
Lixil AI-Based Toilet Analyzes Shape and Size of Feces with Camera and LEDs - homarp
https://www.cnx-software.com/2019/10/29/lixil-ai-based-toilet-analyzes-shape-size-of-feces-with-camera-leds/
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azinman2
Hardly the first incarnation of this... and 80% accuracy doesn't sound very
good. That's wrong more than once a week!

So why haven't these kinds of toilets taken off? Too hard to modify existing
toilets? People don't care? Technology isn't there?

Seems like for those that are really interested, it isn't _too_ hard to just
manually keep a log (pun intended).

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awinter-py
80% accuracy is potentially fine for a time series, assuming the errors are
random rather than specific to a user. You can denoise this stuff, and the
recognizer should get better as the sample size grows.

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droithomme
I already monitor methane, humidity, and CO2 levels in the bathroom and log
them, this looks like a great addition to my system. No doubt as always I'll
be accused of criminal behavior at this point, especially with the whole
"camera in the bathroom where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy"
legal issue. I contend that is _not_ an issue for "safety" monitoring such as
gas levels. If I do implement an AI toilet cam, be assured it will point
downwards not upwards. I agree an upwards pointing camera would be an extreme
and egregious violation of privacy and rightly should be illegal and
prosecutable. I contend though that photographing waste materials after they
are disposed of is legal without consent or notification. And the company
manufacturing the toilet cam product OP linked to obviously agrees completely
with me and has a team of lawyers backing it up otherwise they wouldn't have
spent a fortune developing this commercial toilet cam. (They say they are not
commercializing the prototype in its current state, but they indicate the tech
will be incorporated into future commercial products.) Also worth noting that
my system and this system do not identify people using the toilet, unlike the
legal and commercial "Therapy Bidet" which connects to the toilet user's
Bluetooth to provide control at which point it obtains personally identifiable
information. Amazing that that one is considered legal.

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Y_Y
I think if you can monitor your gas levels with a regular camera then those
levels are much much too high.

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droithomme
Why would you say something like that? Gas levels are monitored using gas
sensors and an R-Pi custom monitoring station. There's no camera. I pointed
this out. Reasonable expectations of privacy prohibit cameras in the bathroom.
I contend though they don't prohibit diagnostic fecal cameras. Up cameras bad,
down cameras not only good, but excellent and helpful. Safety gas sensors and
logging are not illegal under any interpretation of privacy laws. I have every
right to monitor dangerous gas levels, humidity and temperature in every room
of my house without obtaining consent or notifying any visitor. The people
here that have in the past claimed I am a criminal for doing monitoring have
yet to make their legal case or as I have asked them to, to file a criminal
complaint against me and my system. This is because they are armchair lawyers
who have no case and little understanding of the law. They just like to badger
innocent people who are not committing any crimes on the internet because
that's what these sorts of armchair lawyers and busybodies do.

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retrac
Running with the argument for a bit, I'd point out that such analysis reveals
considerable biomedical data. Along with timing data on who uses the restroom,
invasion of medical privacy would not be very hard.

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droithomme
An old friend and myself have had some extremely heated debates about whether
the genomic sequence data his company collects from people and sells to
everyone is biomedical data. I say that it is and is covered under HIPAA. He
claims that is absurd and unreasonable and that genome sequences are simply
not personal private medical data regulated under HIPAA. Many others in these
debates have also disagreed with me and rebuked me claiming that even complete
genomic data is not covered under HIPAA and is simply not personal medical
information. I don't recall ever having a single supporter in my claim that a
person's genome is private medical data.

Yet perhaps some of these happy to hate on me in the past and denounce my
unreasonable opinion that genomes are medical data would now criticize me for
monitoring conditions and levels of gases in my own private home as well as
that of waste disposed of. Courts have repeatedly ruled that in disposing of
cellular materials such as blood and sperm one gives up any rights to privacy.
These materials can be collected from trash without a warrant. The reasonable
expectation of privacy simply does not apply to things one has thrown away.

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retrac
> I don't recall ever having a single supporter in my claim that a person's
> genome is private medical data.

Huh. In Canada, that's a settled question. It is, at least with regard to e.g.
a medical record that contains genetic information. We're also looking at laws
which prohibit discrimination on the basis of genetic information.

Though more directly to what you're talking about, I think it is in fact legal
for a private citizen to collect discarded biological material from a person
and sequence it. A company would be prohibited, however. I am not a lawyer,
though.

> The reasonable expectation of privacy simply does not apply to things one
> has thrown away.

That can be fixed by statute. While the law is similar here in that items
discarded are no longer protected by the constitution regarding search and
seizure, statute prohibits a company, for example, from collecting banking
information from discarded paperwork in the recycling.

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matmann2001
You gotta be shitting me...

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ratsmack
It had to be said.

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awinter-py
this is the most important timeseries in health and we are literally flushing
it down the toilet

changes in stool can tell you if your diet is right, if you're drinking too
much, and are predictive for some specific diseases

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sjg007
Interesting factoid, I saw at a science museum that the Germans were really
interested in stool shape and color as a sign of health and designed a toilet
with a shelf for viewing the stool before flushing.

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LargoLasskhyfv
You know... I grew up with them, they are called 'Flachspüler' vs. the now
common 'Tiefspüler'. From personal experience they were common up to 1990 or
2000. After this not so much anymore. Anyways, it had pros and cons, as
everything. Pro: \- no splashing up to your behind from stuff dropping down
into your piss. \- acessability for getting samples for medical 'shitworks'
(not much of a factor, i had that maybe 5 times in my life?) Cons: Stinky,
because 'open air', could be compensated by flushing early, multiple times.

Just for reasons of anti-stinkiness i prefer the 'modern' ones, and where i
once placed a leaf of toilet paper into the bowl before using it to avoid too
much cleaning, i now place a leaf of toilet paper into it to avoid
'upsplashing'.

Regarding cleaning, they usually were connected directly to high pressure
piping, which roared liked the Niagara Falls trough it. Solutions with some
tank up the ceiling with gravity assist were seen as inferior, and i may have
seen them only a few times?

Never mind, back to topic:

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_stool_scale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_stool_scale)

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alexfromapex
If someone poops on the camera I guess it’s all over

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rolph
i think rule 34 may rear its head and howl soon.

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elmolino89
Frankly who gives a s--t?

More seriously: it is a serious idea. Easy to spot first signs of a diarrhea
outbreak on a cruise ship, refugee camp, etc.

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mdszy
Memes become reality.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ)

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stuqqq
I feel sorry for those who did labeling for this company’s AI algorithm.

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scohesc
Maybe they used Amazon's Mechanical Turd offering!

