The camera attaches to the toilet seat with a magnetic clip, points downward, and waits. No flash, no sound. Just optical sensors that scan, analyze, and send encrypted data to an app. Kohler, the company that has been producing faucets and sanitary ware for a hundred years, has decided that the bathroom is the right place to perform home diagnostics for intestinal health.
The device is called Decoda, costs $599 (plus an annual subscription), and promises to turn every toilet session into a passive medical check-up. Hydration, blood traces, microbiome status: everything is recorded, everything is analyzed by artificial intelligence. Privacy? Guaranteed through biometric authentication and end-to-end encryption. The result? An app that tells you if you're okay or if it's time to call a doctor. Welcome to the era where even the toilet needs a password.
How Kohler's Smart Toilet Works
So, the principle is this: Instead of having your stool analyzed once a year in the laboratory, you do it every day, at home, without lifting a finger. Decoda It installs on the toilet rim using an adjustable clip system that works with any toilet bowl with a diameter between 32 and 58 millimeters. The optical sensors simply point straight into the toilet. According to TechCrunchThe company is very clear on this point: "Dekoda's sensors look into the toilet and nowhere else." No footage of the user, no photos of the butt, no shots of the bathroom, just the contents of the toilet.
The rechargeable battery lasts about a week and charges via USB-C. It includes a remote control with a fingerprint sensor that can be mounted on the wall near the toilet. This prevents the device from confusing your data with that of guests, or worse, the rest of the family. Each user has their own profile, which is separate and encrypted. Up to five people can use the same device without confusing the scans.
The artificial intelligence behind Dekoda uses advanced optical spectroscopy and machine learning algorithms to analyze the color, texture, shape, and frequency of bowel movements. According to Fierce Healthcare, the system establishes a personal baseline over time and monitors variations compared to your “standard”.
It can detect signs of dehydration, bowel irregularities, and traces of blood. It is not an FDA-approved medical device, so it cannot diagnose conditions. However, it can flag abnormalities that warrant medical attention.
Gut health under continuous surveillance
The gut microbiome has become one of the most studied topics in modern medicine. As we often tell on Futuro ProssimoRecent research has identified genes that allow specific beneficial bacteria to colonize specific niches in the gut. Other studies have linked microbiome alterations to conditions ranging from cancer to depression. A Harvard team discovered that a common gut bacterium can trigger brain inflammation, contributing to major depression.
In this context, a device that passively monitors gut health every day might make sense. The problem isn't technical, it's economic and cultural. Are we willing to pay $599 plus a subscription fee to have an algorithm photograph our poop? Kohler thinks so. Kash KapadiaCEO Kohler Health, argues that "the bathroom is the center of health and well-being." The toilet as a home health hub. A bizarre idea until you consider that we spend more time in the bathroom than at the doctor's.
The Price of Home Health Privacy
In addition to the initial cost, which is not very low, Dekoda requires a subscription to actually work. According to MacRumors, plans start at $6,99 per month for a single user (about $70 per year), up to $12,99 per month for families of up to five people (about $156 per year). Without a subscription, the device is essentially useless: AI analysis and data synchronization take place in the cloud via the service Kohler Health.
Kohler isn't the first to try this approach. The startup Thrones (kudos to the name) launched a similar device in early 2025, with comparable prices and similar promises. The difference? Kohler has the established distribution channels, brand recognition, and financial muscle to transform a niche market into a mass market. If Dekoda works (and if enough people decide it's worth it), we could see similar devices proliferate. Mirrors that analyze your skin, toothbrushes that assess your oral health, showers that monitor your body temperature. The bathroom as an integrated health ecosystem.
When the toilet becomes a sensitive data problem
The issue of privacy remains. Kohler promises end-to-end encryption, biometric authentication, and zero sharing with third parties without explicit consent. But the data exists. It's archived. And any archived data can be hacked, requested by authorities, or sold (perhaps "anonymized") to insurance companies or pharmaceutical companies. A study published in Frontiers in Microbiology He highlighted how microbiome research is generating huge personal datasets that raise complex ethical questions.
It's clear that there's a possibility that someone might use this data in ways we don't like. Will we be able to establish clear rules before it becomes a de facto standard? The question, in short, is always the same.
A little note (literally) of color: As reported by PetaPixelDekoda does not work with dark-colored toilet bowls. Optical sensors rely on light reflection to analyze the sample, and surfaces that are too dark absorb too much light to allow accurate readings.
If you have a black or charcoal toilet, this isn't for you. This is a detail Kohler mentions in the technical specifications but isn't mentioned in the promotional materials.
The home gut health market
Dekoda arrives at a time when the home diagnostics market is exploding. After the pandemic, rapid tests, wearable devices, and home testing kits have become mainstream. The Mayo Clinic has developed an algorithm called Gut Microbiome Wellness Index 2 which analyzes fecal samples to distinguish healthy individuals from those with pathologies, with an accuracy of over 80%. The technology exists. The question is whether people are ready to accept it in the most invasive form possible: a camera permanently installed in their toilet.
Kohler is betting that yes, they are. Or at least, that a sufficiently large niche of early adopters will pay $599 plus a subscription to transform their bathroom into a laboratory. If it works, other companies will follow. And in ten years, we might look back and wonder how we ever lived without an AI that reminded us to drink more water after analyzing our urine.
What Dekoda doesn't say (but should)
Dekoda is not a medical device. It cannot diagnose diseases. It does not replace clinical examinations. The Gut Microbiota for Health World Summit 2025 He presented research showing how the gut microbiome is linked to hundreds of different conditions, but the vast majority of these connections are still under study. We know there is a correlation, not always a causal relationship.
A device like Dekoda can detect anomalies, but it can't explain them. It can tell you that something has changed, but not what to do about it. And this is the biggest risk: Generating constant health anxiety without providing concrete tools to address it. Notification after notification, report after report, until you stop trusting your body and start trusting only the algorithm.
Perhaps this is the true price of Dekoda. Not the initial $599, not the $70-$156 annual subscription. But the progressive delegation of your health status to a sensor that knows nothing about you, except what you ate yesterday and how your gut processed it.
Dekoda has been available since yesterday, October 21, 2025, initially only in the United States. Android will follow iOS. Yes, there really is a family plan that lets you photograph the stool of five different people with the same device. The future of gut health isn't what we imagined.
But that's what we deserve, after putting sensors everywhere except where they really matter.
