Earlier this year, we wrote about machine learning & image processing in embedded systems using pasta type classification as an example.
Lixil Group, a Japanese company manufacturing housing equipment, is working on a concept using similar technology, but instead of classifying pasta, they implemented the technology into an AI-based toilet that checks the shape and size of feces of people living in elderly facilities.
Lixil’s toilet was unveiled at the 46th International Home Care & Rehabilitation Exhibition (HCR 2019) in Tokyo at the end of last month. The system relies on a camera and two LED’s placed on the back of the seat, which turn on when the user sits on the seat. Once the job is done, images of the feces are taken automatically and classified into seven categories as specified by the Bristol stool chart.
Classification happens within a few seconds, and results can be check by staff members using a computer or tablet. The goal is probably to improve services, as staffers would then know if a patient has diarrhea for example.
You’ll probably be glad to know the AI toilet was tested on Lixil’s employees with 3,000 images, and judgment accuracy is now 80% or higher.
Lixil plans to conduct a verification test at an elderly facility in Q2 2020, but somehow Nikkei XTech reports the company is not planning to commercialize the system. Maybe that means the current prototype will not be manufactured, but eventually, the technology may be implemented in future AI-based toilets from the company.
If somehow you’d like to get your own smart toilet at home, to control it from your smartphone instead of the buttons in the unit, we previously covered Bluetooth LE controlled Kohler Novita therapy bidet.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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