Well, who would have thought it!
Shortly after I posted this, a couple who’ve been quarantined in their cabin ( with a balcony, lucky thangs) maintain their AI toilet has been the most fascinating and functionally wonderful part of their Wuhan corona virus experience! David and Sally, the duo team are recording each day of their enforced “imprisonment”, with 3,700 other passengers and crew on the Diamond Princess. |
They’ve seen fellow passengers taken off the ship infected with the Wuhan coronavirus, but have been giving daily updates to remain cheerful and supportive.
What does your future hold?
So it seems appropriate to catch up with another application of artificial intelligence (AI) in your home.
Fast forward and that infant has managed to live through all the stages in life except the final one. Usually there’s no one older than you to take care of you. Actually, often you don’t want anyone in that role anyway.
But you do start thinking about what remains of your future life. You’ve seen some of your peers lose their marbles and go into care homes. Heck, you’ve seen some of them with their full mind complement, but personal care becomes just a tad too much, and they go into care.
The alternative is to have care aides helping you at home as you desperately claw onto ways you can remain out of institutions.
Pooping: importance, front and center
What does a smart toilet do? Kohler, one of the manufacturers says it provides you with “fully-immersive experience” thanks to the many “lighting and audio enhancements” of the Numi 2.0 Intelligent Toilet. They’ll be able to set the mood, using voice commands to cue up music and customize the lighting, all while Kohler’s PureWarmth toilet seat add-on toasts their behind to their preferred temperature.
There’s a built-in Amazon Alexa so you have company during this private time. You can inquire about the weather, ask Alexa questions and play your favorite tunes while relieving yourself; there’s Bluetooth, a bidet and dryer. The whole thing is motion-activated, and hands free. Your job is just to go.
It seems like fun for the few, but there is a deeper need coming through the body pipeline.
The Japanese have had smart toilets since the early 2000’s. They have been preparing for what is already upon us. It is the forthcoming huge problem of too many elders,with too few doctors and caregivers who will be faced with care of them.
Scientists are already working on this.
Smart toilet medical benefits
Google was recently granted a patent for a toilet that would gauge a person’s blood pressure as they sit down. This is probably only a beginning step in their quest for complete health monitoring via toilets and people’s poo and wee.
Toi Labs, is currently testing its “TrueLoo” toilet seat in homes around the USA, and hopes to bring it to market in several years. This toilet seat, attaches to existing toilets, and works by scanning the excreta in toilets. It will analyze urine and stool for abnormalities in color, consistency, volume and frequency; future models will also chemically analyze the waste material.
Smart toilets don’t have to be worn, like a Fitbit. But they’re always there when you use them. And even though you just go and flush, they’re always working in the background, using cameras, chemical analysis and other techniques to keep you aware of your health before things go too far.
The iToilet project has come up with a toilet that can adjust the height and tilt of a toilet via voice commands and which has sensors to detect the safety of people using them. This relieves safety concerns with users and their caregivers, making them much more able to cope with this important daily need.
Inner thoughts about 'smart' toilets
But there’s one thing that baby had when someone got excited and tender about its first excreta. It was the love that went into the act of cleaning its little bottom. That’s something that no machine or robot can provide.
AI is here already. I don’t like to use it when it has taken jobs away, and is purely for profit, like bank tellers and grocery checkouts. Health applications seem wonderfully different on the face of it.
Proponents would argue AI used in this way would free human caregivers of end of life seniors, so they could supply the human touch and caring in other, more rewarding aspects of care.
In actual fact it may well be that love has been cast out in favour of even less human touch in health care. The inventions are designed to promote efficiency, not caring. And yet again, the bottom line is money and profit.