Withings Smart Body Analyser WS-50

This week I received the Withings Smart Body Analyser or WS-50. I already had their original wifi scale so it was able to integrate my previous weight/fat history with the new scale. The WS-50 in addition to weight and body fat measure adds resting heart rate, temperature and CO₂ measurements.

It takes about 20 seconds to measure the heart rate. Right after that, the temperature and air quality are displayed. The air quality is continuously monitored and a basic graph of the last 24h gets displayed on the scale LCD screen. You can also get the history from the smartphone.

IMHO adding the new metrics to the current web dashboard and API should have been the very first thing to do. Smartphones screens are too small to allow proper display and basic analysis of time series, as now we are getting 5 metrics from that scale, and of course that does not fit on the phone screen and you end up continuously scrolling, sliding, and getting frustrated.

plus:

. unique new features in a wireless scale for the same price as their first model: resting heart rate, temperature and CO₂ measurements. no other competitors are there yet.

minus:

. requires a smartphone for setup and history display

. WEB DASHBOARD integration for the new metrics incomplete: heart rate, CO₂ are there but you can't download air quality data and room temperature is missing

. NO DATA EXPORT for new metrics yet!!!

. only black available for now (very minor point)

. you cannot get directly the air quality reading from pressing the metal disc in the middle, the video on the website is inaccurate. they claim it will be fixed soon

It is promising but rushed, hold on until their API and website have caught up (several weeks from now according to their support). I'm not too sure about the usefulness of the resting heart rate measurement yet. I will be watching closely but I guess it requires a consistent morning routine in order to deliver precise measurements to find useful recovery trends.

General advice for any withings scale model (new and old) from my experience: Do not add the plastic feet provided, these fool the Position Control^TM algorithm. When you lean slightly backwards, you can easily loose 500g or more :)

update 2013-06-11: 2 months after that blogpost, they still have not released the API or updated the web dashboard with the new metrics. Very disappointing. 

Also I found the base heart rate to be either unreadable by the scale (flashing x) or way out of expected range (90-100 when I was measuring 60-70 with an oximeter seconds earlier in bed), I suppose it needs a period of rest between the moment you get out of bed and step on the scale.

update 2014-04: finally after a year the button for instant CO2 reading, as demonstrated on their product page video, is working after the automated upgrade to firmware 1011. It is still impossible to download CO2 measurements from their website and/or app. However it is not all lost, you can use the workaround I describe here http://counterinception.com/content/extracting-your-data-withings-smart-body-analyzer-ws-50

quick workaround if you have trouble synchronising the scale and android app: start app, disable bluetooth, confirm bluetooth activation, click next, it shouldn't be searching for more than 30 seconds otherwise restart the procedure.

hacking the WS-30 http://www.poppopret.org/?p=305 hardware hack

reversed engineered protocol for the original withing scale http://www.prolixium.com/mynews?id=915 network hack