The Internet of Things (IoT) is covering the world with all kinds of devices for the home and industry. Tech prognosticator IDC estimates that by 2025 there will be 41.6 billion IoT devices. The market research firm predicts the IoT devices will dump 79.4 zettabytes (ZB) of data. One class of IoT device for the home has gotten a major upgrade from California’s Stanford. Stanford University medical researchers have created a smart toilet by adding artificial intelligence to the throne.
Before Stanford, the smart toilet was often the butt of jokes. The “smart toilet” offered ambient colored lighting, wireless Bluetooth music sync, heated seats, foot warmers, and automatic opening and closing lids. All nice but not really smart. The Stanford Precision Health Toilet (advanced Smart Toilet for healthcare) is really smart it can diagnose diseases.
Artificial intelligence on the toilet
The Stanford Precision Health Toilet project led by Lead author, Seung-min Park, Ph.D., published A mountable toilet system for personalized health monitoring via the analysis of excreta.” In the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, they describe a toilet designed to detect early warning signs of cancer and other diseases. The Stanford team believes it will be useful for people at an increased risk of developing certain health issues. Dr. Gambhir – a Ph.D., Stanford professor, chair of radiology, and the senior author of the research paper says that currently, the toilet can measure 10 different biomarkers. The device is fitted inside a regular toilet bowl and is connected to an app for evaluation. Dr. Gambhir envisions it as part of an average home bathroom. The sensors would be an add-on that’s easily integrated into “any old porcelain bowl.”
The extra-smart toilet uses cameras and test strips to collect number one and number two samples. It then analyzes both your pee and poo with artificial intelligence to generate diagnoses—a trend in the medical industry. Stanford News says the smart toilet’s algorithms “can distinguish normal ‘urodynamics.’ Urodynamics is the flow rate, stream time, and total volume, among other parameters of urine. The Smart toilet can also check “stool consistencies from those that are unhealthy.”
Changes in urine can reveal multiple disorders. The dipsticks can be used to analyze white blood cell count, consistent blood contamination. Certain levels of proteins, that can signify bad things. Including a spectrum of diseases, including infection, irritable bowel syndrome, kidney failure, bladder cancer, and prostate cancer.
A very unique biometric factor
The toilet’s built-in identification system uses fingerprints and analprints to identify users in order to match users to their data. Apparently, analprints turn out to be unique biometric factor like fingerprints or iris prints. Professor Gambhir said, “We know it seems weird, but as it turns out, your anal print is unique.” Stanford says no human will see you analprint biometric data. If the artificial intelligence detects something questionable the smart toilets’ app would alert the user’s healthcare team to conduct a full diagnosis and further tests.
The researchers are planning upgrades to the Precision Health Toilet. Mr. Park told The Verge the upcoming number two version of the toilet will help detect tumor DNA and viral RNA to help them track the spread of diseases like COVID-19. Dr. Gambhir told NakedSecurity his team is working to customize the toilet’s tests to fit a user’s individual needs. For example, a diabetic’s smart toilet could monitor glucose in the urine. Or if a person with a family history of bladder or kidney cancer could benefit by having a smart toilet that monitors for blood.
The Stanford researchers tested the toilet and more than half of their pilot test subjects were comfortable using the extra-smart toilet. 37% were “somewhat comfortable.” 15% were “very comfortable” with the idea of “baring it all in the name of precision health.”
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Using analprints to match your poo with you is based on “work” by 20th-century surrealist painter Salvador Dali. Stanford’s Gambhir pointed out in an interview with Bioengineering that Dali studied anal creases for his unconventional erotic art (NSFW).
Dr. Gambhir’s assurances that the health data would be stored with “privacy protections” in “secure, cloud-based systems.” Followers of the Bach Seat know that cloud-based systems is also known as “somebody else’s computer.” That sounds like a bad idea. We know cloud-based storage can be very leaky. And healthcare systems have come under increased attack during the COVID pandemic.
Another problem with the ultra-smart toilet. When the FBI gets hold of this data, they could literally be up in everybody’s business. The Feds could track people around the world coming and going by adding analprints to their massive facial recognition surveillance database.
Dr. Gambhir is quoted by NakedSecurity,
We have taken rigorous steps to ensure that all the information is de-identified when it’s sent to the cloud and that the information – when sent to health care providers – is protected under [HIPAA],…
NakedSecurity points out that time and time again Big Data can be dissected, compared, and contrasted to draw inferences about individuals. In other words, it’s not hard to re-identify people from anonymized records, be they records pertaining to location tracking, faceprints, or now-anuses. Dr. Gambhir reminds us all that while the Stanford Precision Health ultra-smart Toile has clear benefits as a diagnostic tool, it should not be a replacement for a doctor. Related article Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
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