I’ve been uncomfortable ever since I learned (via TechCrunch) about this toilet seat with a camera that takes pictures of your poop. Courtesy of an Austin-based health startup, Throne, this seat is currently available to preorder for $299 or $499 if you purchase it after the preorder period ends. It’s in beta mode at the moment.
The concept is to photograph your feces so the seat can provide feedback on your gut health and hydration levels. It’s powered by an AI model that Throne calls “artificial gut intelligence.” According to the company, the AI is “trained by physicians to help you understand what your waste is trying to tell you about your health.” This makes the seat suitable for folks with gut health issues but could also help perfectly healthy people.
Of course, the biggest concern here is privacy, which Throne has tried its best to defend. It has a dedicated privacy and security page on the site that outlines everything it’s done to ensure it. First, it promises the images to strictly capture the toilet bowl and nothing else, adding, “We use image recognition technology to automatically delete any non-relevant images” and “Any other data is irrelevant to our mission and could compromise our ability to provide accurate health insights.”
It also mentions that you can contact the company here at any time to request access to your information or demand an account deletion. Throne clarifies that the images are all anonymized and not shared with third parties.
Despite the many security measures, I’m unsure how I’d feel about this incredibly invasive tech clipping onto my toilet seat. As someone with no gut health issues, I don’t have much reason to go for it, but it’d be interesting to show this to my perpetually constipated sister and see if it’s something she’d ever consider.
TechCrunch mentions that Throne started as a healthcare staffing marketplace but soon realized the space was overly saturated. It then pivoted to producing consumer tech and chose a camera-installed toilet seat as its debut.
Toilet seats can really do it all these days. I recently checked out Toto’s new washlet that does a ridiculous number of things for you, including auto-opening and closing, pre-misting the bowl before use, heating up, washing and drying your butt and the seat, deodorizing the air when you’re done with your business, among many other functions. So maybe a toilet that’ll tell you if your poop is healthy doesn’t seem too much of a stretch.
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