What happens when you merge being health-conscious with AI (artificial intelligence), especially in relation to one’s digestive health? The words ‘poop camera’ might jump out at you then, probably the next step to health-tracking after smartwatches and smart rings that monitor our heartbeat and sleep.
These devices are a new wave of AI-powered smart toilets that analyse human waste to uncover insights about gut health, hydration, and even early signs of disease.
Kohler has recently been in the news for such devices of theirs, prompting to of course, a lot of debate, trolling and even meme fests. But how exactly do these poop cameras work, and do we really need one in our homes?
What Are These Poop Cameras?
Poop cameras are a new type of smart toilet attachments or sensors that help to analyse one’s waste, both stool and sometimes urine, to provide health insights.
The concept has come into the limelight after Kohler came out with their smart device called “Dekoda”, described as a smart toilet camera that analyses what you flush. Costing at an impressive USD 599 (Rs 55,722), this device is part of Kohler Health’s new plan to create a “connected, data-informed health and wellness hub.”
How it works is, with an adjustable clamp mechanism, Dekoka is clamped on the rim of the toilet bowl. Shaped like a small curved pod, the device uses an optical camera with spectroscopy sensors to collect data on what’s inside the bowl.
To ensure privacy, the main electronics are outside the bowl while the inside parts, including the camera and light sensors, are angled downward. This, as per Kohler, is so that “Dekoda’s sensors see down into your toilet and nowhere else.”
As per reports, the sensors use light analysis to “observe how light interacts with your waste” to determine metrics such as concentration, colour, possible traces of blood, and other attributes.
A wall-mounted remote with a fingerprint sensor for each individual user is used to activate each new session, and the camera and sensors activate when waste enters the bowl.
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Kash Kapadia, the CEO of Kohler Health, explained the idea behind this was quoted by The Guardian, saying, “People think waste is something you flush away, but it really contains a lot of insights about us. It literally comes from us, and now we can study it in a way that doesn’t require you to handle it.”
Kapadia further explained how it works, saying that “Right at the time when your urine hits the water level of the toilet, the camera will start flashing its LED light,” post which the pictures are uploaded to Kohler’s cloud and analysed through “proprietary algorithms”. This process takes about three to five minutes, and the results are then uploaded to the user’s app.
According to reports, all this data is end-to-end encrypted
Kohler is not the only one venturing into this area; an Austin-based health startup called Throne has also come out with their camera that can be clipped onto the side of a toilet bowl that will take pictures of one’s waste and send the data analysed to the user’s smartphone app.
As per a TOI report, “The device tracks metrics such as a user’s digestive pattern and even monitors urinary flow and hydration in real time, offering trends and personalised insights.”
But beyond just the absurdity of this concept, there is, as with anything related to cameras and AI these days, a very real concern for privacy and handling of sensitive intimate data.
Joana Gaia, a clinical professor of management science at the University at Buffalo, believes that poop cameras are not as invasive as Fitbit or Apple Watches, but they are still an area of concern since “Kohler is not a medical organisation, so they are not covered by Hipaa [the US law on medical privacy].”
Gaia added that, “The concern for me comes from what data [the Dekoda] collects… Who owns all this data, and what could they potentially do with it?”
Amanda Sauceda, a registered dietitian based in Long Beach, California, also commented on how recent scares created by an increase in colon cancer, especially among young people, have led to companies capitalising on it.
She said, “I think especially with the rise in colon cancer among young people, there are more conversations about actually looking at what is inside the toilet bowl. It’s another way [for companies] to capitalise on that.”
She further added that “I could see how these devices could make people obsessed with chasing the ‘ideal gut’” claiming that there are often misconceptions on what a healthy poop looks like, and obsessing over not having it could, in fact, be detrimental to one’s health.
Ashley Oswald, a Minneapolis-based registered dietitian, also commented, saying, “Is it even that useful to know about the bacteria in your stool when it could all change within two days?
We’re losing sight of the basics when we chase trends. It’s interesting and fun to track your poop, but how many people are doing things that significantly influence the gut, such as eating enough fiber or being active?”
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: The Guardian, Firstpost, Hindustan Times
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: Poop cameras, Poop cameras health fad, Poop tracking cameras, ai toilets, toilet camera, gut health, ai smart toilets, Poop camera gut health, health, health fad, health trend
Disclaimer: We do not hold any rights or copyright over any of the images used; these have been taken from Google. In case of credits or removal, the owner may kindly email us.
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