Toilet bowl urine measurement instruments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10893852-B2
Application number	US-201615264989-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 14, 2016
Priority date	Sep 14, 2016
Publication date	Jan 19, 2021
Grant date	Jan 19, 2021

Abstract

A toilet with multiple urinalysis instruments is disclosed. Two or more of the optical instruments are able to take simultaneous measurements. Optical instruments may share a common light source. One or more light source may use amplitude modulation. A cleaning jet may be used to clean and dry a surface tension urine slot. An inductive heater may be used to preheat and control urine temperature while testing the urine.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A toilet comprising:
a bowl comprising:
a recess configured to trap urine
wherein the recess is in optical communication with a plurality of optical instruments;
wherein the recess is formed by a slit, having an open top, open ends, side walls, and a base; and
wherein the side walls at least partially comprise an optically transparent material and the base at least partially comprises an optically transparent material;

a flush mechanism;
one or more controllers;
programming stored on the one or more controllers instructing the flush mechanism to wait for the plurality of optical instruments to complete a urine measurement before actuating the flush mechanism;
wherein at least two of the plurality of optical instruments share a common light source and provide simultaneous measurements of the trapped urine in the recess; and
wherein the plurality of optical instruments comprises a refractometer, a spectrometer, a glucose polarimeter, and a turbidity detector.

2. The toilet of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of optical instruments includes at least two or more of: a laser scatterometer, a color detector, or a microscope.

3. The toilet of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the plurality of optical instruments comprises an amplitude modulated light source.

4. The toilet of claim 1 , wherein the at least two of the plurality of optical instruments share an amplitude modulated light source.

5. The toilet of claim 1 , wherein the recess comprises a trap region that traps urine via surface tension, the trap region comprising a longitudinal dimension in a longitudinal direction and a transverse dimension in an orthogonal transverse direction, the longitudinal dimension being at least twice the transverse dimension; wherein the longitudinal dimension and the transverse dimension are orthogonal in a horizontal plane.

6. The toilet of claim 1 , wherein the recess comprises a hydrophobic surface coating or a hydrophilic surface coating.

7. The toilet of claim 1 , wherein the recess comprises a temperature sensor.

8. The toilet of claim 7 , wherein the temperature sensor is configured to detect the urine entering the recess and to control a temperature of the recess.

9. The toilet of claim 7 , wherein when the temperature sensor detects a change in temperature at least one of the plurality of optical instruments begins measuring the urine.

10. The toilet of claim 1 , wherein two or more of the plurality of optical instruments share an optical path through the urine.

11. The toilet of claim 1 , further comprising a beam splitter.

12. The toilet of claim 11 , wherein the beam splitter is a polarization beam splitter.

13. The toilet of claim 1 , wherein the one or more controllers are operably connected to one or more of the plurality of optical instruments.

14. The toilet of claim 1 , further comprising a polarization beam splitter and a non-polarization beam splitter located on a common optical axis.

15. The toilet of claim 1 , further comprising a heater in thermal communication with the recess.

16. The toilet of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the plurality of optical instruments are glued to a surface of the bowl.

17. The toilet of claim 1 , wherein the side walls of the recess consist of an optically transparent material.

18. The toilet of claim 1 , wherein the base of the recess consists of an optically transparent material.

19. The toilet of claim 1 further comprising a longitudinal raised barrier wherein the recessed slit orthogonally traverses the barrier.

Assignees

• Hall David R
• Allen Dan
• Fox Joe
• Hall Labs Llc

Inventors

• Hall David R
• Allen Dan
• Fox Joe

Classifications

• A61B5/14558

  by polarisation · CPC title

• E03D11/025

  Combined with wash-basins, urinals, flushing devices for chamber-pots, bed-pans, or the like · CPC title

• E03D2201/40

  Devices for distribution of flush water inside the bowl · CPC title

• A61B5/7228

  Signal modulation applied to the input signal sent to patient or subject; Demodulation to recover the physiological signal · CPC title

• G01N2015/0053

  in liquids, e.g. trouble · CPC title