Kohler’s new Dekoda health sensor peers inside your toilet

Knowing what’s coming out of your body can be just as useful for maintaining a healthy lifestyle as being choosy about what goes into it. As part of a new initiative focused on “turning the bathroom into a connected, data-informed health and wellness hub,” Kohler has announced a health tracker called the Dekoda you attach to your toilet. It’s designed to peer into the bowl using sensors and analyze what it sees using algorithms to provide insights into your hydration and gut health, and it will discreetly notify you when blood is detected which can be indicative of more serious medical issues.

The Kohler Dekoda system, which includes the sensor itself, a magnetic charging pad, and a wall-mounted remote, is available for preorder now for $599 with shipping expected to start on October 21st. The collected health data is made available through the mobile Kohler Health app — which is currently available for iOS and coming soon to Android — but only with a Kohler Health membership that’s $6.99 per month or $70 per year for single users, or $12.99 per month or $130 per year for a family plan that accommodates up to five users.

The Dekoda is designed to be installed on the rim of most toilet bowls using a simple expanding clamping mechanism, although Kohler warns it will not work on darker colored toilets where the lighting is reduced. On the outside of the bowl, you’ll find most of the electronics and a magnetic battery that can be removed for charging instead of having to completely uninstall the Dekoda.

On the inside you’ll find advanced optical sensors that use spectroscopy to “observe how light interacts with your waste.” To ensure privacy, the sensors are angled down so they only see what’s inside the toilet bowl. The data shared to the app, which includes the frequency, consistency, and shape of your waste, is end-to-end encrypted, and the Dekoda uses a fingerprint sensor on its wall-mounted remote to differentiate multiple users.

The data shared through the Kohler Health app based on the Dekoda’s findings over several days can make you aware of when you should be hydrating more frequently or how dietary changes could improve your digestion or nutrient absorption. And while the system can’t provide details on the origin of blood detected in your waste, it helps ensure the potentially serious symptom doesn’t go unnoticed so you can get it checked out by a doctor and dealt with sooner rather than later.