Withings | Evolving Consumer

CES: Sleep Smart

Do you get enough sleep? And do you get quality sleep. Withings Aura is a 2014 CES Innovations Award honoree in the Health & Fitness category and it is designed to monitor and improve the quality of sleep.

The unit discreetly records a user’s sleeping environment and provides a complete understanding of sleep patterns. Using revolutionary and scientifically-validated light and sound programs, Withings Aura positively impacts the wake-up and fall-asleep experience, which are both instrumental in improving sleep cycles and overall well-being.

Withings Aura is comprised of a soft and discreet sleep sensor that slips under a user’s mattress and works in synchronization with the sensitively designed bedside device. Together, the two units record and monitor an array of factors, which provides a deep understanding of the sleeping experience. The sleep sensor focuses on personal patterns (body movements, breathing cycles and heart rate) while the bedside device screens your bedroom environment (noise pollution, room temperature and light levels).

With this data Withings Aura can provide users with scientifically-validated light and sound programs that will adapt to one’s personal body clock and positively impact the sleeping conditions. The multi-color LED dimming lighting technology makes the most of a proven correlation between lighting wavelengths and secretion of Melatonin, the hormone responsible for the sleep-wake cycle, whilst delicate sound programs replicate the circadian rhythm’s frequency and pattern. These can be relaxing as one falls asleep, and stimulating upon waking up.

In other words, good sleep!

Withings Official Website

CES 2012: Withings Puts Health in the Cloud

Next time you step on the scale, run a few miles or even wake up in the morning you can send your data to the cloud. That is if you have Withings Cloud platform and applicable workout devices. Withings, famous for the Wi-Fi scale that tweets your weigh-ins, is consolidating all your health and fitness data onto a cloud site.

Among Withings devices, you can set up your scale and Withings blood pressure monitor to upload to the cloud. A volume of additional data from other sources then joins these data. These can be fitness tracking apps, sites where you log your fitness and data from other devices such as a compatible heart rate monitor or cycling computer. A few that have joined in the cloud are Zero Sleep Manager and Runkeeper.

Withings is offering a free API for apps and fitness devices to get set up on the cloud. The platform the operates as a single source for all those devices. Data can be sent to the cloud, but also from the cloud to inform your iPhone or other device with updates.

Withings Company Website

Google Shutters Its Health Record Service

Google announced last week that it is ending its free Google Health program by the end of the year (although data will be available for download until January 1, 2013). Partnering with a variety of health-related companies and providers, such as CVS, Quest Diagnostics, Walgreens, Withings, and the Cleveland Clinic, the personal health record service allows users to manage their personal health and wellness info by volunteering their health records. We have written about the Withings WiFi body scale that works in conjunction with Google Health on Kinetic Shift. Unfortunately, Google Health failed to achieve the type of impact and widespread adoption that the company had hoped, the company said. The service has also had to deal with issues concerning privacy, as it is not a covered entity under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act laws. Continue reading Google Shutters Its Health Record Service

Mobile World Congress: Cardio Trainer Adds to its Bag of Tricks

Fitness and weight loss app Cardio Trainer just added Withings as a partner. Users can now step on the scale and send their weight wirelessly to the Cardio Trainer profile. The Wi-Fi scale adds weight management to a number of other activities including GPS tracking, pedometer, autopause to observe the pause at stoplights or other brief interruptions to a workout, voice notifications, music integration, World High Scores and other actions.

Continue reading Mobile World Congress: Cardio Trainer Adds to its Bag of Tricks

CES 2011: Check Blood Pressure with Withings iPhone Monitor

When we need to get our blood pressure check, we either head to our doctor or to the supermarket, where there’s usually a free blood pressure monitor machine by the pharmacy. But with Withings’ new blood pressure monitor for the iPhone, we can now play doctor and check our measurements at home through our smartphone.

Of course, this won’t replace a visit to a real medical professional, but it’d allow users to keep track of their health in between doctor visits.

The device works with iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches, and will sell for $129. The device is being demonstrated now at CES. See full release below.

Withings

Withings Launches World’s First iPhone Connected Blood Pressure Monitor with Online Monitoring and Measurement Storage

This revolutionary new product created by Withings, dramatically improves access to BP measurements for users worldwide

Las Vegas, Nevada – January 4, 2011- CES/ North Hall/ Booth #3619- With hypertension affecting almost 25% of the world population , blood pressure measurement can help to save lives. However, until now, taking your blood pressure required the use of complex devices with multiple manipulations, mathematical operations and data recording procedures. Self-measurement has been recommended by the medical profession for many years , but no one had yet found concrete solutions to expand its use.

This is why Withings chose to rethink the blood pressure monitor and turn it into an attractive, user-friendly connected device.

With the Withings Blood Pressure monitor, measuring and understanding your blood pressure couldn’t be easier. All data is recorded and saved to the user’s secure online space for easy measurement access and retrieval through their iPhone, iPad or other screen connected to a user-friendly interface.

Self-measurement is made simple by the Withings Blood Pressure monitor. It improves the reliability of readings and offers the option to share them with relatives, healthcare providers or medical professionals.

Through the Withings API, specialist partners can interface with the platform to offer additional services, as Withings has already proven with its WiFi Body Scale and partners such as Google Health, Microsoft HealthVault and numerous health & sports coaching websites such as DailyBurn.com, RunKeeper.com, FitOrbit.com, gymtechnik.com, aujourdhui.com, Strands.com, Danholt4mac.com, Jogmap.de…and many more.

Says Withings co-founder Cédric Hutchings: “Apple revolutionized the world of smartphones by making them more user-friendly than ever before. By adding connectivity to high-tech devices, we simplify their usage and enrich them with extra services. Our goal is to take the drama out of using devices that can promote healthier lifestyles for all. We have achieved this with our Withings body scale, and are now repeating our success with the Withings Blood Pressure monitor”.

The Withings Blood Pressure monitor works together with an iPhone / iPad / iPod touch. The Withings Blood Pressure monitor, priced 129 euros or $129 US, will be available in January, 2011 on www.withings.com

Withings Goes from TMI to Weight Game

The scale that tweets your weight and BMI now has a game on Facebook. “GuessMyWeight” is a Facebook app created by Withings. When you do your weigh-in, your friends can guess your weight on Facebook. Really? What are the two things you don’t ask a woman? Age and weight. And now my friends can laugh when I gain a pound?

It’s helpful that Withings can send your latest stats to pages such as Google Health, RunKeeper and DailyBurn so you can chart progress. But tread lightly when a friend on Facebook challenges you to guess his weight. Withings co-founder Cedric Hutchings said the idea of GuessMyWeight “started as a joke amongst our team.” He says it’s a “playful and an entirely new way to take the drama out of your weight.” Though we think it has potential to add some drama.

Withings

Weigh In With Wi-Fi

For many of us progress isn’t the distance we went, the time we spent or even the fun we had. At the end of the day, or more likely first thing in the morning, we judge our results with a scale. The problem with this madness is that the method can be flawed because we only judge what the scale tells us at that point. To get a fuller picture we need to track gain and losses with the activity we did. After all, how can you judge fat lost vs. muscle gained?

The Withings Internet-connected Body Scale ($159) lets you track your results by sending the data to a web account via Wi-Fi. The thin black-metallic scale features a backlit display to provide your pounds clearly for you, while wirelessly sending the data to a Withings Web account. Here you and up to seven others can track progress over time – and you can (when you reached a goal or mark) post the results to Facebook and Twitter. Alternatively, if you need a push you can send them to DailyBurn and RunKeeper to monitor your progress over time. Time to weigh in.

Withings Internet-Connected Body Scale from Withings.com

Withings its Strange to Broadcast Your Weight

Withings scale sends your data to an online health profile.

Every appliance in your home will connect to the Internet some day. Today, the Withings scale connects to the Internet via WiFi. Step on the scale, and it sends your weight, lean and fat mass, and BMI readings to your computer. It will post your loss or gain on Twitter if you opt in to that feature. Now, it will integrate with Microsoft HealthVault.

Microsoft HealthValut is a personal health application platform. This is a good application for a WiFi scale. HealthVault is a place where you can create a profile for you and your family to track the basics, the history, and helps you keep up with the management of any illnesses or conditions. As the user, you get to decide who to share your profile with, and how much that person sees. At some point, maybe we won’t have to fill out forms at the doctor’s office before each appointment.

As for Tweeting about your weight and other stats, you can set up your profile if you want your vitals on Twitter. I think I’ll stick to my personal profile.

Withings scale, $159

Microsoft HealthVault