[CNS News] In his latest report on federal government waste, a project he completes every year, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) highlights $54.7 billion in government spending that he deems wasteful. Among the items noted this year is the creation of a $6.9 million "smart toilet," which operates with three cameras, one of which can identify a user's "analprint."
As explained in The Festivus Report 2020, researchers at Stanford University used $6,973,057 in funds granted through the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to create a so-called "smart toilet."
The purpose of the toilet is to develop “easily deployable hardware and software for the long-term analysis of a user’s excreta through data collection and models of human health," state the researchers in an abstract.
"Each user of the toilet is identified through their fingerprint and the distinctive features of their anoderm [anus], and the data are securely stored and analysed in an encrypted cloud server," state the researchers.
"The toilet operates with artificial intelligence, includes three cameras (including one video camera), and features a urinalysis strip," according to the Festivus Report. "The toilet’s AI collects the health data and then stores it in a digital cloud system." |