High Tech Toilet Seat

[braincell]

I found this computer controlled toilet seat. The website is actually hilarious:

http://cleanishappy.com/

[garyb]

nice.

japanese toilets are often even more high tech. in fact, Toto, the maker of these seats, is one of Japan's largest manufacturer of fancy toilets.....

[braincell]

I thought so.

[kensuguro]

theyr'e pretty standard these days.. Comes from the french bidet, I think adopted by TOTO as an assistive feature for hospitals and "older people" facilities. It got super popular, and now it's almost standard and any homes built in the past 10 years or so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidet

Funny to read that Google headquarters has them installed.. hehe.
Google = worth bajillions
Google has washlets
If I got washlets
I = worth bajillions.
If I got 2 washlets
I = worth 2 bajillions.

makes sense, no? lol... These things are very sanitary and nice, but maybe not well suited for the US market. Seems like it'll be very hard to sell the idea of a fountain spraying water all over your anus.

And before you know it, someone makes a ridiculously low priced, dangerously designed model (or sells it, and don't hire enough resources to service the units), sells it at walmart, people get ill, major lawsuit, goodbye washlets. Things that rely on maintenance, service, and cleanliness that results from it, is very hard to pull off in the US I think. I mean, not that it's impossible, but just extremely hard to keep the failure rate low enough..

To ponder on this thought just a little bit more.. most likely:
to fight the expensive TOTO units, there will be cheaper alternatives. point of failure
most units will be installed by the user, with varying level of intelligence. point of failure
if not, it'll be installed by independent contractors (with varying intelligence). bunch of points of failure there. (imagine the cable guy installing a device that will wash your anus. my anus has fallen off from just imagining that)
users must monitor the unit for maintenance. point of failure
if maintenance is required, most likely independent contractors will do it. bunch of points of failure again.

Through the course of these events, I would say around 30 people will actually die for one reason or the other. Of which 5 legally exist, and will file a multi million dollar lawsuit, and the other 25 won't legally exist (or have not filed taxes correctly for the past 10 years). Of the 5, I would say 3 would be a heart attack that coincided with the use of a washlet. Aren't I a pessimist... but I can seriously imagine this coming true. Is NY just that weird?

[kensuguro]

I'll let this article wash away the bad aftertaste of my post:
http://www.poopreport.com/Consumer/Cont ... bidet.html

here he goes, trying to sell the idea to the beer clenching, football watching, pornography reading, macho Joe. simply genius, and hilarious:

After a good bowel movement, we need to understand that there is nothing wrong with the pleasure derived from a powerful jet of water gushing directly into our tender, still-quivering rectums. Remember: cleanliness is next to godliness.

Bidets these days are as tough as the jacked-up 4WD pick-ups in our garages. With solid, uni-body construction, super-high pressure capabilities, a bidet can be the 40 lb. workhorse of the bathroom. But besides being tough, modern bidets are also refined and user-friendly. With heated seats, ergonomic push-button controls, and simple installation guides, there's never been a better time to own a bidet.

[kensuguro]

well, turns out housing situation in Tokyo isn't quite as bad as NYC.. bigger rooms, standard windows, standard unit passageways, doorways, etc.. I'm sure NYC would be modern if all the buildings weren't protected. A large part of manhattan, most of brooklyn, etc.. all the supposedly cool "brownstone" apartments are very old and have very strange room structure and dimensions, and so factoring in the inefficiencies, you get a lot less space, and even less "effective" space.

In Japan, toilets are are usually separate, and bathrooms (shower+bath) are designed as "units". They're actually called unit baths. and as long as you leave the plumbing there, and leave the exact space for a unit, bathrooms come prefab as a whole, including waterproofing, insulation, inner wall, etc. They're easily interchangeable and upgradable. Some units have toilets built in for more tighter quarters, but still not as tight as most nyc apartments as they were built when everything was a lot smaller. (think 1930s-40s)

In contrast, I would say where I lived in Miami is either par with Tokyo, or a just a little more spacious. Remember, Tokyo area is quite big, and it's hard to tell where it ends. Thing with Tokyo is that the price substantially decreases as you get further from the central area, and the space substantially increases. All within a 10-40 minute train ride radius.

Going back to the washlets tho, the increasing number of elderly in Japan greatly undermines its popularity I think. I mean, "they have it at older people homes" -> "let's get one too" -> "hey, it's not so bad after all" -> "well darn, if most people want one, let's make it a standard option for the homes" progression isn't that hard to imagine. Gotta be the food, people just keep living longer even if it messes up the social security system in Japan. Guess it's still a good thing... I think it's the cigarette that keeps 'em going. (joke, joke)

Toilets (and everything surrounding it) are interesting though.. my wife wrote an anthropology paper on cultural comparison focusing on toilets once.

[braincell]

Kensuguro,

Nobody reads pornography anymore, that went out when Beta and VHS was invented! Heck we don't like to read anything. I think old men read the newspaper on the toilet. They should eat more fiber! Japanese porn is 100 times more kinky on average; a result of insane Japanese porn laws which requires pixelation of the genitals. Ironically, there are way more perverted things in Japanese porn, many of which are illegal here. I think you know what I'm talking about, if not I can go into further details.

Toilets are not just for men but women too. Cost is an issue but perhaps people just don't know about this. A cheaper way is to take a shower after you go. I am sure many of the employees at Google bought one for their homes, they can afford it. Who installs them in Japan? You don't have contractors? How difficult can it be? Do you think our plumbers are retarded?

Sushi was invented around 1960, no refrigerators before that. Back then all of your commodes required squatting over a toilet in the floor. That is so primitive and animalistic. I don't know about you, but I like to sit down!

[next to nothing]

Give me a Scope OSB, a 45-dsp onsui senjo-benza with a small midi controller and a 22" LCD and ill never leave my bathroom.

[JoeKa]

basically I think taking a dump is probably the one definite thing that should work without technical gadgets. but I must admit that, given the word that the best ideas often come in the bathroom, this gadget might be a big boost for invention spirit and creativity...

[garyb]

clean.....


aaahhhhhh....

[skwawks]

The thing that gets me with those Japanese toilets is that they get you right on the blurter everytime
I think they're great... much smarter than toilet paper..... but knowing Aussie plumbers they'd probably aim them up your nostril just for a laugh

[Shroomz~>]

The worst of all toilets was the French hole-in-the-ground which they still have in some public toilets in France to this day. You drop your trousers, then try to perch yourself over a hole in the ground in such a fashion that you don't accidentally soil your clothes while doing the business. Great. Ah well, it was clean in some sort of primitive way I suppose, but really it would have been more pleasant just going behind a bush.

[kensuguro]

Nobody reads pornography anymore

I think that was the article writer's joke, brain.

[braincell]

They made some recent advances in 3D video with a refresh rate of once every two minutes. Now the promise is a football game on your coffee table... as if that's what the main use is going to be; yeah right.