/sci/ - Science & Math

The second attempt was via an inbuilt scanner to take pictures of this private part of the anatomy – anal recognition technology, so to say. The camera will scan this area to identify the user, because, it seems, the anus is unique from person to person.

A Stanford study published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering in April 2020 reports the development of a new kind of toilet that can pick up signs of an extensive range of diseases, from molecules in stool and urine. This could be extremely useful in repeatedly and inexpensively screening high-risk groups for certain conditions, including those for which a genetic tendency is possible – such as prostate cancer or certain kinds of kidney cancer.

The toilet concept was developed in the laboratory of Sanjiv Gambhir, over 15 years ago. Gambhir is a radiologist and cancer researcher. Though it has raised many a chuckle over the years, his team has now brought the idea to light, making it a prototype of gadgets focused on precision health.
The device

The toilet is just an ordinary one at heart. It has a bowl, a lid, and a flush cistern. On the other hand, it also has motion sensors, molecular probes, and other technologies that trigger an analysis of different health conditions. Whatever deposits occur in the bowl, including urine samples, are subjected to a physical and molecular examination.

The gadgets fitted to the bowl detect the extracted data and send it to a cloud-based secure storage system. This means it could potentially be used to store the information for future reference in any electronic health records system so that it can be retrieved rapidly and conveniently.

Continuous health monitoring
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200406/Smart-toilet-looks-for-signs-of-disease.aspx