Kohler’s smart toilet promises a ‘fully-immersive experience’

Kohler’s smart toilet promises a ‘fully-immersive experience’

CES has barely begun, but 146-year-old plumbing company Kohler has already stolen the show with what will undoubtedly be 2019’s hottest gadget: an “intelligent toilet” with built-in surround sound speakers, ambient mood lighting, and Amazon Alexa voice controls.

Truly, we live in an age of wonders.

Kohler’s Numi 2.0 Intelligent Toilet is one of those strange products that draws so heavily on buzzwords and tech trends that it’s indistinguishable from parody. In a press release, Kohler promises that customers will enjoy a “fully-immersive experience” thanks to the many “lighting and audio enhancements” of the Numi 2.0 Intelligent Toilet. They’ll be able to set the mood, using voice commands to cue up music and customize the lighting, all while Kohler’s PureWarmth toilet seat add-on toasts their behind to their preferred temperature.

The only blessing is that Kohler isn’t advertising the product as “artificially intelligent” or “AI-powered” — the empty epithets usually given to gadgets with tacked-on voice controls.

Grid View Kohler’s Verdera Voice Lighted Mirror now supports Google Assistant as well as Amazon Alexa.

The Veil Lighted Bathroom Collection consists of a mirror, bathtub, three-piece vanity, and toilet, with synchronized lighting features.

As the “2.0” suggests, this isn’t actually Kohler’s first foray into connected bathroom gadgets. The company unveiled its Kohler Konnect line-up at last year’s CES, with a smart shower, smart mirror, and smart tub to keep their smart toilet company.

Not much has changed since then. There have been some minor tweaks (the Verdera Voice Lighted Mirror now supports Google Assistant in addition to Amazon Alexa, for example, and the lighting now uses the Philips Hue API) but the basic offering remains the same. You get music, you get lights, you get Kohler’s PerfectFill™ bathtub technology drawing you a bath to your “preferred preset temperature and desired depth with a simple voice command.” Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution brought us to this.

The main news is that Kohler has finally released pricing for these devices, as reported by CNET. Its smart mirrors start at $1,249 for the 24-inch version, going up to $1,624 for the 40-inch size; the DTV+ Shower System with voice commands and spa presets costs $3,000; the free-standing bathtub, part of the Veil Lighted Bathroom Collection, costs $4,849; and the star of the show, the Numi Intelligent Toilet, goes for $7,000 (or $9,000 in black).

Anyway, if you feel like your life has been missing an app for your bathroom and a fanfare when you use the john, you can find out more about Kohler’s Konnect line-up on the company’s website. Get ready to immerse yourself, fully.

How People Are Tweeting From Pretend Devices

Have you seen the news? A “teen girl” went viral for tweeting from an “LG Smart Refrigerator” when her mother took away her phone. But that was fake—there’s no LG Smart Refrigerator with a built-in Twitter client.

As BuzzFeed News explains, this is just a new type of meme. People send ridiculous tweets and make them even more ridiculous by filling out a fake device name the tweet was sent from. It’s easier than you might think.

It turns out you—or anyone else—can send a tweet “from” any device you like. It’s pretty simple: Twitter wants developers to build devices that can send tweets. So Twitter will let anyone create a free developer account, create a “device,” and then enter an “app name.” Want to tweet from a “Windows 10 Smart Toilet?” Yup, you can do that.

That’s basically the process. Following through is a little more complicated than it sounds, as you’ll need a Twitter client that you can provide your developer keys to. For example, K0902 on Reddit explains a simple way to tweet from any device using a Python script. It’s pretty simple as programming goes, but can’t be accomplished in just a few clicks.

That’s how it works right now, anyway. With these memes becoming more widespread and the knowledge of how to tweet from fake devices out there, Twitter might see a stampede of new fake devices and might start shutting things down.

Twitter doesn’t really want people tweeting from GUCCI SmartToilets™, does it?

Sanitaryware: First Line of Defense Against COVID–19

June 30, 2020 4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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With the COVID–19 pandemic continuing to spread, the need for personal hygiene has become more pertinent than ever. Moreover, as the lockdown is lifted, it will only render people more vulnerable. One of the high-risk areas is community toilets and public restrooms. New-age smart toilets and restrooms could be an effective solution to the problem. The question is will sanitaryware manufacturers be able to rise to the challenge?

Impact of COVID–19 on water consumption

The importance of personal hygiene has increased multifold since the outbreak of COVID–19. Multilateral institutions and government agencies across countries have been regularly issuing guidelines and directives on safe water, sanitation and adequate hygiene (WASH) as a preventive measure against the virus. Emphasis is specially laid on following good hand wash practices—a simple act, it goes a long way in saving lives.

Amid the increasing importance of personal hygiene and cleanliness of immediate surroundings, the average consumption of water per person has increased during the current pandemic.

Municipal authorities and regional administrative bodies across the globe report a 10–60% increase in water consumption from mid-March to May 2020, reflecting rise in awareness about personal hygiene amid the outbreak. Water consumption is likely to remain high in the coming months until the disease is controlled.

Community/public toilets: A major source of infection

COVID–19 is highly infectious and can spread through contact or contamination. As the virus is transmitted through respiratory droplets, a person can get infected by touching the surface hosting the droplets. The economically weaker sections of the society are highly exposed to the risk of contagion as they share community toilets. These toilets, especially in developing countries, are hardly clean or maintained, which increases the risk of infection manifold.

Shared restrooms in commercial spaces and offices could be risky as well. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to have suitable sanitation related facilities to check the spread of the infection. Having smart sanitation facilities, capable of ‘intelligent’ use of water, could be the first line of defense against the virus.

Sanitary solutions

As offices and shopping malls reopen, the usage of common restrooms will also increase. Given the hazards associated with restrooms, where innumerable hands touch the taps and faucets, certain measures (might have a cost component) need to be taken to ensure they are ‘safe’ to use. Public or commercial restrooms could be designed around the concept of keeping them infection-free.

Some of the solutions in the short-to-medium term include:

Touch-free taps/faucets or sensor taps

Sensor doors which open and allow movement without individuals having to touch handles

Integrated wash basin with sensor taps/faucets and soap dispensers, along with hand dryers

Free standing dispensers with foot pedal kept at the entrance of the restroom; dispensers are tagged to a sensor, which provides real-time refill status of the dispensing solution

Toilets equipped with self-washing mechanism

Role of sanitaryware manufacturers

COVID–19 has forced the global community to take a relook at sanitation and hygiene measures, especially in public restrooms, leading to demand for their renovation.

It has created awareness and need for smart toilets and bathrooms. Their adoption is expected to increase, especially in North America and Europe. Keeping developing nations in mind, sanitaryware manufacturers must introduce smart sanitation solutions that are light on the budget. Once users start appreciating the value, there will be further uptake in medium- to high-priced smart sanitation solutions.

The pandemic has created opportunities for sanitaryware manufacturers—their offerings would help the world to fight the disease. Accordingly, stakeholders in the sanitaryware industry should rise to the challenge and channelize their resources to develop and introduce cost-effective, intelligent and sustainable solutions that would not only help in the battle against the current pandemic but also become the future of public hygiene.