When you wake up, the first place you go is the bathroom. The fact that this happens every day also means that consistent data can be gathered there. We can read health information from the data collected by the smart toilet.
On the 13th, in a Zoom video interview, Professor Park Seung-min from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore said this. Professor Park has already gained global fame for his research on toilets. He received the Ig Nobel Prize in the institutional sector of public health for his smart toilet research published in the 'Annals of Improbable Research' by Harvard University in 2023.
The Ig Nobel Prize parodies the prestigious Nobel Prize in the scientific community. However, it does not take the selection of winners lightly. Although researching toilet use brings laughter, it also provides a serious opportunity to consider it as a means of early disease diagnosis in daily life. Professor Park's ideas are becoming a reality.
Professor Park and his research team announced on the 11th that they confirmed health information from actual users using the smart toilet developed in 2020. The smart toilet is a system that automatically collects users' defecation information with built-in sensors and stores and analyzes it in real-time in the cloud.
The idea for the smart toilet came from a movie. In the 2005 film 'The Island,' the protagonist checks their health status using urine analysis results in the morning. There is also a scene where bacon is excluded from the diet due to high sodium levels in the urine. Professor Park explained, "I wanted to bring the imagination from the movie to reality, converting the natural elimination of waste into health information instead of the cumbersome blood tests."
Using data from 11 individuals who used the smart toilet over 12 days, Professor Park's research team obtained various biomarkers. This included the time taken to sit on the toilet until the first defecation, the frequency and intervals of defecation, the thickness, texture, and color of the credit entry, the timing of final elimination, and the time taken to finish using toilet paper. The researchers noted that the time from the final elimination to the use of toilet paper could be associated with the feeling of residual waste.
Professor Park explained, "Previously, patients had to keep a bowel diary for 2 to 3 weeks or doctors had to gather information through interviews, but in this research, we were able to obtain accurate real-time data through an automated method."
The most notable indicator was the time it took for the credit entry to fall. The speed of the descent is directly related to viscosity. The hypothesis that constipation leads to slower speeds and diarrhea to faster speeds was confirmed in actual data. Professor Park stated, "By measuring the speed of elimination in hours, we were able to objectively assess intestinal health, which could lead to early diagnosis and prevention of diseases such as constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, and chronic diarrhea."
In reality, one participant showed normal values in the first week, but as time went on, the defecation time became delayed and symptoms of constipation appeared, such as thicker stools. Although he was not aware of it, changes were evident in the data collected by the toilet. Professor Park explained, "Intervention can occur early without the user realizing it, enabling dietary adjustments or medication prescriptions to manage the condition."
There were also cases where two cohabitants exhibited similar diarrhea patterns. Professor Park noted, "This may be because living together leads to similar eating habits, and if the diarrhea pattern keeps appearing, it is necessary to check the intestinal environment or reactions to specific foods."
The research team plans to unveil a prototype next month and install it in two hospitals in Korea to collect patient data. They aim for commercialization in the first half of next year. Since the procedure for obtaining medical device approval is complicated, it will initially be used as a health management product.
Professor Park stated, "With a high bidet penetration rate, Korea is an optimal environment for testing the smart toilet," expressing intentions to target the domestic market first. There are also plans to expand into the U.S. and European markets, starting with Korea and Singapore.
The ultimate goal of the smart toilet research is to capture signs of illness before doctors do and to continuously monitor the user's health status, even if they are unaware of it. Professor Park said, "What we pursue is 'precision health' that goes beyond 'precision medicine.'"
He stated, "The aim is to grasp health conditions in real-time before they transition into diseases, and to realize health management centered on early prediction and prevention by integrating various data such as genetic information and lifestyle habits," adding, "That starting point could be that very place that nobody has paid attention to, the toilet."
References
Advanced Science(2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202503247
Advanced Science(2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.71162