Slashdot Mirror
Best High-Tech Toilet?
shellac writes "For a number of years now, Japan has had incredibly high-tech toilets, complete with a funky electronic control panel that controls a water jet for cleaning the posterior, a hot air blow dryer, a fake flushing sound to cover up those noisy "Dumb & Dumber" style sessions, a seat warmer, and other nice features, not to mention the occasional amusing gaijin encounter. Prototype models can also chemically analyze urine using lasers. The manufacturer, Toto, has made these available in the US and in other countries, but they have failed to largely fulfill their promised potential, despite their popularity in Japan. There is some evidence Kohler toilets is keeping these out of American markets. The toilets also appear to be a victim of poor marketing on Toto's part, which in all fairness may be due to Western advertising taboos that do not exist in Japan. I know I would love to have one of these, and I suspect many others would as well. What does that /. community think of these toilets? Can anyone post a personal review?"
Just how much time do you spend on the toilet? Time to cut some of the Mountain Dew out of the diet, maybe?
--saint
Just what we need, a nation full of toilets blinking 12:00.
That's nifty and all but I'm still trying to figure out the three sea shells.
"Prototype models can also chemically analyze urine using lasers."
"An adult male's recommended dietary allowances for vitamin C is 60 mg per day."
If my urine is yellow I don't need a computer with lasers to tell me I've had my daily intake of vitamin C.
Uhh, no thanks..
Do we really want water spraying up at our posteriors from a toilet? Seems like cleanup would be more work, and I wouldn't rely on a towel unless I was able to do some actual CLEANING and not just getter the dingleberries wet. Your other option is toilet paper which never stands up nicely to moisture. I don't want to get my ass wet after a nice healthy movement anyway.
I suppose this is what a bidet is essentially for, but at least you use it with the intention of actually doing to real cleaning of the undercarriage.
Has taking a dump really changed that much in the last few million years? Why do I need lasers toanalyze my urine? Don't forget Japan is also the nation of porn comic books and school girl's panties being sold in vending machines among other sexual deviancies. These people go to Bangkok for sex trips and people want a part of their culture here in the US? Why?
The most advanced toiled I've ever seen was in Monte Carlo several years ago. It was completely robotic. It had something like a carwash hooked up to it, and commodes on a rotating table. After each flush, it would rotate out the toilet and pressure wash the previous one. They really pamper the high rollers I tell ya!
I have a few simple requests to toilet makers:
- Odor detection and removal.
- Gender detection and ajustment (regarding this whole toilet seat issue...)
- Self-cleaning
- Methane detection and recycling
- Portability
- Stability
- Scalability
- Modularity
... Oh man, never work on software design when you need to take a dump...
I guess someone had to say it
main(i){(10-putchar(((25208>>3*(i+=3))&7)+(i ?i-4?100:65:10)))?main(i-4):i;}
I'll buy one if they let me hook it to my LAN, and have a panel with Mozilla built into it. Then I can read /. while I'm in there!
Lufthansa Business Class lounge (company dime during dotcom heights of glory!)....toilet there was self cleaning. Stand up, flush....the seat rotated while a squeegee sprayed it w. disinfectant and wiped it clean...all ready for the next "user input". Not as high tech as the article's executive platinum premier commode...but for a guy who has crapped in many places (from a hole in the ground all the way to 35,000 feet (not a problem in the 777!)), I was way impressed!!!
"shit® happens"?
Beer, now there's a temporary solution -- Homer Jay S.
I've seen the innards of the things when they're opened up for maintenance. They're built out of components from the Telemechanique industrial automation catalog. There are motors, valves, pumps, tanks, lights, and a computer with a rack of interface cards in a stainless steel box. That works, but it's an expensive way to go. You don't make a mass-produced product that way. You could build a washing machine, say, from industrial automation components, and it would work fine, but cost upwards of $10,000.
Some units from Japan designed for mass-production would help.
Whoa... where's the Internetworked toilet seat?
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
Now If they only can come out with the lazybowl. A toilet with a morning paper holder, a beer fridge, a built in remote, and high speed internet access...
I like replies better than Karma, even if they are flames, because that tells me I got someone thinking.
...is that if I'm expected to spend that much time/effort/money for/on a toilet, there better be a button on that there control panel for "blow^h^h^h^h oral gratification".
$0.02 (CDN)
At Matsushita's research center in Tokyo, scientists explain how they are working on embedding technology in the porcelain that will catch a urine sample, shoot it full of lasers and in short order test it for glucose, kidney disease and eventually even cancer. One of the researchers, Tatsuro Kawamura, says future smart toilets will compile and compare medical results day by day, allowing doctors to spot important changes.
I'd be interested in hearing more about this. Will it store the information locally or be hooked up to a network? How will it know who's using the toilet? Who's to say they won't test for drugs or something in the future? This could get pretty invasive.
About 5 years ago when I was an entry level web developer (ya, we used Dreamweaver... bleh) I worked on http://www.toilettech.com/. I still work with the designer who made the animation and logo :-).
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
Once you get used to them, they really are hard to give up. Ours had a heated seat, something very valuable when you have no central heating and the temperature drops below freezing occasionally.
They are especially nice when you have the runs. You know, when you have to go to the heads all day, and by the end toilet paper might as well be sandpaper, for the effect it has on your sensitive tissues.
Japanese toilets also have (this is ALL toilets, not just the high-tech ones) two flush types: turn the handle one way for a small flush (#1), turn it the other way for a big flush (#2). Simple, environmentally friendly, and good for water bills. Why on earth don't we have them everywhere -- not to mention in the US, where I understand that flush volumes are limited by law. After all, if the average of all flushes is lower, that should be good enough, right?
Graham
Hmm, instead of a toilet-cam why not hookup the infrared things on the automatic toilets in my dorm hall to a system that can provide information via a web page (or a console in the bathroom) as to which stalls/urinals are available for use, to avoid needless trips to the can. Also, you could hook up an odor meter to each john so that you know which one to use if you don't want to pass out.
What?
The seat warmer part is really weird. When I was in Japan I used one and it always felt as if some really huge guy had been sitting on it for two hours just before I got there.
Cire
Japan has both very high-end, high-tech toilets, and low-end squat-over-a-hole-in-the-floor toilets as well. I've had a chance to use both, and I posted some reviews, with pictures!
http://www.links.net/vita/trip/japan/toilets/
About the electric toilets, the basic feature that's quite common, even without the spray, etc, is a heated toilet seat. Which makes a lot of sense and makes for great comfort first thing on a winter morning. There are a lot of heated toilet seats without all the gadgetry here, and when I visit home and my buttocks shiver when I sit I appreciate these devices. Of course it's all superfluous, nothing totally necessary, just like toilet paper, right? You can always use one of your hands and then wash it afterwards. But as long as you're going to go for comfort, you might as well have heated toilet seats as well as toilet paper.
I love that portable toto device, "made especially for people on the go"! Wow, I bet it took 50 takes before they could say that with a straight face. ROFL
So now drug users are going to start peeing in sinks, garbage cans, open drains, dark corners...
Just fucking great. Thanks, scientists! Now we can't even have some fucking privacy when we take a leak>:\
And by "we" I mean EVERYONE, not just drug users. How soon til the toilet detects you've got diabetes and tattles on you to the insurance companies?
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
...one big adventure game. You know, like Myst or Monkey Island. It's getting to the point that you can't even go to the toilet without figuring out some kind of logic puzzle.
I guess it could be worse, it could be turning into a big platform game. Watch out for those spinning blades!
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
Your post may have been the only time in history where the tag would have made something cooler.
"Study your math, kids. Key to the universe." -The Archangel Gabriel
Why would you need a remote? It's not like you've got to get up and walk across the room to trigger the spraying of your ass-- you're already sitting right there on the thing!
:-)
The only use I can see for a remote control would be if it was RF so it worked through walls and closed doors. You could sure have some fun with unsuspecting friends then.
~Philly
Everyone seems to have a pretty negative opinion but these toilets are pretty nice. The have one of the newer Toto models installed in my office in Yokohama.
The first impression you get of the shining white porcelain gadget is the motion sensor activated seat. (Obiviously designed with all those people who are too crippled to lift the seat cover on their own but still miraculously find their way into the bathroom) Swing open the door and you will be greeted by a soothing mechanical whirr as the seat cover goes up. After wiping down the seat with provided disinfectant from the design coordinated dispenser (also a product of toto) You are greeted by a fairly quick change in tempurature from icy cold (Insulation in Japan sucks and central heat does not seem to be of interest in bathrooms here [read: DAMN COLD]) to a pleasant or shall we say encouraging warm tempurature. Not a bad touch. Very good contour to cradle you poor senstive ass after being abused by an office chair everyday. I don't think I need to mention that actual process of 'making a deposit in the bank' as it would seem rather independant of the technology.
And now on to the real fun. I had always assumed that all sorts of water jets and blowers and stuff were for some kind of euro-hippy freak but one terribly hung-over morning at the office I decided to take the challege and 'test' the water jet. I was very impressed by the nice features incorporated into the jet alone. The water tempurature angle and water pressure are all independantly adjustable to suit all body sizes and 'consistancies' (for lack of a better word). I felt rather clean, refreshed and not unpleasant at all, after all it saved me the trouble of wiping!
Being a curious, I have experimented with the jet mechanism at a later date and discovered that at maximum pressure activting the jet while not being seated results in an entertaining water jet that easily crosses to the far side of the stall with little loss of angle or tradjectory. Then by adjusting the angle mechanism I realized that the jet could easily reach tie or even face levels of the average male and realized the potential for an excellent prank hack. (It would really be a shame if someone rigged a trigger to the stall door, wouldn't it...).
Following the encounter with the water jet anyone would realize the need for a drying mechanism as toilet paper does not respond well to moisture. As with the water jet the dryer/blower also has adjustments for angle tempurate and air pressure making for a quick and pleasant drying experience. After multiple test runs timing revealed that the dryer could generally complete its task in 25-35sec with no discomfort. (When placed under time constraints the dryer could produce sufficient lack of moisture in a record time of roughly 12.6 seconds but would not be classified as in the 'comfort zone'.)
Due to being of the male variety and forseeable sloppiness, I could not test but give due note to a full set of water jets and dryers located in the front of the toilet to satisfy the needs of our geek friends who do not a twig and berries nor wedding tackle. The frontal jets were also adjustable for tempurature, angle and pressure leading me to the assumption that they would provide appropriate customization to satify most body shapes and preferences. (Unfortunately no ladies were willing to comment on the functionality of the frontal jets)
From an overall view-point I was very pleased with the performance of this toto model (sorry no model number available at this time) however in the office environment one problem was noticable. Often a venture to the 'techo-head', as I affectionately refer to it, revealed that the settings were often adjusted to preferences other than my own and would require some fine tuning before use to provide the optimal bathroom experience. I realized that it lacked the ability to create presets for individual 'users'. This model lacks the ability to present controls and the small number of analog controls would allow one to assume that presets would not be feasible with out a major redesign of the interface and circuitry. In the event that presets did become a option it would be very convenient to register these settings in a directory server. All in all I would give it 4 out of 5 Johns because of the lack of a presets and still some room in the concept to mature but all together a very pleasant dump.
As I cannot afford to be slashdotted, pictures of the jet mechanisms and control panels as well as model numbers and information will be available by email. Send mail to SCE(at)SUBDIMENSION(dot)COM with 'techno-head' in the subject line and I will send you the photos etc.
This post was enhanced by BEER technology! 'Karaoke' is Japanese for drunken loser. -Craig Kilborne
I think these Japanese toilets are a bit overkill for Americans, especially when you consider most American homes don't suffer the issue of really cold toilet seats.
What I do want is toilets that flush completely in only 1.6 gallons of water per flush. This was a major problem with the early water-saving toilets, since often you had to flush twice to flush the toilet bowl cleanly. I believe it was Kohler that first corrected this problem with very careful design of the way water circulates in the toiler bowl during the flush cycle. I know that some toilet makers resorted in using pressurized water tanks (I kid you not!), but I'm not sure if the potential for mechanical trouble is worth it.
This smells like an april fools so bad I think one of those nozzles should hose this story down where the sun don't shine.
:)
"But actually trying to use m4 as a general-purpose langage would be deeply perverse" --ESR
I prefer to drop all my deuces right here in the comments section of slashdot.
I haven't used anything else as a toilet in years.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
is a toilet that flushes my doodies down the first time. I just bought a new house, and if I had known better, I would have brought my turbo-toilet with me.
Yes, I'm serious, and yes, that link is real!
As important isit is to me for a toilet to analyze my urine and play a fake flushing sound, I just don't think that many Americans (myself included) would want to to anything with a toilet but pull the handle and leave the bathroom to get less distracting things done.
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
I spent a lot of time on one of these toilet and let me tell you... the are the best! I was sick as a dog for about a week one time. Spending a LOT of time using a warm jet cleaning system is far nicer than rubbing your .... with toilet paper each time.
I live in Japan, but I don't own one because I just can't quite justify the cost. Luckily I spent that week in my girlfriends house.
[news for me, stuff that doesn't matter]
Yeah, mod me down for being cynical about our great society and thinking this kind of money could actually be put to use in places it's really needed. Sorry for not being a narcissist.
I have one of these 1.6 gallon marvels. One flush will completely cycle the most colorful dumps every time. The large capacity toilets just don't flush right compared to this and often require another flush.
Having spent a couple years in Japan teaching English, I would like to share my experiences with the rest of Slashdot.
:)
Basically, I think it comes down to the fact that the Japanese are fastidiously hygenic. I dont' mean to imply that Americans and Europeans are not, but the Japanese take it to a new, almost obsessive-compulsive level. I may be reading too much into this, but I think this hygine compulsion has a lot to do with why they spend so much time creating the perfect commode.
Then again, given a large segment of Japanese society enjoys gross japscat porn it could be just the opposite as the above.
Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
I plan on getting one of these.
They require no water, no chemicals, use hardly any electricity (just enough to power a fan), and produce a dry, odorless white powder that you can use in your garden.
Very keen.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
If the diplomat had even first-year Japanese skills, he should have been able to read the kanji "dai" and "sho" (big & little) on the flush lever.
Dai is for "daiben" and Sho is for "shoben" (ie pee-pee and poo-poo.) Not too hard to figure out.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
My SO (Female) had one at her parents home. They have a feature which helps clean during her period. And it helps after making love.
M
It was first introduced when that dirty astronaut, Steve Birchwood, went to France. It was an electric bottom washer. It was a lot like a normal bottom washer except it burned it off. Upright Citizens Brigade
Nothing beats THIS
I guess it's officially a "Slow News Day" at Slashdot when they get into Toilet Reviews.
Did I oversleep and Slashdot has rebranded itself to "News for Home Builders. Stuff that Sells." or what?
Sheesh!
I lived there for a couple of years and had a great time. I fully agree with others who have actually experienced the high tech toilets, they are really nice.
The one thing I thought was really interesting though was that they have these ultra-high tech toilets.. and then there are the ultra-low tech toilets. Basically nothing more than a porcelain hole. You literally have to squat down to use it because there is no seat. and you'd better not lose your balance.
Incase you missed it, here's the whole Ask Slashdot article summed up in two lines:
"Dear Slashdot....I enjoy jets of water shot at my anus, and i'm willing to pay the big bucks for it!! Any suggestions?"
Think about the sum total of what you've just read, then maybe it will hit you. Slashdot certainly isnt what it used to be, is it....And you thought Yahoo Internet Life was bad? Welcome to the new Slashdot, folks -- What once was the proud sentinel of geekdom has been reduced to running stories on toilets. Sure smacks of "stuff that matters" to me, I tell ya. Anyway, before you go off and moderate me down for being off-topic or trollsome, ask yourself this: How many other articles were rejected (re: meaningful, important articles, peoples work, interesting points of view, etc.) so that this story could make it in? On Easter, of all days. Simply charming.
Surprisingly, i'm not trying to troll here. I'm trying to make a point. Just a day or two ago, I had written to Ask Slashdot regarding the issue of Linux on the desktop, and whether it was truly fair to call it "dead", when infact viable, stable, professional-quality desktops are available for Linux. HP certainly doesnt think the Linux desktop is dead -- They bundle GNOME with HP-UX. IBM isn't crazy either; They bundle both KDE -and- GNOME in AIX... So whats all the hub-bub about Linux being dead on the desktop? But, nope, we cant discuss that.....Not here on Slashdot. There are more important things to address in a public forum such as this..
Like how to have jets of water shoot at our anuses.
Cheers,
Bowie J. Poag
So I'm looking at the pretty pictures on the first link and click the Features Menu link thinking I'll get a list of features for the johns. Up pops the AIDS in Zimbabwe page. If AIDS is a feature of the toilet, I really don't want one!
This story was posted an hour and fourteen minutes too early...
"We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it" -- Winston Churchill
I wouldn't mind one myself. C'mon, how many times have you taken quite possibly the nastiest dump of your life, and do the following?
1. Check to see if anyone else is in the bathroom
2. Grab a fresh wad of toilet paper
3. Wet up the wad of toilet paper in the sink
4. Race back to said toilet, wipe yourself with said wad
5. Wipe again with new, dry wad of toilet paper.
Sounds like these new toilets will prevent myself from having to do that, so I can eat all the fast food I want. Yay!
I've actually used one of these, and it was in America. I was attending the Macworld conference in NYC a couple of years ago, and Apple was paying for my room at the RIHGA Royal Hotel, which, by the way, is a really classy place (on a bit of a side note, it was the only hotel not detailed in my New York City Book of Hotels, because the author could not afford to spend a night there), so thank you Apple. But anyway, the toilet in the hotel room had a rather imposing control panel built into it and an array of squirt guns near water level. I immediately went straight for the Unidentified Shitholding Object, and gave it a whirl. Let me just say, that this thing is amazing. Mine seemed to adjust its water guns to the shape of my ass without any help from me (or else the cleaning women were clairvoyant), and the control panel consisted of orders on whether or not to stop or go or toast my buns to a nice golden brown. Of course I used that option.
It might be a bad idea to put these in an office building: people wouldn't want to go back to their cubicles, preferring to chill in the stalls.
Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
You know that's what it would be used for! You know it! Own up to it..... Just what everyone needs - to put a bookmark to The Hun on the crapper's console!
I have to put in a plug for the low-flush Kohler toilets.
Isn't that the point?
El Karma: excelente(principalmente la suma de moderación hecha a los comentarios de los usuarios)
Especially for male users!
The line must be drawn here. This far. No further.
No shit. Living in california has forced my colon to evolve to point of being able to partition my fecal droppings into portions that will flush. I'm not some fucking vegan soybean eating tweeked out southern california heroin addict, when I take a dump it is a glorious and reveling thing, I'm not some herbivore in the woods walking in the woods with pellets shooting out of my ass I'm the big bear farting big stinky brown torpedos into the water, fuck I'm ranting but why the fuck should I have to keep my frigging plunger near the toilet at all times because you have a better frigging chance to hit the jackpot than to flush the turd, 5 gallon flushes with a woosh sound, a fucking vacuum, I don't care if it sucks so hard my anus is inside out I just my god damn shit to go on happily to wherever it needs to be.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
The Toilet PC
If you're on the subject of high tech toilets, then check out the toilet pc [envador.com], its got to be seen to be believed.
Personally, I think it would be inconvenient to make one yourself.
After all that trouble to make a toilet pc, it would only take one drunken guy to 'christen' the pc case and fry the mobo...
Simply put, after using the washlet for two years, coming back to the US and using only toilet paper now is like wiping my ass with dried leaves.
As someone else pointed out, the biggest obstacle to adoption of these things in the US is probably the lack of AC power next to the toilet.
Otherwise, I would love to have washlets in my house in the US. The heated seat is great on those cold mornings, and the warm water washing is much cleaner and healthier and more comfortable than dry toilet paper (yuck!).
Just like with mobile phones and healthy food, the Japanese are ahead of us in this area.
It would be ironic, except for the fact that the blink tag was never in the HTML recommendation to begin with.
I find this bit interesting: "Only NN honours this tag. Users of other browsers can cause severe irritation to Netscape users by enclosing the whole page in <blink>
www.timcoleman.com is a total waste of your time. Never go there.
The German Toilet, complete with Turd Inspection Shelf!
-------------------------------------------------
My fiance has given me permission to post that she likes to use Huggies Supreme Care Baby Wipes
No shame in that. There is a growing trend for people who prefer to use wet wipes over the current dry wipe method. In fact, the major toiletry makers are actually researching sellable products right now (read it in a science magazine) but lack at this moment market penetration to consumer acceptance.
"Face it, a nation that maintains a 72% approval rating on George W. Bush is a nation with a very loose grip on reality.
Having lived in Japan and enjoyed the high-tech toilets in my own home, we found that the only thing that we wanted in our home was the "high-tech" toilet paper dispenser. This wonderful gadget allows the easiest change of toilet paper in history. Just lift the new roll into place. We special ordered one for our new home!
d fspc/yh 51t2.pdf
See it here:
http://www.totousa.com/toto/admin/upload/p
The pictures don't really do them justice, but the idea is simple. Two dowels extend into the center of the roll from each side of the dispenser. They are hinged so that they both lift up, but they don't go past horizontal, and they are on a spring so they want to snap down to the horizontal position. To change a roll, you lift the new toilet paper up from underneath, the dowels hinge up and release the old roll and then snap into the new roll. Then you lower the new roll and the dowels stop at horizontal again. Beautiful. We argue over who gets to change the roll.
http://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/df200006/df2000 0602.jpg
Hi All,
:-) The warm water really cleans the backside well.
I actually brought one of these from Japan! It is the best thing that I ever owned!!
The seat stays warm (perfect for those late night hacking session bathroom breaks after too much Taco Bell). It is definitally cleaner then just plain paper
Every one of my friends who tried it were all very impressed by my captians chair, and a few of them actually bought one in the States.
Word of adivce, if you import you have to change from Metric->US, and I suggest you get a Transformer (you don't want to fry the computer)
Regards,
The Happy Toliet Dude
Reading that bit in an article about toilets and thinking "Transforming Toilets" left me chuckling and frightened.
"Face it, a nation that maintains a 72% approval rating on George W. Bush is a nation with a very loose grip on reality.
Hey, better living throught technology. Once only the wealthies people had a bidet. Now the middle classes can have a space-saving bidet and toilet in one. This isn't completely irresponsible either, I imagine that with enough of these, there will be less of a need for toilet tissue, which is more than likely a Good Thing for the environment. Also a stream of water is likely healthier and slightly-less unnatural than the friction of rubbing paper on your anus. In the space of a lifetime, how much tissue damage actually occurs to a place that was never really intended to withstand daily wear and tear? Do other mucous membranes have to withstand such an onslaught of moisture roobing flesh dragging bleached, sometimes perfumed and dyed wood pulp?
Actually, you were modded up as insightful, and I M2ed it as Fair, so your disclaimer really saved your ass this time. But money is not zero-sum, and those who have it should have the right to spend it. Most of those places where people claim money is "really needed" won't benefit from money; in many cases, money just ends up making a situation worse. For an easy example of this, look at the majority of "poor" people who go on to win a lottery, the year after they win. Many of them end up worse off, in massive debt, having trifled away more than all of their winnings on useless luxuries. Some of the advances in toilet-science here could actually be considered useful luxuries, that improve upon the current state of toiletry. Would you consider a flushing toilet a frivolous advance over dry toilets? What the people "who could really use the money" need is social change, of a kind which is never brought about by throwing money at the problem.
Social change requires consideration and time from people, and beneficial developments in culture. At best money is an expedient tool for enabling simple ends. The heavy lifting needs to be done by whatever local society is in an unfortunate situation, not by "our great society" with "this kind of money." Having a local society become dependent on our "great society" is detrimental to them, and they end off worse in the long run for not being self sufficient.