We have smart phones, smart cars, smart watches and…smart toilets?
Well, now we do.
Seung-min Park’s Stanford Toilet captured an Ig Nobel Prize. The device uses a variety of technological enhancements to a standard toilet—including a urinalysis dipstick test strip, a computer vision system for defecation analysis, an anal-print sensor paired with an ID camera, and a telecommunications link—to monitor and evaluate human excrement.
The idea for an analprint, in particular, came from Salvador Dalí, who discovered that “the anus has 35 or 37 creases, which are as unique as fingerprints,” Park wrote in a blog post. The attachable prototype device uses a Raspberry Pi paired with a camera to capture each person’s unique analprint as they sit down to use the toilet.
Since the smart toilet is an add-on to a standard toilet, the technology could cost anywhere from $300 to $600 when it is eventually manufactured, according to Park.
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