A really smart toilet, even with a camera to detect the owner's anal pattern

As you probably know, today's smart devices like phones, and door locks are already equipped with fingerprint, face and even iris recognition functions. Those are the markers on the human body that are said to be unique and cannot be matched.

But what is a more unique idea than some toilet manufacturers now want to equip their products with anal pattern recognition function. You heard it right: Their idea was to put a camera under the toilet so that when you sit down, the toilet will recognize you.

Mount the camera below, the toilet will recognize you.

But in the end, they created a smart toilet with anal recognition function for what? Do you have to pay to unlock such a toilet? Or buy a monthly subscription for it like for Youtube, Spotify and Netflix?

As it turns out, the idea of ​​making toilets that recognize anal fissures can go far beyond what the average person like us could imagine. Let's find out together.

The era of smart toilets

In a world of IoT (Internet of Things), everything needs to be smart. Toilet bowls are no exception. Many manufacturers are now advertising toilets that have a heating function, automatically wash or can be set up with a service program.

However, according to a team of engineers at Stanford University School of Medicine, those are not really smart toilets. In a project that has been underway since 2020, the research team led by urologist Dr. Seung-min Park has invented a toilet equipped with cameras and machine-learning algorithms.

 Toilets are equipped with cameras and machine learning algorithms

Their purpose is to calculate "flow rate and urine volume using computer vision," the researchers said. The camera and algorithm can also detect the color of urine and stool, in a scale known as the Bristol Classification.

It can tell you about a number of health problems that you may be experiencing, from urinary problems, constipation, hemorrhoids to blood in the stools that warn of cancer.

In addition, the toilet that Dr. Park and the Stanford team are developing also has a special feature, which is anal ridge recognition.

"Using human waste and anus as a biometric identifier is not a new topic. From the last century, the great painter Salvador Dalí once discovered that each anal opening has about 35 - 37 different wrinkles, and they are as individualized as a fingerprint," said Dr. Park.

When asked why this strange feature is equipped, the team said it is part of a security technology, to avoid confusion and data disturbance during the user's toilet experience. use.

The toilet bowl can tell you about a number of health problems you may be experiencing.

Dr. Park and Stanford University School of Medicine aren't the only ones with the idea of ​​smart toilets. In 2021, a team of engineers at Duke University also announced a smart toilet prototype equipped with cameras, biochemical sensors and artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

The toilet also has an analytical function that looks for the presence of blood and specific proteins in human waste. This information can be used to warn users early about the risk of illness, including Covid-19. In case you didn't know, the SARS-CoV-2 virus can also be detected in feces.

Casana, a health startup, is developing a special toilet seat. It has a wide range of functions including measuring blood pressure, heart rate and even blood oxygen levels.

This reminds us of Google, when the tech giant also applied for a patent for a smart toilet seat with heart monitoring function in 2015.

Smart toilet seat.

Toi Labs, another company, shared the same idea when they developed toilet seats that weigh and collect biometric information. The chair can analyze the volume, clarity, density and color of stool and urine to warn of urinary, genitourinary and gastrointestinal diseases.

In general, it can be seen that the trend of intelligentizing toilets and toilets is a trend that many manufacturers and technology companies are pursuing.

Would you be willing to sit down on a toilet to take a picture of yourself?

The researchers and smart toilet developers themselves also anticipated this problem. That is not everyone agrees to sit down on a toilet with a camera facing up to take pictures of them, especially in such an extremely sensitive situation and position.

Dr. Park and the Stanford team conducted a survey of 300 people and up to a third said they would not be comfortable with the smart toilet they are developing. The anal camera is only part of the problem, the other is that the user knows their data is being collected.

The anal camera is only part of the problem.

Feces and urine contain more personal data than you think. It not only reveals your health status, but also can detect whether you are using drugs or stimulants.

In addition, insurance companies may want to collect this type of information to advertise or offer preferential policies for healthy people. Toilets in public places can also choose to install smart toilets like these.

Overall, when the toilet is smart, it is no longer a private place as you imagine it to be. "Every time you measure something on your body, the boundaries of privacy are removed," said Phil Booth, coordinator of the medical record protection service MedConfidential.

.another problem is that users know their data is being collected.

For their part, Dr. Park and Stanford scientists say they have a solution to this privacy problem. Accordingly, all the data that their smart toilet collects will be sent to a cloud storage system instead of in the toilet.

"All information collected in the form of images and videos are clearly annotated, detailed for each specific user. Then, they are stored in the cloud via a wireless connection to the home. Science can be easily downloaded and conducted research," said Dr. Park.

"We are always cautious with the data obtained from users. The process of sending their photos, data, and sensitive information is encrypted end-to-end to ensure security.

We also use a special algorithm to classify anal image data, which is able to automatically process the data without human intervention."