Withings' ScanWatch packs ECG and SpO2 sensors alongside the usual tools | Hacker News Reader

Withings' ScanWatch packs ECG and SpO2 sensors alongside the usual tools

engadget.com

46 pointsmaydemir19 comments

Interestingly, newer version Fitbit devices also sport an SpO2 sensor, but they have dragged their feet on enabling direct readings or the expected sleep apnea detection features.

The delay seems to have come from the worry of the perception that it was being used for "diagnosis" of sleep apnea as that would put them in a different category with the FDA. You can imagine how direct access to the SpO2 sensor was a hot topic during the height of the pandemic of a repository illness. In short, the hardware is there, but corporate conservarivism kept it from being used or even exposed to the user.

I've bought a Withings Smart Scale (at that point they were briefly owned by Nokia). The scale is simple, clean, durable, featureful; the companion health app is one of the cleanest/effective specimins of UI I've seen in a while and has tons of integrations. I expect great things here and hopefully less fear about exposing the hardware readings of highly useful sensors.

I love the scale as well - the body fat measurements and the wifi-based sync makes it a pleasure to use.

I got around the approval delay for the Withings BPM Core by ordering the item from Amazon.fr and I suspect I will need to do the same for the Withings ScanWatch if I decide to get it. Not sure how/why the approval in EU is faster.

Body fat number is pretty much made up though, do not rely on it. The only somewhat decent way to establish body fat percentage is a DEXA scan. I agree that wifi (and effortless multi-year progress tracking enabled by that) is a game changer. Also, they still support older scales - I thought when Nokia bought them they'd cut them loose, and for a while it looked like they would. But then Nokia fixed their app/service/whatever, and now it works like it did before. Impressive. You typically don't expect this level of customer support for old products.

I have had several DXA scans and own a Withings Body+ scale that claims to do body fat measurement. In reality it seems to be hooked to a random number generator. I have seen fluctuations of over 2% from day to day, which is obviously not physiologically possible. It's a toy not useful for any real health or fitness monitoring.

I just scrolled back in Health Mate and I made my first measurement on my OG Withings scale on June 20, 2012. It is still working as good as ever, and fully supported by both the mobile app and the desktop (Mac) app for configuring the wifi. I’m pretty impressed!

> Body fat number is pretty much made up though, do not rely on it.

I would have said that too, but during the lockdown and stay-at-home period, it made a meaningful rise, and it fell back when I could go back to walking and doing sports. Fat percentage: made up? Probably not. Precise? Also probably not.

They are not meant for a precise measurement, but it is useful to monitor a trend over time. In my case, the fat measurement is in line with what I see on the mirror.

Also, if you use only one source of data (ie. the fat measurement of the scale) and do not mix different sources, accuracy is not that important. Since, if there is a systematic error in the measurements, it applies to all the measurements and the trend is always true, even if there is also a small randomness component.

The main selling point here is convenience. You can do a somewhat decent fat measurement in your bedroom. The Dexa can not beat that.

On the other hand, my model (one I bought in 2015), also supports heart rate and this is total rubbish. To the point that it might give me 120 bpm at rest, then go on and do a workout and immediately after the work out, it reports 70.

I'm skeptical that _anyone_ can make an SpO2 sensor that is good enough to continuouly monitor someone during sleep without lots of false alarms. Even the ones hospitals use (that wrap around a finger or toe and shine red light through it) are quite jittery and prone to false alarms or weird readings if you move around too much.

e.g. it seems the SpO2 sensor on this Withings watch is an 'on request and then sit still for 10 seconds' type feature. No good for continuous monitoring.

I have the Wellue SleepU, and it seems to work pretty well. Granted I'm not counting on it to save my life in a hospital situation, so any false readings really don't matter. But looking at the nightly data, it seems to gather pretty solid data.

https://getwellue.com/pages/sleepu-oxygen-monitor

I've got a garmin which measures SpO2 during sleep and it does it by shining a red light through the skin for 10-20 seconds. Seems to work well enough to show if levels are OK or impacted by snoring - would probably be accurate enough to alert people about Corona hypoxi as well. https://www.reddit.com/r/Garmin/comments/c2kh7d/how_accurate...

Yeah I have the relatively plain old nokia 'body' scale and it's nice -- does the job and syncs into apple health(which is great and plays very well with everything else I use - myfitnesspal, strava, peloton, etc). Made me recently pick up a bpm and it's much more pleasant to use than other blood pressure monitors I've used.

The IFTTT integration did get busted but now that I'm on apple I care less.

You'd think a review like this would bother to cover the actual device accuracy rather than focusing on "subtle beveling" and the lug size. Anyone seen any reviews that do that?

Here are some video reviews looking into the sensor data accuracy:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrpJQJ3tlvklPADcz-WML... (channel: The Quantified Scientist, playlist: Withings Scanwatch)

Not great unfortunately.

Not that I had any hope, but

https://www.withings.com/us/en/legal/privacy-policy

Is there any device like this out there that doesn't require selling your privacy? Any service, for which I'll gladly pay, that doesn't sell you to 3rd parties?

Is it actually ECG? as in sensing electrical signals?

It's not as detailed as the sort you'd get in a hospital with 12 electrodes stuck all over, but yes it's really sensing electrical signals

Any ideas what the SpO2 data look like? I like seeing raw graphs of both O2 and HR to monitor for sleep apneas.

The question for everyone else than apple is what will the likely imminent next gen apple apple watch have on it and what will it cost, etc. The market isn't quite owned by apple & Garmin...) but it feels closer every cycle.

I’ve owned an Apple Watch and I’m an Apple Fanboi, but it’ll take something amazing to get me to switch away from my Fitbit Charge.

The long battery life is a killer feature for me, because I can wear it overnight, and get sleep data. I also simply don’t want the rest of the crap on my wrist — I have a phone for apps and notifications that I can easily put in a draw when I want it.

All that said, I’m pretty data hungry so I’ll update my Charge the day they add a new sensor to it

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