A company in Cheshire is designing a futuristic toilet which can monitor human waste and spot health problems.
Toilets like this may soon be a thing of the past
At the first sign of a medical condition, the Versatile Interactive Pan (VIP) would contact a GP via the internet.
The VIP concept has been produced by the bathroom manufacturers Twyford.
With a voice-activated seat, automatic flush and the ability to detect health problems, the company says it is a "major breakthrough" in toilet technology.
Although the model is not yet in production, Twyford predicts it could be on the market within the next five years.
Spokesman Terry Wooliscroft said: "This is a major breakthrough for us.
The new VIP will check for health problems
"Toilets haven't changed much since the concept was developed by Thomas Twyford 120 years ago.
"We want to change all that and see what a toilet can do if you introduce modern technology to it."
Urine and stool samples would be examined by the toilet, not only for health problems but for dietary content.
Mr Wooliscroft went on: "We also want to link to the local supermarket.
"If, for example, a person is short on roughage one day, an order of beans or pulses will be sent from the VIP to the supermarket and delivered that same day."
He said it would not be long before the VIP would be ready for production.
Model exhibited
"The technology is not too far away and we are working towards that."
Twyford's designers have already produced a model of the VIP.
It has been donated to the Gladstone Pottery Museum in Stoke-on-Trent and will feature in an exhibition in the museum's new galleries which open in the autumn.
Gladstone Pottery Museum
-- Anonymous, July 14, 2001