FM & TECHNOLOGY
improve the app at any time by adding new locations or flagging up toilets that have closed.
This brings us to another important issue: the fact that people are now using their own technology to improve the washroom experience for everyone.
Today’s growing trend to photograph everything around us with our smartphones has permeated into the toilet, and people are increasingly uploading images of washrooms to social media. This has spawned a large number of ‘world’s best washrooms’ lists while at the same time allowing sub-standard facilities to be named and shamed. For example, websites such as the Toilet Inspector highlight dirty or unhygienic facilities and encourage people to post pictures of both good and bad washrooms to let people know where they can safely ‘go’.
With hygiene and safety both of paramount importance, technology is also being used to improve washroom cleaning efficiency. For example, our own Tork Digital Cleaning Plans system allows managers to map out cleaning rounds and ensure that all routes are optimised. All tasks and reports are digitalised and logged immediately to prevent any jobs from falling through the cracks.
Another growing use of toilet technology is to monitor the user’s health. 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.
entering the washroom and to keep tabs on dispenser refill levels, for example.
Queues will form and hand hygiene could be compromised where publicly-used washrooms are allowed to run out of soap or paper products. Here a technological solution such as Tork EasyCube can help. The product uses sensors to monitor washroom traffic and check on the availability of soap and paper products. Cleaners can access this data remotely via a smartphone or tablet, removing the need to make multiple journeys to the facilities. This saves time, cuts cleaning costs and improves safety because the frequent presence of the cleaner would impact on social distancing.
It can sometimes be hard for us to find a public washroom in a hurry – particularly one that is open, operational and accessible. Nobody wants to visit a dirty, unpleasant washroom during a global pandemic when health and hygiene are both uppermost in everyone’s minds. Here again, technology can help in the form of apps.
The Flush app lists more than a quarter of a million washrooms worldwide and includes details on which facilities are wheelchair-accessible and whether or not a fee will be levied. And the Great British Toilet Map includes toilets available for use in local businesses around the country. Members of the public are invited to
www.tomorrowsfm.com
Meanwhile, a cloud-connected toilet that can track the user’s blood pressure, blood oxygen levels and other heart data has been launched by the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. And US scientists are also working on ways of monitoring the wastewater in toilets to detect the prevalence of COVID-19 in communities, tracking whether infection rates are trending up or down.
There are many other examples of toilet technology that are arguably less useful – and sometimes even controversial. Some public toilets in China use facial recognition to limit the use of toilet paper and reduce over-consumption, for example. The visitor’s face is scanned and the person is prohibited from taking out any more paper out for a seven-minute period.
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.
So, toilet technology comes in many shapes and forms and while sometimes it may appear to be laughable, unnecessary or even sinister, there are many cases in which it is highly practical. If technology is increasingly being used to enhance washroom cleaning, monitor stock levels, improve safety and alert us to any health issues, it could prove to be invaluable. In fact, it could even save lives.
www.tork.co.uk/easycube TOMORROW’S FM | 37
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 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
