‘Smart toilet’ reads your backside print, analyzes waste for disease
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A toilet that does double duty could be on its way to your home.
Researchers at Stanford University announced they have developed a system that can monitor your health by examining your waste — be it No. 1 or 2.
In a release, Dr. Sanjiv “Sam” Gambhir and his team said their system of cameras and motion sensors fit inside a regular toilet bowl and can detect and analyze urine and feces as they pass through the toilet.
“When I’d bring it up, people would sort of laugh because it seemed like an interesting idea, but also a bit odd,” said Gambhir, professor and chair of radiology at the school.
But … how does the toilet know it’s you?
Well, the team built an ID system — on the flush lever that takes your fingerprint.
“The whole point is to provide precise, individualized health feedback, so we needed to make sure the toilet could discern between users,” Gambhir said.
However, the team realized: What if someone uses the toilet but someone else ends up flushing? So, they installed a second ID system — one that scans your backside — a specific part of your backside.
“We know it seems weird, but as it turns out, your anal print is unique,” Gambhir said.
He said the scans are only a recognition system to match users to their products and that no one sees those scans.
“We have taken rigorous steps to ensure that all the information is de-identified when it’s sent to the cloud and that the information — when sent to health care providers — is protected under HIPAA,” Gambhir said.
The system was tested in a pilot study of 21 participants. It was designed to test for some cancers, like colorectal or urologic. It also could help those genetically predisposed to conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, prostate cancer or kidney failure.
According to the press release, urine samples undergo physical and molecular analysis and stool assessment is based on physical characteristics. The data is sent to a cloud-based system that could be integrated into a health-care provider’s record-keeping system.
Gambhir cautioned that his team’s toilet system is not a replacement for a doctor, or even a diagnosis.
A paper describing the research was published April 6 in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
“Everyone uses the bathroom — there’s really no avoiding it — and that enhances its value as a disease-detecting device,” Gambhir said.