Talking networked toilets which can diagnose if you are pregnant or sick and email your doctor or hospital with the test results, should be on sale by 2006.

The Versatile Interactive Pan, or VIP, has a built-in probe that can literally take the piss and examine it for hormone and nutrient levels.

Flushed with the success of early testing, the VIP's inventors, Twyford Bathroom, say the talking loo lifts the lid on health care, allowing early diagnosis of illness.

"It is pioneering how IT has been reproduced into a toilet, of all things," says Twyford's Terry Wolliscroft.

Dubbed an "interactive marvel", the VIP uses voice recognition technology to adjust itself to suit children and disabled people.

It even tilts to become a urinal upon request.