Passive health monitoring · Biomedical IoT
VitaSeat
A smart toilet-seat replacement that quietly tracks the body’s vital-sign trends — for the people least able to monitor or report their own health.
Status: functional prototype (v5.1) with companion appThe problem
The people who most need their vital signs watched — older adults, and especially those with cognitive decline — are often the least able to take a reading, wear a device, or describe how they feel. Wearables get forgotten or taken off; spot checks miss the slow drift that matters.
VitaSeat takes the measurement out of the user’s hands entirely, by building it into something they already use every day.
How it works
Passive pulse oximetry
Six MAX30102 optical sensors (three per side), each with its own microcontroller, sit beneath the thighs near the femoral/popliteal artery to read heart rate, blood oxygen, and temperature — no wearable, no user action.
Trend tracking & alerts
A companion app logs readings per user, shows current values and trends over time, and flags deviations from a person’s normal range for follow-up. A timer nudges against prolonged sitting.
UV-C self-sanitation
UV-C LEDs run a one-minute disinfection cycle on the seat and bowl when the lid closes, triggered automatically by an onboard motion sensor (or manually from the app).
Drop-in replacement
VitaSeat is built to replace a standard elongated toilet seat with the electronics enclosed in custom water-resistant covers — installation is meant to be seamless.
The seat is built around an Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect with onboard IMU and Wi-Fi, and evolved across five prototype generations to improve signal quality and durability.
The process
How it was built
BUILD LOG — SEAT GENERATIONS
Five generations: round → elongated seat; pressure sensors dropped in favour of six blood-oxygen sensors; wire tracks and a math processor added; then thinner CNC'd tracks and UV-C boards for durability.
- SENSORS
- 6× MAX30102 pulse oximeter
- CONTROLLER
- Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect
- SANITATION
- UV-C LED · 1-min cycle
- POWER
- 28V DC
- STATUS
- functional prototype + app
Where it stands & what’s next
VitaSeat is a functional prototype with a working companion app. It is a wellness-monitoring research project — not a diagnostic device, and not a substitute for medical evaluation. Sensor accuracy and the femoral-artery measurement approach still need independent benchmarking against clinical-grade equipment.
Next steps are accuracy validation, a study of real-world signal reliability across users, and clinical and caregiver discovery to define exactly which trends are worth surfacing.
Research prototype
This is an early-stage research prototype developed for engineering study and grant applications. It is not available for sale, has not been cleared or approved by the FDA, and performance results to date are from in-house testing pending independent validation. Nothing here is medical advice. VitaSeat does not diagnose, treat, or screen for any disease and is not a substitute for professional medical monitoring.