Toilet Bowl Urine Measurement Instruments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018070926-A1
Application number	US-201615264989-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 14, 2016
Priority date	Sep 14, 2016
Publication date	Mar 15, 2018
Grant date	—

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

1 . A toilet comprising:
a bowl with a recess which traps urine, the recess in optical communication with a plurality of optical instruments; 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.

2 . The toilet of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of optical instruments include at least two or more of: a refractometer, a spectrometer, a glucose polarimeter, a laser scatterometer, a turbidity detector, a color detector, or a microscope.

3 . The toilet of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of optical instruments comprise a refractometer, a spectrometer, a glucose polarimeter, and a turbidity detector.

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

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

6 . 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.

7 . The toilet of claim 5 , wherein two or more of the plurality of optical instruments share an amplitude modulated light source.

8 . The toilet of claim 1 , wherein the recess forms at least part of a slit, indentation, trench, pattern, divot, concavity, prism, lens, lens array, or diffraction grating.

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

10 . The toilet of claim 1 , further comprising a cleaning jet which cleans and dries the recess.

11 . The toilet of claim 10 , wherein the cleaning jet sprays water, air, cleaning solution, or a combination thereof.

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

13 . The toilet of claim 12 , wherein the temperature sensor is used to detect the urine entering the recess and to control a temperature of the recess.

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

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

16 . The toilet of claim 15 , wherein the beam splitter is a polarization beam splitter.

17 . The toilet of claim 1 , further comprising one or more controllers operably connected to one or more of the plurality of optical instruments.

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

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

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

Assignees

• Hall David R
• Allen Dan
• Fox Joe

Inventors

• Hall David R
• Allen Dan
• Fox Joe

Classifications

• E03D11/02

  Water-closet bowls (auxiliary chambers with connections to flushing water for bowl-cleaning utensils E03D9/06; modified for using upwardly-directed sprays E03D9/08; seats or covers A47K13/00 ){; Bowls with a double odour seal optionally with provisions for a good siphonic action; siphons as part of the bowl (parts or details of bowls E03D11/13)} · CPC title

• G01N21/4133

  Refractometers, e.g. differential · CPC title

• A61B5/207

  Sensing devices adapted to collect urine · CPC title

• G01N33/493

  urine · CPC title

• G01N21/251

  Colorimeters; Construction thereof · CPC title