16 votes

Digital pregnancy tests just contain a regular paper strip test and the battery, microcontroller, LEDs, photodiodes, screen, etc. are all to read whether it shows one line or two

6 comments

  1. [2]
    RapidEyeMovement
    Link
    We live in a majority digital world now. A blinking screen to some people is more reassuring or exact. Sometimes taking the human out of the equation isn't always bad. The tear down is...
    • Exemplary

    We live in a majority digital world now. A blinking screen to some people is more reassuring or exact. Sometimes taking the human out of the equation isn't always bad. The tear down is interesting, and they do a good job of researching the parts and how it all comes together.

    But...

    There seems to be A LOT of heavy subtext here that is not being stated but is heavily implied. That of 'haha look at all this electronics to read a simple line'. 'Haha, why can't the person taking it read a simple line'

    This line of thinking also shows a real lack of knowledge of the chemistry for these strips. Irony of which I hope is not lost. This strip is looking for a specific hormone (hCG) and any trace of this hormone means that the woman is pregnant. Even the tiniest hint. That big pronounced line is easy to read. But guess what, this line means the same one as the first one, or this one. All show a positive test, remember any presence of the hormone means the woman is pregnant. It is also sad the OP doesn't actually do any testing of the sensor to see how accurate it is at reading a faint line. Because that would have been actually very useful information!

    This line of thinking also ignores how anxiety inducing taking these test can be. A Positive will lead to a life changing event no matter what! We all know the single women memes about hoping not to be pregnant, but there is a whole another side that we don't talk about as a society, about the women desperately trying to get pregnant. Just Google "pregnancy test very faint line" or a reddit link if that is easier /r/TFABLinePorn/ to understand.

    While I understand the intent of the tear down and do not begrudge him his fun or his interesting research, I do love that kinda stuff. We can also use it as an opportunity to attack the awkward subtext that the author started with. Also OP should be applauded because they obviously changed their opinion once they were presented w/ a different perspective.

    12 votes
    1. asoftbird
      Link Parent
      The "damage" has been done though; already seeing this post on reddit with hordes of pissed off people because "useless tech" and "wasteful" while the reason why it's there is lost in the sauce....

      Also OP should be applauded because they obviously changed their opinion once they were presented w/ a different perspective.

      The "damage" has been done though; already seeing this post on reddit with hordes of pissed off people because "useless tech" and "wasteful" while the reason why it's there is lost in the sauce. They should probably have removed the post & replaced it with the same content but added a line about why it's like that. It's still doing the rounds (and technically, spreading misinformation?)

      4 votes
  2. [4]
    asoftbird
    Link
    This is needed because the tests apparently are rather hard to read correctly and may give false negatives. Yes, it's wasteful, but it's necessary. And yes, it should be changed to something less...

    This is needed because the tests apparently are rather hard to read correctly and may give false negatives.

    Yes, it's wasteful, but it's necessary. And yes, it should be changed to something less wasteful, but l guess that's not cost effective.

    https://twitter.com/realsexycyborg/status/1301786032136835072?s=21

    13 votes
    1. Deimos
      Link Parent
      Yeah, I wasn't intending to put any kind of negative judgment on it, I just found it really interesting. I've always kind of assumed the digital tests would be doing something differently, so it...

      Yeah, I wasn't intending to put any kind of negative judgment on it, I just found it really interesting. I've always kind of assumed the digital tests would be doing something differently, so it was fascinating to find out that they're actually more like a "user interface wrapper".

      11 votes
    2. vord
      Link Parent
      While it's an insightful take, I would contend it's still wasteful and not necessary. Provide free anonymous lab testing for everyone. The problem is we're expecting laypeople to interpret things...

      While it's an insightful take, I would contend it's still wasteful and not necessary. Provide free anonymous lab testing for everyone.

      The problem is we're expecting laypeople to interpret things correctly the way a lab technician would.

      5 votes
    3. mat
      Link Parent
      While my wife was trying to get pregnant she went though loads of ordinary paper tests (ended up bulk buying the damn things, but at least they're cheap), so perhaps this device would be rather...

      While my wife was trying to get pregnant she went though loads of ordinary paper tests (ended up bulk buying the damn things, but at least they're cheap), so perhaps this device would be rather better if the test strips were at least replaceable. We had a digital fertility tester which worked like that. You bought a load of piss strips which fitted into a bigger device with all the electronics in.

      3 votes