As the aging of the population is one of the most important transformations of society according to the World Health Organization, the company Google is looking to rethink the bathroom and would like to make it a space that is not limited to hygiene, but also the health of its occupants. The firm has just filed a patent presenting several innovations related to the connected bathroom.
Sensors to replace consultation
In this bathroom of the future, sensors in the carpet, the bathtub or on the toilet seat would be able to monitor and measure the user’s health day after day. Each object would thus be designed to assess health conditions in order to follow the evolution of the cardiovascular, nervous, muscular systems … and to be able to detect any abnormalities.
And it does not stop there: the bathtub would evaluate the movements of internal tissues from sound waves; the mirror could record its user’s skin color over the year to infer their blood volume, and the toilet could even measure blood pressure using various sensors. With the user’s consent, this information could even be directly transmitted to a health professional, such as a general practitioner.
An invention far from concrete
This bathroom of the future is currently only at the patent stage. A common technique used by large tech companies is to immediately patent any idea that might prove useful in the near future in order to secure ownership. It remains for Google to convince of its good intentions regarding the recovery of the data of its users if it wants to one day realize its dream of a medical bathroom.
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