The new twist is called the Precision Health smart toilet, and it’s being developed at Stanford University in California. There, researchers are transforming this porcelain item into a high-tech detection and monitoring device that incorporates artificial intelligence and is connected to cloud-based technology. Stanford scientists are testing the smart toilet in studies with participants who have volunteered to have their waste tested before flushing it.
In addition to all the health parameters that are evaluated by the smart toilet, the device also records each time number one and number two are deposited, giving the user a full count every 87 days. Like a true home laboratory, the Stanford research team sees the smart toilet destined for bathrooms around the world.
Stanford’s smart toilets have the potential to detect a variety of health data using computer vision and deep learning as the toilets perform urine and fecal tests. In the works there is a smart toilet that detects certain types of cancer, such as urological and colorectal malignancies. Going for a screening in the not too distant future could mean a simple trip to the bathroom. And in the case of stool analysis for colorectal cancer. Other smart toilet goals include microbiome analysis, as well as detection of bacterial and viral diseases and monitoring parameters such as temperature, heart rate and oxygenation.
Through optical scanning, urine and stool samples are captured on video and then analyzed using algorithms that can distinguish healthy urodynamics (urine stream) from unhealthy stream. It also analyzes the consistencies of the feces.
With flow analysis, the toilet deploys urinalysis strips, or dipsticks, to measure a number of molecular characteristics. White blood cell count, specific protein levels, and more can signal a spectrum of illnesses, from infections to bladder cancer to kidney failure. It may even be possible with a future smart toilet to carry out a pregnancy test thanks to the built-in test strip technology.
Such technology could facilitate the daily collection of a wide range of health-related data, thus creating “a gateway to the ‘digitization’ of home health care,” was reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine.