Wearable tech companies build most devices for adults: for athletes and fitness buffs, for people who want to track one or more biomarkers, or for patients to whom doctors issue wearables to monitor vital signs and care plan compliance. Wearables built for babies and children are a small but growing subset of the market (the play on words is intentional). And the most frequent reason that parents check babies — especially newborns — to to assess the status of their diapers. In the past, we have written about diaper alert wearables from Diaper+ and Pixie Scientific.
MONIT, a Korean smart baby care company, introduced its eponymous MONIT smart baby monitor this week at CES 2019. The MONIT wearable consists of three components: a clip-on diaper monitor that does not need to contact the baby’s skin, an air quality measurement hub, and a mobile app. The mobile app can be installed on up to five devices, which allows multiple people (or a single tech-obsessed caregiver) to track what’s happening with the baby on the diaper front, back, and bottom. The app reports on diaper status, air temperature and humidity, and volatile organic compound (VOC) gas. The VOCs presumably are an indicator of an increased amount of organic material in the diaper. Letting a machine perform the “sniff test” could be seen as an attractive by many parents.
Originally released in Korea in July 2018, MONIT is preparing to launch the diaper monitoring system in the U.S., China, and Japan.
