101 Things That Can Be Different In the Future: #4 Toilets

Are you ready for a world in which your toilet communicates with your physician?

Eva Tomas Casado

May 3, 2022 — 5 min read

Have you ever traveled to a country where a toilet is still a luxury? Well, I have. Some time back I did a backpackers trip through rural southern Africa. Being from one of the wealthiest countries in the world, the existence of a water closet, connected to plumbing, with running water is something I somehow never questioned until this trip.

But there I was, in the open field, behind a caravan, relieving myself into a hole in the ground.

Only these experiences make you realize what wealth really means. It is not about the tenth pair of jeans in your closet. Or the most fashionable sneakers available. It is about stepping into a shower with running, hot and clean water, a private hygienic toilet, and the ability to brush your teeth with clean water on a daily basis. And not to forget a hygienic toilet, for the regular calls of nature that occur.

But the reality of our days is that still, 60% of the world's population does not have access to this kind of luxury. No access to hygienic toilets, in fact, 6% of the world's population still has to go out into the woods to release themselves(1).

There is also the aspect of water consumption. The average toilet flush uses approx. 5l of water. Take a shower, depending of course how extensive you are celebrating this ritual, around 60l (assuming around 8min of showering time).

Our hygienic routines are therefore not only a question of sanitation and health but do have a significant impact on our footprint on this planet (especially when you take into account that in a lot of countries, you flush the toilet still with drinking water).

This is the first point where technology entered already the most private parts of our home — smart toilets.

Smart toilets, as the name indicates, use technology to optimize water consumption. It is reported that they can save half of the water in comparison to a conventional “dumb” toilet. That is a big deal, considering that toilet flushing is one of the main water consumption of a standard household!

But as it goes with our tech affinity these days: this is not where it stops.

Currently, the tech features are limited to gadgets: heated seats, automated flushing, butt drier, integrated loudspeakers, and even odor control and self-cleaning.

It is all about comfort, don’t you think?

But let’s go back for a moment to the other half of the world. The one which does not have access to any toilet at all (you forgot about this half already, getting stuck with air-drying your butt, didn’t you?). Clearly, they will not benefit from any of those trends.

In fact, unsafe sanitation is still responsible for almost 775,000 deaths per year, because poor sanitation leads to the spread of a lot of highly infectious diseases, which again in our western world are deemed easy treatable. But combined with malnutrition, no access to health care, or clean water, those diseases are deadly.

For several years there are projects ongoing in rural African countries, like Zimbabwe and Mozambique, where eco-friendly toilets are installed. These toilets are water-free and produce compost, which can be used as viable fertilizer for agricultural purposes.

Although the solutions are existing, programs move slowly due to a lack of funding.

On the opposite research on smart toilets is ongoing.

Besides the above-mentioned comfort attributes, smart toilets are considered one of the medical home tech devices of the future.

The focus of the research is, on how to include sensor technology in the toilet, in order to real-time analyze the urine and the stool, to gain valuable health information.

Sound science fiction, right?

Well, it isn’t.

In China, Panasonic developed together with a Chinese health tech company, a smart toilet, which analyzes your urine, like the standard test you would take at the doctor. Furthermore, it analyzes other body parameters like BMI, body fat, muscle mass, and more (2).

The results of the analysis are transferred directly onto your smartphone or can be displayed on the “magic” mirror installed opposite the toilet.

Although the push for this development was the fact, that the Chinese are very conservative when it comes to visiting a doctor, Panasonic includes this technology in their smart home offering and has a vision, that while brushing your teeth you check your parameters.

This product is already on the market.

But Panasonic is not the only company developing in this field.

The idea to use excremental analysis for preventive health care is pushing those innovations. There are already reports on successes using visual sensing technology to analyze your stool. Even the dropping speed and consistency, combined with how you sit on these devices can be used for the evaluation of your health (3).

The vision here is, that your toilet can support you in keeping up a healthy diet, and a healthy lifestyle in general.

At its extreme, this technology can detect pregnancies, drug use, alcohol use, and similar and can alarm your physician in case anything is significantly wrong.

Sounds great, doesn't it? One shit per day keeps the doctor away, as the saying goes.

But: where there is light, there is shadow.

Think about it from this perspective: would you want that your employer is installing a device like this? Even if in theory, results are only accessible to you, who is telling you where this data is stored.

As in so many things in our modern tech age, there is no legislation fully addressing these circumstances.

So no one has done the thinking for you so far. You need to make up your own mind.

Are you ready for a world in which your toilet communicates with your physician?

This article is part of the series 101 Things that can be different in the future. If you are interested in any specific topic or have other signals to show please comment or reach out to me

Eva Tomas Casado

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