Researchers are developing smart toilets that can analyze your stool and urine to detect signs of illness.
Smart toilets, Dr. Sanjiv “Sam” Gambhir, from Stanford University (USA), has been thinking about for fifteen years already. We are not talking here about latrines capable of lifting their own lid, no, but rather structures equipped with several instruments capable of carrying out a rapid examination of stool and urine samples which, as we know, can provide us with precious clues about the state of health of our organism .
In practice, we wouldn't need to redo all the plumbing. It would suffice to install in the existing bowl a kind of additional bezel equipped with very discreet instruments. The droppings would then be captured on video to then be processed by different algorithms specially trained to perform urodynamic assessments (urine flow rate, flow time and total volume, among other parameters), or to analyze the "health" of our stools.
Along with these physical scans, these toilets could also deploy urine dipsticks to measure certain molecular characteristics. Like the number of white blood cells, or certain protein levels, for example. What potentially reveal warning signs of several conditions, from urinary tract infections to bladder cancer, including kidney failure. At its current stage of development, toilets can measure up to 10 different biomarkers .
The researcher also insists on the need to develop an integrated identification system , so as to be able to monitor the state of health of those concerned.
“So we had to make sure that the toilets could recognize each user , explains Sam Gambhir. To do this, we first created a flush lever capable of reading fingerprints ". However, the team soon realized that this was not the best approach. What happens if one person uses the toilet, but someone else flushes the toilet? Or if the flushing system is automatic?
That's why researchers turned to a small scanner that roughly does a quick recognition of your anus . “We know this sounds weird, but it turns out your anal print is unique “says Sam Gambhir.
These toilets would in no way aim to replace doctors, or even to offer diagnoses. All extracted data, it reads, would be directly stored in the cloud , integrated into an ultra-secure system to which only healthcare professionals would have access .
It is still early to say whether or not this type of smart toilet could integrate our lives. So far, the researchers have only conducted a small pilot study involving just 21 participants in an effort to test their concept. For several months, everyone used the toilet, which allowed scientists to establish personalized health monitoring.
In the meantime, the search continues. Gambhir and his team are focusing in particular on a few points, such as the possibility of being able to monitor glucose levels in diabetics, or even the possibility of being able to analyze stool at the molecular level. An application could also allow data to be transmitted directly to doctors in the event of more urgent anomalies, such as the presence of blood in the excreta.
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