Understanding of the weight of parts of your body could provide a greater understanding of your body in general.
You probably don’t expect the humble scale to change a lot in technology, but over the past few years, it’s just one of the many health-related gadgets to see an update.
We’ve seen app-connected thermometers and blood pressure monitors that check more than your blood, and you only have to glance at your wrist to see how the humble wristwatch has evolved for health, but it’s not just those gadgets getting updates. It’s also your scale.
Over the past few years, Withings has been working to improve the scale for weight monitoring, and in 2022, it’s adding an accessory, giving you something to hold when you step on to check your weight.
With the Withings Body Scan, a combination of sensors in the scale and in a section you hold will use bioelectrical impedance analysis to send a small charge around your body and measure parts of your anatomy. It’s a similar technology to what TomTom has used on wearables in the past, and what Samsung used on its Galaxy Watch 4 last year, providing a measurement of water, whole-body fat, visceral fat, mass of bones and muscle, plus individual body part weights potentially, as well.
“With Body Scan, we will turn the morning weigh-in into a sophisticated home health check with access to holistic health data and personal health programs created by medical professionals,” said Mathieu Letombe, CEO of Withings.
“We will empower our users with the ability to take meaningful actions based on medical-grade data, adding a new dimension to ongoing lifestyle and chronic condition management through the ultimate in-home health experience,” he said.
Aside for that electrical impedance check, there will also be four body weight sensors to check your whole body weight, with the combination of electrodes and sensors providing what may well be the deepest holistic understanding of your health on a day-to-day basis without getting a checkup organised daily at the doc, something you probably don’t have the time or inclination to do.
Much like how Withings’ Sleep Analyser sends its information to the Health Mate app, that’s what will record the details, revealing information such as weight, vascular age, and possibly even connecting you to medical specialists, as well.
However it’s not scheduled to hit shelves for purchase until much later in the year, with the second half of 2022 when Withings expects the Body Scan scale to grace our shores.
