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Medicine Science Technology

A Smart Toilet Could Identify You By Your 'Analprint' and Detect Diseases (theverge.com) 102

Posted by BeauHD from the what-will-they-think-of-next dept.
A prototype smart toilet that can identify you by your "analprint" and monitor your trip to the loo has been created by researchers at Stanford University. It's equipped with cameras and sensors that collect information on your bodily waste, and it uses that data to look for any health issues you might have. The Verge reports: The "analprint" is the toilet's primary way of identifying each user. Much to the authors' dismay, it's also the aspect of the toilet that's gotten the most attention since the paper describing the proto-toilet was published in a press release and the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering on Monday.

The idea for an analprint was sparked by Salvador Dali, who discovered that "the anus has 35 or 37 creases, which are as unique as fingerprints," Park wrote in a blog post. The prototype device -- which is modular and can be attached to most standard toilets -- uses a Raspberry Pi paired with a camera to capture each person's unique analprint as they sit down to use the toilet, ensuring the data it captures is associated with the correct person. The real action happens after the person sits down, according to Park. Inside the toilet, there are cameras to capture images of the person and their waste, motion sensors to detect urine streams, and medical sensors to analyze what's inside the excrement. To further distinguish an individual, the smart toilet also includes a fingerprint scanner on the lever. The smart toilet uses an algorithm to determine "urodynamics," which analyzes the flow rate, magnitude, and stream time of each participant's urine to determine their general health and if they have a bladder infection. Participants' stool was also classified using the "Bristol Stool Form Scale." The first prototype smart toilet can detect constipation and infections, "but the eventual goal is to spot any severe health problems like colon cancer," the report says. It notes that the data and images that are collected "are stored in an encrypted cloud server, which is supposed to keep the information private."
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A Smart Toilet Could Identify You By Your 'Analprint' and Detect Diseases More

A Smart Toilet Could Identify You By Your 'Analprint' and Detect Diseases

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  • or maybe horseshit

  • That stinks! (Score:3)

    by al0ha ( 1262684 ) on Friday April 10, 2020 @08:14PM (#59930604) Journal
    That stinks!

  • Or other things just as STUPID as this idea. At least for retail customers.

    This seems reasonable for a hospitable to buy, just like they buy machines to process and analyze blood, urine, etc.

    But expecting your average gal or guy to buy this thing is freaking stupid.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sebby ( 238625 )

      Or other things just as STUPID as this idea.

      I would qualify it as a "STUPID ASS idea".

    • They'll probably really sell it to factories to warn when employees have placed unauthorized substances in their bodies.

    • But expecting your average gal or guy to buy this thing is freaking stupid.

      All the gov't has to do is legislate that this is only kind of toilet you can buy. Think they don't legislate things like that? Around here, you can't buy a new toilet that isn't a low flush volume model. When they first came out they plugged up constantly, but I guess they got the fluid mechanics worked out so most of the time things go through satisfactorily. However, most people use case consists of plop-flush, plop-flush. repeat until done, so it's doubtful if there's any actual water conservation

      • Most of that idiocy could have been solved with a simple two-tier flush system, like you find in other parts of the world. There are plenty of things to like about the US, but damn, we sure impose some stupid-ass (no pun intended) regulations on ourselves at times.

      • You are demonstrably incorrect. First, and most obviously, the current low flow toilets use less than half the water of the old wasteful ones, so even if you double flush, you save water.

        But far more importantly, we save water even if you TRIPLE flush, because you only do that for poo, not pee.

        Per health.com, most people pee someone between 4 times a day to 10 times a day, while poop varies between once every 3 days to 3 times a day. Note, poop is directly related to diet, while pee is directly related to

        • An alarm has gone off in the bunker underneath Slashdot towers, and a SWAT team has been dispatched to deal with (in the normal, permanent, and messy) the user who is capable of doing basic mental arithmetic.

          When the SWAT team arrives, be really careful to not reveal that you can count above 21 without removing clothes.

    • Or other things just as STUPID as this idea. At least for retail customers.

      This seems reasonable for a hospitable to buy, just like they buy machines to process and analyze blood, urine, etc.

      But expecting your average gal or guy to buy this thing is freaking stupid.

      No one is going to buy it, not with the "Analprint" feature.

      I mean I'm sure the researchers are damn smart people, but this sounds like a classic case of people talking inside their research group so long they lost touch with reality. Even a prison is unlikely to get away with purchasing a tech that invasive, the possibility of the images leaking is just too high.

      Now, the upside is that if they collect enough bio-markers to detect disease they should also be able to detect enough to distinguish individuals.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      They are already available in Japan. Well, smart toilets have been around for years, with wifi and bluetooth for various functions and things like build in scales. More recently they have gained the ability to test for various other things. They do medical ones as well that have things like a flow meter built in.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Toilets that analyze your poop are very popular in many places. German toilets have a shelf to make it easier to examine it before you flush. Japanese toilets are famous for having gadgets.

      In the US, health monitoring watches are big business. Health monitoring toilets aren't that much of a stretch.

  • Neat! (Score:3, Funny)

    by EmoryM ( 2726097 ) on Friday April 10, 2020 @08:25PM (#59930656)
    I guess that's half the smart pipe invented - https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    • Yep, my first thought too when I read the headline. Someone took the smartpipe parody and turned it into reality....

      How are they going to deal with the child pornography laws? (I have not RTFA, just watched the video about 4 months ago)

  • Smartass integrates with your smartphone. Unless concerned about cheating, with fake pee, poo, like Gatica, a face, voice or less intrusive recognition then an ass pic would probably suffice. Smart toilets could be useful, but the ass pic is a tad cheeky.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sebby ( 238625 )

      Smartass

      That'd be the best name for that toilet.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        The Apple version will be "iPoop"

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Sebby ( 238625 )

          The Apple version will be "iPoop"

          Or: "iCrap", "iCrapped".

        • You do realise that this story has been told? Ages ago.
          (Just a second while I go and check something ... OK.)
          Many years ago a small Australian outdoor goods manufacturer made a very Australian joke over a small trowel with a collapsible handle. (With enough room to store part of a roll of arse-wipe, or bizarrely, "a lighter" - WTF do Australians eat in the Bungle-Bungles? Koalas must be pretty flammable.)

          Great, fine, marvellous. Perfectly reasonable piece of kit. I got one myself, and it lives in the top

    • All of a sudden I'd rather be a dumb ass than a smart ass, or at least, I'd rather have a dumb ass than a smart ass.

  • It notes that the data and images that are collected "are stored in an encrypted cloud server, which is supposed to keep the information private."

    So, like, they're not quite sure if it will or not?

    • It's like Olestra. They can't guarantee no anal leakage.

    • So, like, they're not quite sure if it will or not?

      They only let goats see it.

    • It'll be a new revenue stream, they'll covertly sell the images to the fettish crowd.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      "Cloud server" and "private" do not really mix....

      • ... Unless you put the server inside the network of the Gastroenterology Department which is a likely customer. Shouldn't be beyond the wit of a competent IT bod. The problems will arise when someone wants to consult with a friend in a different hospital trust's GE department.

    • It will be kept private, for certain values of "private" that include "shared with the gestspo, your insurance company, the Social Credit bureaus, anyone with a hefty checkbook, and random script kiddies".

  • Wasn't there laws...? (Score:3)

    by bussdriver ( 620565 ) on Friday April 10, 2020 @08:30PM (#59930682)

    I seem to remember a crack down on pervs with cams in womens' bathrooms?
    Future: "New AWS data leak squirts out dirty celebrity secrets and which end up on fetish porn site"
    Do they have to advertise where they save this? Or do they want to stain the cloud a little bit too?

    • Please somebody construct some better pun heavy descriptions!

      • I'm working on one - just checking if someone has used it already. I'm surprised to be half-way down the list and it hasn't, ummmm, stuck it's head out for a look-around.
  • If this isn't a sign of the imminent collapse of society I don't know what is.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      If this isn't a sign of the imminent collapse of society I don't know what is.

      I was thinking pretty much the same thing.

  • so close it's uncanny:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • Put your brown eye against the scanner... (Score:3)

    by ClarkMills ( 515300 ) on Friday April 10, 2020 @08:41PM (#59930714)

    ...rectal scan... good for authentication.

  • ... my brown eye blue.

  • Eventually, it will be used to measure intelligence so they can figure out if you are a smart-ass.
  • In what Universe would anyone consider this to be an acceptable, non-weirdo idea!?
    Or is this a 9-day late April Fools Day post?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Just lose contact with reality enough and _anything_ can look like a good idea. Some type of engineer has that problem, but they are not the only ones.

  • Pun aside, I'd pay to know when me and my family are sick sooner and without us needing to do something special because we're feeling bad (at which point in some cases it is already too late).

    • Imagine just being able to go about your business and be told, hey, you might have colon cancer based on our analysis. Early detection could quite possibly be the best defense. Finding out you have cancer before it can even be given a stage significantly raising the likelihood of survival.

  • SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

    No wait, the opposite of that.

  • So alien anal probing to find out about humans is actually a thing?

    • You got old enough to type without knowing this for certain?

      Sorry, I'm forgetting that learning to type before leaving school is a thing now, amongst the young set.

  • Not many people can get research funding to install cameras in toilets. Though they might be able to fund their research by selling the imagery to some of the more bizarre fetish sites.

  • It gives them one more way to track and identify their citizens.

  • It's a suppository!

  • We don't get flying cars, dish-washing robots, moon vacations, nor Mr. Fusion, but instead ass detectors.

  • Oh great... (Score:3)

    by dohzer ( 867770 ) on Saturday April 11, 2020 @04:23AM (#59931772)

    Hooray, another camera for me to place black tape across.

  • Call if "Fecal Print" or something.

  • ... wouldn't have gotten past the summary.

  • Coming to a workplace near you (Score:4, Interesting)

    by tflf ( 4410717 ) on Saturday April 11, 2020 @09:20AM (#59932208)

    Managers everywhere are reading about this, and having orgasms imaging the possibilities,

    Adding add washroom breaks to performance metrics is a no-brainer. Adding real-time feed of smart-toilet data to the productivity and attendance monitoring software eliminates the last barricade to total unfettered real-time micro-management of each and every employee. Near certainty the decision will be made to add smart locks and timers to the bathroom stalls, and institute a policy along the lines of
            "effective , employees are permitted four (4) washroom breaks per work week. Washroom breaks are now restricted to a duration of no more
              than three (3) minutes per visit. Access will be by smart lock, and breaks will be timed. Any attempts to exceed or bypass washroom protocols will
              result in disciplinary review, and possible action. No exceptions."

    Bonus: provides yet another opportunity for one more cheap and worthless "employee reward program" so loved by ineffective management everywhere,
    complete with public presentations:
            "The management of ABCZed Inc (LLC) is pleased to announce mail-room employee GH is our winner of the gold potty certificate for this year,
                having achieved the milestone of zero (0) washroom breaks in six (6) years."

    The smart toilet will likely know about some health issues long before the employee does. Means management should have enough lead time to fire the employee before the diagnosis and treatment of her/his illness results in higher health insurance premiums.

  • And pierce brosnan portrayed it.

  • Best Band Name Ever â
  • I guess I'll just have to use the beat the flush method for a while longer until they develop a buttprint reader that works while standing.

  • Yes, it's proof that everyone's an @sshole at one time or another in their lives.

    I don't give a shit.

  • ...I will be wearing a diaper, just in case.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Well, isn't this a shitty scenario.

  • What happens when it sees goatse?

  • I thought this was Easter, not April Fools.

  • I can see if you're an asshole w/o this.

  • For some people they don't have to sit down. They are an asshole so it can pick them up as soon as they enter the toilet.

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