A New Toilet Can Diagnose Health Issues by Listening to Your Bowel Movements
If you feel like Alexa is already listening in too much, this product is NOT for you: A team at Georgia Tech came up with a device that straps to your toilet, and can diagnose health issues by listening to your BOWEL MOVEMENTS.
They did a presentation last week at the Acoustical Society of America’s annual meeting in Nashville.
It’s called the “Diarrhea Detector”. It uses A.I. to analyze the sounds happening inside your poor toilet bowl. And there’s a red light that clicks on if it detects something irregular. (Here’s a photo.)
It also records audio of each excretion, so it can be turned into data and tracked. They found that a healthy bowel movement usually makes a “singular tone,” while diarrhea is “more random.” (So, like a ga-LUNK sound, versus all-out war.)
For now, they want to use it in areas with lots of cholera, so doctors can know early if there’s an outbreak. But someday, they think the algorithm could be used in things like Alexa devices, so you could monitor your own health. (EurekAlert)
(Did someone have to listen to all the audio samples to make sure the A.I. was getting it right? Sounds like a job for the interns!)
