A Princeton University team developed a "smart toilet" designed to look for signs of illness in a user's waste. Image courtesy of Sanjiv S. Gambhir/Nature Biomedical Engineering

April 7 (UPI) -- A team of Stanford University scientists announced they have designed a "smart toilet" that identifies the user by the shape of their backside and monitors the health of their waste.

Lead researcher Sanjiv Gambhir said he and his team developed the Precision Health smart toilet to recognize users and use algorithms to analyze the health of their urination and bowel movements.


Gambhir said the toilet uses cameras and motion sensors to identify "a range of disease markers in stool and urine," including warning signs of various types of cancer.

The researchers said the toilet identifies users by reading their fingerprints from the flush lever, but it also uses cameras to identify them by another part of the body.

"We know it seems weird, but as it turns out, your anal print is unique," Gambhir said.

The toilet takes video of stool samples and uses algorithms to analyze the consistency of the waste.

The system also records urination and evaluates "flow rate, stream time and total volume."

"Everyone uses the bathroom -- there's really no avoiding it -- and that enhances its value as a disease-detecting device," Gambhir said.