Smart Diapers Track a Baby’s Health with Smartphones, Because Why Shouldn’t Diapers Make Themselves Useful?

Smart diapers bring obsessing over infant health to a new level by letting you check up on your baby’s vital stats with your smartphone. The diaper has a small patch that tests urine and gives you all kinds of pee information to overreact about and bother doctors with. Oh, and it can detect early signs of infection and diabetes, so that’s good.

Of course, doctors monitor all of these things at regular checkups, but the smart diapers aim to track a baby’s health more accurately, since there’s a big difference between getting results from a doctor once in a while and getting consistent results from several diapers a day. The patch on the diaper works by changing colors in different areas due to urine content, and then an app on your smartphone uses its camera to survey the results.

There’s always the danger of false positives with the urine test patch, which could unnecessarily alarm already stressed parents, so the diapers will undergo testing at the Benioff Children’s Hospital at the University of California, San Francisco. They must also be approved by the FDA, so hopefully they’ll be reasonably accurate by the time they make it into your home.

The diapers are being developed by Pixie Scientific and funded on Indiegogo, and though they’re already extremely close to their goal, you can still support and help them with the last little bit. Donors of $25 or more get to help test the diapers in October.

Diapers? You are on notice. We don’t need you stressing parents out anymore than you already do. Please be informative and accurate about baby pee. It’s about time you started pulling your weight. While we’re at it, diaper makers, you’re also on notice. If you want to improve diapers, make them self-changing. That is all.

(via Time NewsFeed, image via Mike Trainor)

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Dan Van Winkle

Dan Van Winkle (he) is an editor and manager who has been working in digital media since 2013, first at now-defunct Geekosystem (RIP), and then at The Mary Sue starting in 2014, specializing in gaming, science, and technology. Outside of his professional experience, he has been active in video game modding and development as a hobby for many years. He lives in North Carolina with Lisa Brown (his wife) and Liz Lemon (their dog), both of whom are the best, and you will regret challenging him at Smash Bros.

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