From autumn, „smart“ diapers from Pampers should be available in the USA. In combination with a smartphone app and a video camera, it detects whether the diaper is wet and when the baby is moving.
The Windelinnovation wants to facilitate the everyday life with baby through comprehensive tracking, but there are concerns about data and environmental protection. Even midwives see the diapers with sensor critical.
Lumi by Pampers is the name of the system that is supposed to make life easier for babies with „smart“ diapers, a video camera and a smartphone app. The special diapers can be equipped with an activity sensor that measures whether the diaper is „dry“, „wet“ or „very wet“ and whether the baby is moving. The bowel movement, however, is not recorded. The associated video camera from Logitech has a night vision function and also registers room temperature and humidity.
The collected data is bundled in a smartphone app, in which parents can enter additional information, eg. When the baby was fed. The system provides parents with an overview of how they sleep, how often they change their nappy and how to feed their child. „Track just about everything“, loosely translated „Record practically everything“ is the motto for the „Pampers Lumi“.
The price for the „smart“ diaper system is not yet known, but interested parties in the US can currently be placed on a waiting list.
Questionable benefit for parents
Pampers explains on request that the system should help identify patterns in a child’s daily routine and develop day-to-day routines: „Lumi is particularly suitable for all parents who, in addition to their intuition, also want to receive information about their baby’s rhythm to further their care „. The manufacturer recommends the diapers with sensor for the first year of life.
Martina Koll-Braun from the midwife center in Vienna considers the diaper innovation superfluous: „The uncertainty about how often diapers have to be exchanged is certainly there with parents. But babies give clear signals when they need something. „Watching your child would be far better than looking at an app.
The Austrian midwife body warns that some babies in their smartphones already have a powerful competitor for the attention of their parents. If the everyday life of parents can still be facilitated by technical innovations, the time gained should definitely be used for the playful occupation with the baby.
Diaper data in the cloud
Pampers emphasizes that the information collected is stored „encrypted in a secure cloud“ so that only the parents could access it. Hilda Tellioglu, professor of computer science and member of the research initiative „Center for Informatics & Society“ of the Vienna University of Technology (TU) points out that there are no 100% secure systems: „We do not know where these data files are stored, who they are when they reappear and if they can be used against us at some point. “
The TU professor sees in the „smart“ diapers a marketing mischief, on which consumers should not get involved without thinking: „The recording of data for commercial purposes is common practice, which means that much is decided on us, without that that is transparent to us „.
Pee, sleep, eat: No „harmless“ data
The data from the diaper app may seem harmless at first glance. Informatics Professor Tellioglu contradicts this assumption: „There are in my opinion no meaningless data, with skillful queries can be derived from all data something.“ One should keep in mind that, for example, the location of the baby also reveals the location of the parents – information for targeted advertising is very important.
In addition, what you can do with the diaper data in the future, is not yet foreseeable, Tellioglu. Already today it is possible to calculate characteristics of different factors such as age, background and occupation that a person might prefer to keep to himself. Parents therefore have a special responsibility for the data of their baby.
Disposable product with non-transparent functionality
Tellioglu criticizes the non-transparency of the diaper technology: „We do not know what actually happens in the sensor and what is recorded.“ As an end user and end user, for example, one would have no chance to detect if data already intercepted between the sensor and smartphone
would. In addition, one could not repair the sensors because they were designed from the outset as a disposable product.
Pampers emphasizes that the Lumi sensors only have to be replaced about every three months and are not thrown away with every single diaper. But with the use of disposable diapers, about one ton of garbage per child already arises, provided that it goes with about three years on the potty. With „smart“ diapers parents also cause a considerable amount of avoidable electronic waste.
Possible applications away from the baby’s top
One should not reject new technologies on a flat-rate basis, but always weigh the benefits and risks, says Tellioglu. In spite of everything, diaper sensors can still be useful: „For handicapped adults who are in institutions and are not cared for for a long time, the technology would be interesting, for example.“
