Spy fears over ‘smart’ wee-tracking loo
SPENDING a penny could become rather revealing after the invention of an ‘intelligent’ lavatory that could alert parents if their children are taking drugs, or employers if their staff have had a boozy lunch.
Scientists are developing a loo that analyses urine by using revolutionary nanotechnology to track chemical and hormonal changes.
After it is used, the loo can – within minutes – transmit the results of its tests to a mobile phone or laptop, which could show if the person is depressed, pregnant, a smoker or using alcohol or drugs.
The unit’s developers will this week unveil a prototype at a London science exhibition. But amid concerns about the ‘Big Brother’ use of personal information, they will also discuss the ethics of the toilet and the potential of its data being shared.The debate will include a survey seeking people’s views on a range of imagined scenarios.
One of these is a gossip magazine revealing that Prince Harry’s wife Meghan is pregnant after she unwittingly uses a loo fitted with the device. Another scenario imagines a teenager trying to stop data showing her heavy alcohol intake being automatically sent to her parents.
The intelligent loo – developed by the NanoPhotonics Centre and the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis and showcased by the EPSRC NanoDTC centre at Cambridge – works by funnelling urine through a small device containing gold or silver nanoparticles, each a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair. Tiny molecules from the urine are trapped between the particles, allowing them to be vibrated and analysed by laser beams.
Jeremy Baumberg, professor of nano science at Cambridge and director of the NanoPhotonics Centre, accepted that the intelligent loo – expected to be priced at about £1,000 – could be surreptitiously installed by companies to check on their employees or by suspicious spouses.
But he said the potential benefits were ‘immense’, with people able to better monitor their own health and spot mental or physical issues earlier. He suggested that data from the tests could also be sent to GPs so they could adapt the dosage of medicines and prevent illness.