• artyom@piefed.social
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    6 hours ago

    I mean, there is a legitimate benefit here. The camera can analyze your feces for health issues. And most people aren’t smart enough to set up their own server so they host one for you. And the AI analysis would cost a lot more to be processed locally.

    And personally, I would not be terribly concerned about photos of my poo going into a database.

    Not saying you should buy one of these but it definitely can provide value, especially if you have intestinal issues.

    • kadu@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      My field is bioinformatics. I’m willing to bet $500 there’s little to no valuable data being gathered at all, and quite a lot of noise, rather than anything relevant for your health. I’m sure, just like your smart watch, they can make it sound like some deep insights and health exploration, but I guarantee you it’s not.

      • artyom@piefed.social
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        6 hours ago

        You’re telling me there’s zero valuable information in photos of feces? What about this?

        • kadu@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          You’re telling me there’s zero valuable information in photos of feces?

          Nope. I’m saying a private company and whatever training set they have, plus a cheap RGB camera and an AI model, is not going to give you any information that you can’t derive by simply looking at the feces yourself, much like the table you just linked. Though that table itself is an oversimplification that, being unable to take other parameters into account, also contains potentially misleading conclusions.

          • artyom@piefed.social
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            5 hours ago

            is not going to give you any information that you can’t derive by simply looking at the feces yourself

            Yes and you don’t have to hire a plumber to fix your sink if you’re a plumber.

            The point is:

            1. Professional analysis
            2. (more importantly) Automated logging (no pun intended), potentially for human medical review periodically, or at a later date.
            • kadu@lemmy.world
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              5 hours ago

              Yes and you don’t have to hire a plumber to fix your sink if you’re a plumber.

              You are severely misunderstanding the point being made. Imagine you have a leaky pipe, you hire a professional plumber, they charge you $500 and say “yep, I can take a look and I conclude it’s a leaky pipe! My job here is done, see you next time. I can also give you an AI generated list of reasons pipes often get leaky”

              What I’m precisely telling you is that this company can’t provide the professional analysis you just commented.

              • artyom@piefed.social
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                3 hours ago

                this company can’t provide the professional analysis you just commented.

                And why not?

                • kadu@lemmy.world
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                  24 minutes ago

                  Because it’s an incredibly unreliable data point by itself, and requires significantly more than visual analysis to prevent several co-variables.

                • SpacetimeMachine@lemmy.world
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                  2 hours ago

                  Because there is more that goes into telling if someone is unhealthy than just looking at their stool. And the few signs that DEFINITELY point to health issues would be assessable by the average person just looking at their poop.

                  • artyom@piefed.social
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                    1 hour ago

                    Sure, and there’s more that goes into telling if someone is unhealthy than just looking at their blood oxygen levels or heart rate or arrhythmia, but these are still valuable indicators that we already track and look for symptoms pointing to a potential issue.

                    Plus health is not binary, it’s a spectrum, and looking at your feces can give be an indicator of where specifically your gut health lands on that spectrum.