Eva Wentink from OnePlanet (an institute created in a partnership of Wageningen University and Research, Radboud University Nijmegen and IMEC) muses, low-key charismatically, about the need and feasibility of a self-monitoring toilet. She explains how and why she and her colleagues built three toilets: (Thanks to Michiel Scheffer for bringing this to our attention.)
Tag: toilet
Associations: Penrose Tiling and toilet paper
Why would London’s Science Museum permanently archive four rolls of Kleenex toilet paper from 1997? The answer lies in the design of its embossed cushioning pattern . . . The tiled design is a version of Penrose Tiling – a mathematically repeating pattern which was devised (or if you prefer discovered) by Nobel Prize winner Sir […]
Toilet graffiti studies 1731 – 2007
The first scholarly work on toilet graffiti was very likely The Merry-Thought: or the Glass-Window and Bog-House Miscellany. Part 1 written and published by ‘Hurlo Thrumbo’ in 1731. ‘Hurlo Thrumbo’ was, many believe, none other than poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor, lexicographer. and man-of-letters Samuel Johnson himself. “The Original Manuscripts written […]
Today in Fluid Dynamics: “Can a Toilet Promote Virus Transmission?”
Pressure from the pandemic is bringing an urgent flow of partial information about the safety-or-danger of everyday activities. That flow brings us this new study: “Can a Toilet Promote Virus Transmission? From a Fluid Dynamics Perspective Featured,” Yun-yun Li, Ji-Xiang Wang, and Xi Chen, Physics of Fluids, vol. 32, 2020, 065107. The authors, at Southeast […]
Deep Learning to Help People Know Your Shit
A new, distinct form of backend processing— a very distant relative of potty training, for computers—is presented in this new study: “A mountable toilet system for personalized health monitoring via the analysis of excreta,” Seung-min Park, Daeyoun D. Won, Brian J. Lee, Diego Escobedo, Andre Esteva, Amin Aalipour, T. Jessie Ge, Jung Ha Kim, Susie […]
The case of toilet management in a French academic library
A look at how a library manages to manage the facilities that help library users manage their bowels will likely enliven the 5th annual international User Experience in Libraries conference, or UXLibsV. The conference will take place at Royal Holloway [pictured below], University of London, on 17-19 June 2019. The session to be sure to […]
A news dump, about taking a dump: The Stool Stool
Alex Blasdel, writing in The Guardian, waxes eloquent about methods old and new: “Bowel movement: the push to change the way you poo— Are you sitting comfortably? Many people are not – and they insist that the way we’ve been going to the toilet is all wrong.” Blasdel describes in depth the commercial rise of […]
Exploring the Confusion Matrix for Auto Bidet Seat Icons (study)
When it comes to designing icons for the operation of household equipment, care must be taken to avoid misunderstandings. “If the right button is pushed, the desired function will be performed. If the wrong button is pushed, an unexpected function will be performed. It might cause the user’s body or mental state of unwell even […]
Toilet paper papers – a partial resumé
Following on from our recent note regarding ‘A Time/Cost Assessment of Toilet-Paper Folding, Worldwide’ may we also recommend a non-exhaustive selection of other toilet paper papers which may be perused at your convenience :- ● A System for Identifying Toilet User by Characteristics of Paper Roll Rotation ● Objective Hand Measurement of Toilet Paper ● […]
“Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bidet controls”
User interface issues are not glamorous — but they do matter. Many irksome problems linger for years or decades. Sam Byford reports, in The Verge, on a cleansing case: Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bidet controls The Japan Sanitary Equipment Industry Association, a consortium of companies producing plumbing products including Toto, Panasonic, and […]