Throne is a health startup based in Austin. We sell cameras. It clips onto the side of the toilet bowl. Take a picture of your poop. The system, currently in beta, uses artificial intelligence to test your dog as a way to determine things like gut health and hydration.
It turns out you can learn an amazing amount from logs.
Sloan calls the underlying technology “artificial gut intelligence.” The company says the AI is “trained by doctors to understand what your waste is trying to tell you about your health.” Doctors look for various signs of health in waste products, such as urinary “nuances” to determine hydration levels.
The company is quick to point out that the images are “anonymized.” TechCrunch reached out to the company to learn more about what Throne is doing to address the security and privacy red flags that always come up when discussing toilet cameras.
Image credit: Throne
At TechCrunch's request, the company posted a “Privacy & Security” page on Friday outlining some of these measures. At the top of that list is undoubtedly the common question of what exactly Sloane is recording and how is she using those images? The camera is mercifully trained on the bowl.
“We only capture images of the contents of the toilet bowl,” Sloan wrote. “Other data is irrelevant to our mission and could compromise our ability to provide accurate health insights. We use image recognition technology to automatically remove irrelevant images. This ensures that only toilet-related data is retained.
Users can request full access to their data to see what kind of trash Throne is collecting. We will also delete everything upon request. All data is encrypted on the company's servers using TLS 1.2 or higher.
“We do not access personal data,” Sloan added. “Our team only analyzes aggregated, anonymized data, which means data cannot be traced back to the original user, you.”
Few people expect to get into the toilet camera business. That much can be said about Throne's founder. CEO Scott Hinkle told TechCrunch that the startup started as a marketplace for medical staffing, but quickly realized it was entering an already crowded field.
Image credit: Throne
Shortly after raising its first $1.2 million from investors including Night Capital, Rief Ventures, and Hustle Fund, the company found itself at a crossroads.
“Within six weeks, we came to the painful realization that the market was saturated and not a sandbox we wanted to be in. So we reversed course, and our investors “They were surprisingly cool about working on consumer hardware,” Hinkle said.
The throne didn't just rotate. It pivoted to poop. The company focuses on both older adults and people with chronic gastrointestinal conditions such as Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and IBS.
If that sounds like you, and you can get past the idea of installing a camera in your toilet, Throne's system will be available for pre-order after a limited beta. The current price for the smart toilet camera is $499, but if you want to buy it early, the company is offering it for $299.