CES 2012: The online baby-scale

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, French technology company Withings is announcing its Internet-connected baby and toddler scale, the Withings Smart Baby Scale.

With WiFi, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Smart (Bluetooth Low Energy) connectivity, it is the next evolution in home baby and toddler weight tracking. Withings has combined great technology and design to create a scale that will give parents all over the world a very simple to use and extremely accurate way to monitor, understand and share their child’s growth.

C√©dric Hutchings, Withings co-founder says, ‚We are very excited to announce our Smart Baby Scale and offer parents an amazing new way to take care of their newborn or young child. The success of our WiFi Body Scale has proven the benefits of connected weight tracking on adults and we were eager to also bring these benefits to babies and children.”

By using the Withings Smart Baby Scale, parents can access their child’s weight readings from any connected device, such as an Internet-connected computer or an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch using the already existing WiScale app. Also, parents can easily communicate the progress of their child’s weight with their doctor, pediatrician, family and friends. The scale can be set to instantly update Facebook, Twitter or send an email to private email addresses with new readings. Parents can attach notes and photos to weight charts to build detailed memories of their child’s growth.

The Smart Baby Scale features two weighing configurations: the first is for weighing infants with a removable baby basket, and the second is the toddler scale that emerges once the baby basket is removed. The main part of the scale (the weighing unit) is extra-slim and features a central cutout that serves as the insertion area for the baby basket. The scale features a large graphical screen for animations and instructions, plus a tactile button that helps parents easily record their baby’s length.

The baby basket is made up of two pieces that naturally interlock and then can be inserted into the scale’s base. This bi-fold design is perfect for storage and travel. Once the child grows out of the baby basket and can stand up on his own, the basket can be removed and the scale used as a toddler scale.

The Withings Smart Body Scale can be used in conjunction with an adult Withings WiFi body scale, and/or the Withings Blood Pressure Monitor. When done so, it allows parents to monitor their child’s weight on the same dashboard they view their own weight and/or blood pressure.

Along this new device, Withings also evolves its Health Cloud platform’s API to allow third party service providers to retrieve readings recorded by the Smart Baby Scale, and thus offer parents additional services and guidance to monitor their child’s growth.

Withings Smart Baby Scale Technical Specifications:

The Withings Smart Baby Scale will be available in the second quarter of 2012. The WiScale app is available for free from the App Store on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

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