computer science

Withings

Withings is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Withings rather than just read about it. In short: Withings (IPA: ) is a French consumer electronics company headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France. It also has offices in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and Hong Kong, and distributes its products worldwide.

Key takeaways

Withings belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Withings to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Withings from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Withings (IPA: ) is a French consumer electronics company headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France. It also has offices in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and Hong Kong, and distributes its products worldwide. Withings is known for design and innovation in connected devices, such as the first Wi-Fi scale on the market (introduced in 2009), an FDA-cleared blood pressure monitor, a smart sleep system, and a line of automatic activity tracking watches. It also provides B2B services for healthcare providers and researchers. Withings was purchased by Finnish company Nokia on 26 April 2016 and became a division of Nokia known as Nokia Health. The Withings brand continued to be used until June 2017, when it was replaced by the Nokia brand. In May 2018, Éric Carreel, Withings' founder, finalized a deal to regain control and the company became independent again, under the Withings name.

History

Early history Withings was founded in 2008 by three executives from the technology and telecom industries: Éric Carreel (CEO), who was co-founder of Inventel; Cédric Hutchings; and Fred Potter. In September 2010, Withings received its first venture capital funding – $3.8 million from Ventech – to fund the development of the company's next two products. In January 2011, Withings announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that its second product would be a blood pressure monitor that connects to the iPhone. It also announced it would produce a baby monitor for use with smartphones and other connected devices, which was made available to purchase across Europe in November 2011 and in the United States in February 2012. Withings received a $30 million investment from Bpifrance, Idinvest Partners, 360 CapitalPartners, and Ventech in July 2013. The company integrated with Apple's HealthKit platform in October 2014. The compatibility across Withings' range of connected devices enabled the integration of personal data into the iOS Health app. At WebSummit in Dublin, 2015, the company announced a partnership with MyFitnessPal. The partnership combined Withings' Health Mate app with MyFitnessPal's nutrition data to let the users know whether they were exercising enough in relation to their diet.

2016 to 2018; Acquisition by Nokia In April 2016, Nokia announced it had struck a deal to acquire Withings and integrate it with the group's Nokia Technologies division. The acquisition closed on 31 May 2016. The CEO of Withings, Cédric Hutchings, became the leader of the new Digital Health business of Nokia Technologies. At the time of the acquisition, the Withings brand was said to continue to exist, at least for the time being; however, by the winter of 2016, the brand had already transitioned from the original "Withings Inspire Health" to "Withings Part of Nokia". On February 26, 2017, it was announced that Withings would no longer be used as a brand: its devices would be sold under the Nokia brand. The rebranding was completed on June 20, 2017.

2018 to present; Purchase by Éric Carreel On May 2, 2018, Nokia announced plans to sell its health tech business to Withings co-founder Éric Carreel. The sale was completed at the end of that month. Carreel had left Nokia in 2017 and completed the purchase of Withings later in 2018. In April 2019, Withings relocated a factory in France. The same year, it also released three new products including the Withings Move, a customizable smartwatch. Withings acquired both device company Impeto Medical as well as the personalized fitness and meal planning app 8fit in 2022. It incorporated technology for monitoring peripheral neuropathies into its smart scale products which was launched the same year. In 2023, it presented U-Scan, a reader and replaceable cartridge for individual urine testing, set to be released in late 2024.

Products

Smart watches and fitness trackers

Withings manufactures smart watches and fitness trackers, including the Activité, an activity tracking watch which was the first smartwatch to resemble a traditional wristwatch. It has no buttons and is controlled from a phone app, compatible with both iPhone and Android. It can track the user's sleep, swimming, walking and running automatically. It also incorporates weight, heart rate, and body mass data from Withings' wireless scales, like the Smart Body Analyzer. The company also manufactures the Activité Steel which is made of stainless steel with chrome hands and a silicone strap. Other models include the Activité Sapphire and the Activité Pop. One of the users of Activité is former French president François Hollande. Withings' first product since being purchased by Carreel in 2019 is the Steel HR Sport smartwatch, a fitness tracker with the appearance of a watch. It is a hybrid and provides heart rate monitoring, GPS tracking, and fitness level analytics including oxygen intake sensors. It is the first Withings product to offer fitness level assessments. Withings also unveiled the Withings Move at CES 2019. This is an entry-level smartwatch with an ECG version that has embedded electrocardiogram tracking. The ScanWatch is a smartwatch that incorporates a sensor that measures the oxygen saturation level in the blood to identify sleep apnea and detects atrial fibrillation. It also has a built-in ECG tool and monitors workouts and exercises.

Scales In 2009, Withings released a WiFi Body Scale which was the first connected body scale. It measures weight and fat mass and sends data to the user's app over Wi-Fi, and also connects to platforms such as Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault as well as diet and exercise sites such as DailyBurn. In 2012, Withings announced an internet-connected baby and toddler scale at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show. It was the first scale of its kind and won a CES Innovations Award. It also produced the Withings Smart Body Analyzer, a smart scale that measures weight and calculates body mass index and fat mass. The scales received media attention when magician Penn Jillette, having lost nearly 120 pounds in four months to preserve his health, attributed his success to a strict regimen and the Withings smart scale. Its Body Scan scale was launched in 2022, and it can perform an electrocardiogram and measure nervous activity. Body Scan launched in the United States in 2023 after it received FDA clearance. It also released the Body Comp and Body Smart scales that integrate with the Withings+ in-app service to provide advice and workouts based on body composition measurements.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Withings

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Withings claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Withings before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Withings ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Withings

In research: Withings appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Withings in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Withings is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2016 mergers and acquisitions, Fitness apps, French companies established in 2008, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Withings outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Withings in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Withings means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Withings out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Withings in simple terms?

Why does Withings matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Withings?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Withings.