Cars aren’t the only things with rear-detection technology anymore. Stanford researchers are working on a smart toilet that can identify the user’s butt to help determine their health, and prospective poopers are clamoring to pop a squat. “The whole point is to provide precise, individualized health feedback, so we needed to make sure the toilet could discern between users,” says project lead Sanjiv “Sam” Gambhir, MD Ph.D. in a press release. The smart seat was first described in an article this week in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. In accordance, the state-of-the-art toilet bowl is outfitted with a scanner that reads users’ derrières in what the press release dubs “the polar opposite of facial recognition technology.” The lever’s also equipped with fingerprint scanners, however, as Gambhir points out, these are fallible, because a different user could flush the toilet. “As it turns out, your anal print is unique,” says the proud holder of the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professorship for Clinical Investigation in Cancer Research. To further protect the pooper’s privacy, the data will be stored on a cloud where “no one, not you or your doctor, will see the scans,” says Gambhir. Although the press release notes that “to fully reap the benefits of the smart toilet, users must make their peace with a camera that scans their anus.” Gambhir’s not just inventing a patootie-identifying potty for the fun of it, though. “This toilet is fitted with technology that can detect a range of disease markers in stool and urine, including those of some cancers, such as colorectal or urologic cancers,” per the press release. The data is then matched to the specific user via the rump-recognizing technology, says Gambhir. The smart toilet also comes with a urinalysis strip that can help identify 10 different disease-signifying biomarkers. Despite all the doo-hickies, the cutting-edge crapper will be fairly easy to install. “It’s sort of like buying a bidet add-on that can be mounted right into your existing toilet,” says Gambhir, who envisions his invention becoming a fixture in home bathrooms. Twenty-one subjects have already tested the smart throne, and the research team surveyed another 300 prospective toilet users, of which 52 percent said they were at least “somewhat comfortable” with the idea. Of course, Gambhir admits that the smart toilet is no substitute for diagnosis by a doctor, adding that data protection will be of paramount importance moving forward. While it’s still early days, the cancer researcher maintains that “the smart toilet is the perfect way to harness a source of data that’s typically ignored — and the user doesn’t have to do anything differently.” He adds, “Everyone uses the bathroom — there’s really no avoiding it — and that enhances its value as a disease-detecting device.” The smart potty isn’t the only state-of-the-art toilet tech on the horizon. In November, University of Pennsylvania researchers devised a swa
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Cars aren’t the only things with rear-detection technology anymore. Stanford researchers are working on a smart toilet that can identify the user’s butt to help determine their health, and prospective poopers are clamoring to pop a squat. “The whole point is to provide precise, individualized health feedback, so we needed to make sure the toilet could discern between users,” says project lead Sanjiv “Sam” Gambhir, MD Ph.D. in a press release. The smart seat was first described in an article this week in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. In accordance, the state-of-the-art toilet bowl is outfitted with a scanner that reads users’ derrières in what the press release dubs “the polar opposite of facial recognition technology.” The lever’s also equipped with fingerprint scanners, however, as Gambhir points out, these are fallible, because a different user could flush the toilet. “As it turns out, your anal print is unique,” says the proud holder of the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professorship for Clinical Investigation in Cancer Research. To further protect the pooper’s privacy, the data will be stored on a cloud where “no one, not you or your doctor, will see the scans,” says Gambhir. Although the press release notes that “to fully reap the benefits of the smart toilet, users must make their peace with a camera that scans their anus.” Gambhir’s not just inventing a patootie-identifying potty for the fun of it, though. “This toilet is fitted with technology that can detect a range of disease markers in stool and urine, including those of some cancers, such as colorectal or urologic cancers,” per the press release. The data is then matched to the specific user via the rump-recognizing technology, says Gambhir. The smart toilet also comes with a urinalysis strip that can help identify 10 different disease-signifying biomarkers. Despite all the doo-hickies, the cutting-edge crapper will be fairly easy to install. “It’s sort of like buying a bidet add-on that can be mounted right into your existing toilet,” says Gambhir, who envisions his invention becoming a fixture in home bathrooms. Twenty-one subjects have already tested the smart throne, and the research team surveyed another 300 prospective toilet users, of which 52 percent said they were at least “somewhat comfortable” with the idea. Of course, Gambhir admits that the smart toilet is no substitute for diagnosis by a doctor, adding that data protection will be of paramount importance moving forward. While it’s still early days, the cancer researcher maintains that “the smart toilet is the perfect way to harness a source of data that’s typically ignored — and the user doesn’t have to do anything differently.” He adds, “Everyone uses the bathroom — there’s really no avoiding it — and that enhances its value as a disease-detecting device.” The smart potty isn’t the only state-of-the-art toilet tech on the horizon. In November, University of Pennsylvania researchers devised a swa
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