Saturday, July 14, 2007

Smart Toilet Checks On Your Health

Not just to relieve yourself: The call of nature can turn into an interactive medical checkup with the Intelligence Toilet, which can check your blood pressure, urine protein, weight and body fat on the control panel. Photos: AFP


Health checks from your doctor could be replaced by visits to the bathroom, thanks to a smart toilet developed by a Japanese company.

Now the call of nature can turn into a medical checkup.

The "Intelligence Toilet" system, created by Japan's largest toilet company, Toto, can measure sugar levels in urine, blood pressure, body fat and weight.

The toilet, which starts at $3,500, was developed by Toto in conjunction with homebuilder Daiwa House Industry.

Users begin their toilet-room medical at the built-in urine analyzer, which collects five cubic centimeters (0.15 fluid ounces) of urine before analyzing sugar levels. The device cleans itself automatically after the one-minute long test.

Users then move to the blood pressure monitor, within arm's reach of the toilet, then weigh themselves on a set of scales in front of the basin and measure their body mass index (BMI) after washing their hands.

Once results are taken, they are transferred to a home network, and analyzed on a computer spreadsheet.

Advice about diet and exercise is then dispensed, without any human intervention.

Daiwa's chairman came up with the idea after having medical care nine years ago and the company has already sold 100 of the machines.

"When our chairman was hospitalized, he saw many people coming in to have tests and returning home with lots of medicine. It made him want to build a house where you can have health checks," Daiwa House spokesman Miki Chino told AFP.

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