Featured Image Credit: Kohler
Tiny security cameras might be useful for protecting your home, but ones pointed inside your toilet? That sounds invasive.
However, one company is making this uncomfortable reality happen and they insist there's a good reason for it.
Plumbing company Kohler expanded into a health and fitness brand called Kohler Health and developed a small camera to be installed inside your toilet.
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The product, called Dekoda, costs $599 and clamps over the toilet rim like a toilet bowl cleaner, pointing an optical sensor at the bowl to analyse your waste.
The technology is capable of detecting blood in your excretions and assessing your gut health and hydration status.
When nature calls, you sign in via a fingerprint sensor so the device knows who's using the toilet. The device has a removable, rechargeable battery and connects via USB for charging.
After you've finished your business, you can check the accompanying app for the day's analysis and track health trends over time. Although probably wait until you're off the toilet before diving into your health data.
To access your health data, you'll need the Kohler Health mobile app, which is currently available for iOS, with an Android version coming soon and a paid Kohler Health membership.
The subscription starts at $6.99 per month ($70 per year) for individual access, or $12.99 per month ($130 per year) for a family plan that accommodates up to five users.
Given the intimate nature of what's being monitored, Kohler prioritises the privacy of its users.
The company promises to secure your data through the fingerprint scanner, end-to-end encryption, and the use of 'discreet optics' by the camera. This means focusing only on the results and not on your body parts.
"Dekoda's sensors see down into your toilet and nowhere else," the company stated, adding that the technology doesn't work very well with dark coloured toilets.
People on social media are shocked and, in many cases, disgusted at the revolutionary yet disturbing technology.
"Goddammit why is this the future we’re getting? What happened to jet packs and flying cars?" one Reddit user questioned.
"Ngl it would be very cool if our toilets could analyze our gut health for us but in this timeline that tech is almost guaranteed to be used against us in cartoonishly evil ways," another user wrote.
Some people could see past the ick to appreciate the tech's potential health applications.
"Not sure about the camera but a toilet that can analyze poop and pee for illness or nutritional health I'm all for," a third user shared.
