Meanwhile, the washrooms of many public facilities such as airports and rail stations are now installing technology to connect users with the managers and allow them to rate the toilets according to their cleanliness and efficiency. ‘Smiley’ feedback panels that allow visitors to assess their washroom experience by pressing a red, amber or green button provide valuable data for washroom chiefs while also enabling them to respond immediately to any concerns.
Connecting the washrooms can bring immediate benefits when the user wants to raise an issue without leaving their cubicle. For example, a 16-year-old youth made the national news in 2015 when encountering an empty loo-roll dispenser on a London to Glasgow Virgin train. He tweeted about his predicament from the washroom – and was supplied with the required paper within minutes by train staff.
Smart dispensers that connect the cleaner or facility manager to the washroom are increasingly helping to ensure that washroom soap and paper supplies never need to run out. Sensors incorporated into washroom dispensers allow cleaners to check remotely on supplies of soap, toilet paper and hand towels. This removes the need for staff to make multiple journeys to physically check on dispenser status, saving time and freeing up resources.
For example, Essity’s own Tork Vision Cleaning allows cleaners to monitor dispensers via smartphone or tablet. Meanwhile, people-counters are employed to allow a facility to build up a profile of washroom visits. The office manager can then use this data to identify those toilets attracting the highest levels of traffic. The cleaner’s walking routes can be streamlined accordingly, saving time and labour costs.
Meanwhile, some toilets are using connectivity to monitor the user’s health. For example, Japanese company Toto has developed the Wellness Toilet that uses artificial intelligence to analyse human waste, while sensors in the seat records the user’s pulse and blood pressure.
www.tomorrowscleaning.com
The Rochester Institute of Technology in New York has also developed a cloud-connected toilet that can track the user’s blood pressure, blood oxygen levels and other heart data. A toilet that doubles as a urine lab was also launched at this year’s CES tech show held in Las Vegas. The U-Scan by Withings is designed to be placed inside the toilet bowl at home where it gathers health data from the user’s urine. The device provides nutrition tips and hydration advice, while also allowing women to track their ovulation cycle.
The use of connectivity in certain parts of China appears to offer more benefits for the facility’s managers than to washroom users themselves. For example, some Chinese public toilets are using connectivity to limit the use of toilet paper and reduce over-consumption. This is achieved via toilet tissue dispensers that incorporate facial recognition technology with the aim of preventing the visitor from taking out any more paper for seven minutes after the first sheets have been withdrawn.
Also in China, some shopping centres now feature augmented reality screens in the ladies’ washrooms that allow women to virtually try on make-up. The screens act as intelligent mirrors enabling female visitors to tell how they would look if they applied a particular lipstick, blusher, eyeliner or eyeshadow. This enables the store to sell more products and extends the shopping experience into the washroom queue.
The connected washroom is here to stay. It’s taking on various guises – some of them unsettling, bizarre and occasionally representing a potential threat to the user’s privacy. Connectivity is also driving up standards, gathering feedback, monitoring the user’s health and making the toilet visit a more memorable experience – and for this it should be celebrated.
www.tork.co.uk/visioncleaning TOMORROW'S CLEANING | 41
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