ROBOTICS & TECHNOLOGY
The connectedwashroom
Washrooms – like everything else – are becoming increasingly ‘connected’, both to the internet and the wider world. Lee Radzki from Tork manufacturer Essity considers how this phenomenon has changed the facilities we use in everyday life.
Visiting the washroom used to be an inherently private experience. It was simply the place people would go to ‘spend a penny’ before returning quietly to their work cubicle, restaurant table or bar stool.
However, that was before we all became connected. Around six out of 10 of us now take our smartphones into the washroom with us, according to studies. We use these devices for various activities such as reading the news, catching up on emails or scrolling through social media. So, it's not uncommon for people to tweet, upload, browse or share files while in the lavatory.
It’s also entirely possible that some of these uploads will relate to the washroom itself – particularly if the facility in question is remarkable in some way; if it's either unexpectedly quirky or unpleasantly messy and unhygienic, for example.
Washroom users might well be tempted to share pictures of aesthetically-pleasing surroundings to their social media followers, pointing out the facilities’ key features while also inadvertently creating positive publicity for the venue in question. On the other hand, they may also choose to name and shame the substandard washrooms they visit. Websites such as the Toilet Inspector are designed to allow people to highlight dirty or unhygienic facilities and encourage them to post pictures of both good and bad ones, alerting people to where they can safely ‘go’.
On the plus side, washroom standards appear to have improved across the board as a result of this increased
40 | TOMORROW'S CLEANING
transparency. Venues no longer wish to take the risk of courting poor publicity by providing a sub-standard washroom. Instead, they are raising their game and ensuring that their facilities are at the very least clean and hygienic – but preferably attention-grabbing as well.
This phenomenon has led to a number of ‘talking point’ toilets emerging in publicly-used venues. For example, see-through toilet cubicles with walls that fog up once the door has been locked have become something of a trend, appearing in venues such the Thai-Vietnamese restaurant Peep and the fashionable Bar 89, both of which are in New York.
Holograms are also increasingly being used to prompt conversations and set washrooms apart from the ones of rival bars and restaurants. For example, the Morimoto Japanese-fusion restaurant – again in New York – uses hologram mirrors to immerse the washroom visitor into a seemingly infinite series of cherry blossom reflections.
In the ladies’ washrooms of the Katsuya sushi restaurant in Los Angeles, an eerie hologram geisha face appears fleetingly in the mirror to startle women as they wash their hands.
Some venues use urinal video games to ‘connect’ their washrooms. These are played via an LCD screen which is installed above pressure-sensitive urinals. Such installations allow visitors to play virtual football, drive a car or operate a tank while using the loo – providing a ‘high score’ that enables them to compare their prowess with that of other washroom visitors.
twitter.com/TomoCleaning
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
