A mountable toilet system for personalized health monitoring via the analysis of excreta

Abstract

Technologies for the longitudinal monitoring of a person's health are poorly integrated with clinical workflows, and have rarely produced actionable biometric data for healthcare providers. Here, we describe easily deployable hardware and software for the long-term analysis of a user's excreta through data collection and models of human health. The 'smart' toilet, which is selfcontained and operates autonomously by leveraging pressure and motion sensors, analyses the user's urine using a standard-of-care colorimetric assay that traces red-green-blue values from images of urinalysis strips, calculates the flow rate and volume of urine using computer vision as a uroflowmeter, and classifies stool according to the Bristol stool form scale using deep learning, with performance that is comparable to the performance of trained medical personnel. Each user of the toilet is identified through their fingerprint and the distinctive features of their anoderm, and the data are securely stored and analysed in an encrypted cloud server. The toilet may find uses in the screening, diagnosis and longitudinal monitoring of specific patient populations.

Current and Perspective Diagnostic Techniques for COVID-19

“…Systems with cameras, pressure and motion sensors, and urinalysis strips have been used for health monitoring. 128 The robot can work in risky environments, thereby relieving the pressure on the frontline medical staff. The AI robot is capable of collecting throat swabs.…”

Stool pattern is associated with prevalence of tumorigenic bacteria of the microbiota and plasma and fecal fatty acids in healthy Japanese adults

“…Our results also suggest that stool pattern might be a marker associated with the prevalence of tumorigenic bacteria in healthy individuals. Longitudinal objective monitoring of a person's stool status from serial samples taken from an individual's excreta at home, as previously suggested [27], may be the most reasonable and costeffective method for early detection of risk factors of CRC.…”

Smart Sanitation—Biosensors as a Public Health Tool in Sanitation Infrastructure

“…This toilet system is expected to have a major impact on health monitoring research, as the toilet enables longitudinal monitoring of human health with minimal interference of human behavior. It enables patients to reliably obtain data for their own health as well as enabling investigators to conduct large clinical trials.” [ 26 ]…”

“…Specifically concerning sensors in toilets, the effects of environmental variables, including whether the user was standing or sitting and the presence of irregular airflow, could affect the biosensor results [ 25 , 26 , 31 , 38 ]. One paper explicitly mentioned that while user acceptability of biosensors in toilets “was within an acceptable range,” participants expressed concerns about “privacy protection and data security” as well as the use of cameras identifying toilet users by “analprint recognition” [ 26 ]. Authors also raised concerns about the need to validate the lifetime of the biosensor in hot operating environments [ 24 ].…”

“…Additionally, there were some limitations that were only mentioned in a few papers (such as data privacy and impracticalities for low-resource settings [ 25 , 26 ]), while some limitations were not mentioned explicitly but are feasible (such as the potentially high costs related to biosensor technology or installation [ 26 , 27 ]). One paper also reported that “it is uncertain whether the algorithm [that was used with the biosensor to detect ‘likely defecation events’] detects child feces disposal, child latrine training and menstrual [health] management events as ‘likely defecation events’,” which is also a notable limitation [ 25 ].…”