The smart diaper is coming. Who actually wants it?

 

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Smart diapers have landed in Korea and Japan, and are likely coming to the US next.
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Over the past several years, a patchwork of tech and personal care companies have plunged millions of dollars into a race to control the baby product of the future: smartphone-enabled diapers.
Leading the charge is Huggies, which has rallied an obscure invention — a Bluetooth sensor that texts parents about their babies’ bowel movements — into the centerpiece of its “smart diaper” line Monit x Huggies. After launching smart diapers in Korea last October, the company appears set to bring the product to the US as soon as this summer. The technology is reminiscent of a similar feature that Huggies considered releasing in 2013, then scrapped: TweetPee, a diaper sensor that slides into a parent’s DMs when their baby needs to be changed.
Although Huggies would be the first major company to bring its product to market in the US, it is only one player in the sprawling diaper-tech war. The health care company Pixie Scientific has been testing diapers that track infant urinary health since 2013, while Google’s parent company Alphabet submitted a patent last year for a carbon fiber-laced diaper that alerts parents about a shift in diaper equilibrium, including by distinguishing between poop and pee. The Chinese personal care giant Hunan Cosom lists smart diapers among its products, as does the Chinese tech company Opro9.
Even Huggies’ main rival, Pampers, is working to revamp its product: Since 2014, Pampers has tested individualized diapers that fit to each baby’s unique “pee points” to maximize urine absorbency.