A "Smart Toilet" will take photos of your poop and send it to the doctor. Scientists believe that it could be the long-lost answer to detecting several diseases.
It could be the missing piece to call your house a "smart home." But unlike most pieces in a futuristic abode, this toilet will be more than just convenience and fancy aesthetic -- it could literally save your life.
Also, the "Smart Toilet" is not a toilet itself; it is a technology that could fit inside the pipes of an existing water closet. And, after installation, it would take snaps of the feces before flushing.
The algorithm will use the photo to determine if there are any problems. Then, it will be tagging the poop as normal, constipated, loose, or even if it contains blood.
If it falls under the unusual category, it will be sent straight to doctors for further feces analysis.
"We are optimistic about patient willingness to use this technology because it's something that can be installed in their toilet's pipes and doesn't require the patient to do anything other than flush," Dr. Sonia Grego, one of the researchers said via the New York Post.
'Smart Toilet' and Bowel Complications
The said tech is a result of the minds of scientists from Duke University. They believe that their innovation, when fully developed, will be a lifesaver for millions of people from the undetected threat of colon cancer and other harmful conditions, New York Post reported.
Moreover, the device helps in the early detection of complications mainly found in the bowel system. It could also detect irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease before it gets worse.
Study Finds also reported that around 48 million Americans struggle in the toilet. As such, the "Smart Toilet" could at least prevent more people from adding to these upsetting statistics.
Impressive Scanning Tool for Feces Analysis
The Duke University researchers used pictures of people's feces found online or voluntarily provided by the participants to create the algorithm. The said photos were then sent to gastroenterologists, or doctors specializing in the digestive system, or the gastrointestinal tract to determine how to detect common complications from feces, Study Finds said in the same report.
According to the study, the deep-learning algorithm accurately categorized the stools.
Also, blood was detected 76.3% of the time. Hence, the "Smart Toilet" could only help people suffering from related diseases as it reported it to their doctors.
The said tech is not smart enough to replace medical professionals completely. So, it needs to send the unsavory photos to doctors for proper diagnosis.
The prototype of the "Smart Toilet" was shown in Digestive Disease Week 2021.
Separately, researchers of Stanford University have produced a different "Smart Toilet" to detect COVID-19 through a person's feces alone.
Related Article: COVID-19: Flushing May Send Out a Coronavirus-Filled 'Toilet Plume,' Research Shows
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Written by Teejay Boris
