Bathroom scale plugs into Google Health
Share your weight with Mountain View
Not content with knowing where you go, both in real and cyber space, Google will soon know how much you weigh too - thanks to wi-fi-connected scales.
The scale in question come from Withings, and it was launched last year with connections to various fitness websites and an iPhone application. But now Withings has managed to integrate its monitoring software into Google Health, allowing users to share their current weight with the chocolate factory without leaving the comfort of their own bathroom.
Ideal for tracking the whole family, as long as there aren't more than eight of you, the WiScale can work out your body fat and calculate your Body Mass Index - should you wish to trust that particular metric.
All that technology doesn't come cheap: you'll need to shell out near on a hundred quid ($160) for the scale, and it doesn't even link to your Facebook account to Twitter to your Weight Watchers group - at least not yet. ®
COMMENTS
Power supply
The extension socket, just like I do with the hairdryer and electric fire.
And the power supply?
WiFi runs on a coin-cell battery. NOT. So where in the bathroom are you going to plug in its power brick?
"I see absolutely zero use for this thingie."
Not thinking very far, are you? The point of this "thingie" is to prove it's possible. As time passes, similar devices will be "encouraged" via tax breaks, insurance discounts, etc. Shortly thereafter these will become mandatory in order to even get some form of health/life insurance. Around the same time it will be mandatory to have health/life insurance.
In other words: you will pay your health premiums, and you will reduce the risk to the insurance companies of ever having to pay out, and you will do so because it is the law.
Archimedes
But Daddy, I just wanted to see if Fido weighed less when he was in the bath.
Bathroom power
In the UK RCD protected power sockets have been allowed in certain places in bathrooms since 2008.
In many other countries (including the US) RCD power sockets have been allowed for a long time (and have less strict rules on their positioning). Surprisingly, millions of people aren't killing themselves on a nightly basis.
