Toilets can track your health

The benefits of installing a camera in your toilet bowl might not be immediately apparent, but a startup called Throne (not to be confused with Throne Labs) says “let us explain.”

The company (which counted Morning Brew co-founder Austin Rief among its early investors) recently raised $4 million for its smart camera positioned in a toilet that helps monitor users’ health. The camera is pointed at the contents of the bowl. And it transmits visuals that most people would rather not look at to an AI model that it says can analyze users’ hydration levels, make inferences about gut health, and even detect early signs of disease.

Crowded toilets

Throne’s potty camera, which it aims to start selling next year, will have some competition:

• Wearable tech company Withings is bringing the U-Scan home urine analyzer to markets around the world. It’s an in-toilet device that tests urine for certain biomarkers, like ketone and Vitamin C levels, and then uses the results to provide nutritional advice.
• Toi Labs, backed by the National Institutes of Health and Toto, is selling the TrueLoo toilet seat, which also uses imaging to scan feces and urine for health clues, for $350. The device, which CEO Vik Kashyap likens to “a team of doctors that can peer into your toilet bowl every day,” is already installed in 50 senior living facilities.

It’s an opportune time…for bathroom-based tracking devices, as gastrointestinal disease is becoming more prevalent. But the companies involved have all had to address privacy concerns associated with data collection.—SK