming not only possible in the home, but commonplace.
Learn more about this new product in this article on the Best Buy Blog.
Valencell 60-Second Finger-Tip Blood Pressure Measurement
As an over-the-counter device (pending FDA clearance in the U.S.), the new innovation from Valencell can measure blood pressure from the finger, just as you might measure pulse oximetry. This means there’s no need for a cuff or calibration with an app.
Powered by the company’s patented biometric sensor technology, the focus with this new device is on helping people monitor and manage hypertension. Place the device on the middle finger, then simply wait for the reading, which is delivered in under a minute. Photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors use reflected light to measure blood flow patterns. Proprietary AI algorithms, developed from PPG datasets comprising more than 7,000 patients, process this information with physical characteristics (age, weight, gender, height) to calculate a blood pressure measurement. Diastolic and systolic results are then displayed on the device’s built-in screen and transmitted via Bluetooth to the app where you can view a history of readings or show them to a medical professional at your next visit.
For those who do suffer from hypertension, the app will eventually offer tips and coaching, including targeted diet and exercise plans and other tips for ongoing health maintenance. This, of course, does not take the place of professional medical advice.
TrueKinetix Robotics Based Indoor Trainer
We’re all familiar with under-desk bicycles that allow you to get those much-needed steps while lounging on the couch or working in your home office. We also know about those stationary bikes that many people have in their homes. TrueKinetix has a new spin on the concept with its robotics-based indoor trainer, which the company says mimics the strain of outdoor cycling and connects to the frame of your standard bicycle so you can train indoors.
It purports to offer five times lower stimulation error, four times better accuracy, and 20 times better responsiveness than competitive models. It achieves this by using robotics versus a traditional flywheel. It generates a maximum resistance of up to 15% gradient and includes virtual gears with the user able to select a crankset and rear cassette from the mobile app. The robot can determine the selected gears and scales the pedal force to mimic the virtual gear.
Since the trainer runs from your energy, it does not need to be charged. What’s more, you can leverage the residual energy to charge a connected USB device. It also includes a graphic display fed from the HDMI port that displays performance data on a connected TV or monitor. The trainer also comes with built-in W-Fi, with training data stored in the cloud and uploaded to third-party platforms. This also allows for over-the-air updates.
I-Percut Boxing Training
If you already have a punching bag at home, you can grab the I-Percut cover for it, currently only available in Europe, to further enhance your training. Connecting via Bluetooth and running off a rechargeable battery, it covers the punching bag and features a variety of sensors behind circles throughout, on all the typical areas for throwing jabs, crosses, uppercuts, and even kicks.
As you punch, the app will keep track of your force and speed. You can either box freestyle or go through a guided training program. View your stats and improve over time. I got a kick out of trying it myself. It’s great not only for commercial gyms but home gyms as well.
iMediSync Brain Sensing
When a company stops you in the middle of an event like CES Unveiled, a smaller pre-show press event exclusively for media, and offers to run a five-minute brain scan to provide you with useful information about your brain waves, it’s tough to say no. Curiosity will get the best of you, and that’s the idea behind the iMediSync, a portable, FDA-approved EEG brain scanner that can perform full brain mapping to provide biomarkers for conditions like Alzheimer’s, depression, and more.
Place the helmet over your head with sensors (I had to remove my glasses and even earrings to ensure a proper fit), then run it for two minutes with your eyes closed and two more with them open, focusing on a specific spot in front of you. Stay still and calm through the process, then wait for the results. While they can be delivered within 10 minutes, because of how busy the booth was, I will have to e-mail for my results later. I’m both excited and anxious to see what they are. The purpose of this process is to help improve mental health outcomes, providing early detection and preventative care for conditions ranging from Alzheimers to dementia and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
See more from CES 2023 in the dedicated section on the Best Buy Blog, and stay tuned for more new tech in the health, wellness, and fitness space to come.
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