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Toto hopes to woo you with its high-tech toilet showroom
Japanese toilets have long been a mainstay in Asian households, but the concept is still something of a curiosity in much of the Western world. Toto, Japan's biggest toilet maker, has attempted to market its high-tech commodes to American audiences for decades with little success. The company is trying to change all this with a brand new "experiential" showroom that launched this week in San Francisco. It's called Concept 190, and it's equipped with four sensor-laden bathrooms where visitors are invited to pee, poo and have a toilet experience unlike anything they've had before.
Japan's high-tech toilets are getting less intimidating
Japan is famed for its elaborate, high-tech toilets; and these elaborate, high-tech toilets are themselves famed for being nigh impossible for foreigners to decipher. Aware of the confusion many visitors face in getting to grips with the country's "beautiful toilet culture," nine manufacturers of luxurious thrones have put competition aside to agree on a new standardized and simple set of icons for common features.
A Westerner's guide to Japanese toilets
Dirt, stains, effluent, material, the load, waste, matter. These are the words my tour guides at Toto's toilet factory and research center in Kyushu used to verbally pirouette around what exactly its porcelain thrones deal with: shit. Japanese toilets are probably the best in the business at getting rid of your business, but for many Westerners, that first moment of contact can be terrifying. There are so many buttons, so many unknown symbols and open-to-interpretation stickmen figures; not to mention the (unfounded) fear that you could be sprayed with toilet water by merely approaching one. The Washlet, as Toto's combination bidet/toilet is called, doesn't come cheap. And yet, in Japan, they are everywhere. In fact, compared to plain, old, featureless toilets, washlets occupy the majority of restrooms.
Rock Band Weekly: Oingo Boingo, Toto
Although we all know Danny Elfman now as a prolific movie soundtrack composer – and as the singing voice of Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas – once upon a time he headed a band called Oingo Boingo, which gave us the memorable "Weird Science."
Inhabitat's Week in Green: go-kart made of Lego bricks, TOTO toilet bike and the launch of 'Willow Glass'
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. As we head towards the home stretch of the 2012 presidential campaign, we're closely watching both candidates to see what they're doing for the environment. The Obama administration scored a major win for fuel-efficient cars this week by finalizing new standards that will increase the fuel economy of cars to the equivalent of 54.5 mpg by 2025. But what about the cars that are currently on the road? This week we test drove a 2013 Ford Focus Electric through the streets of San Francisco (we admit, we did get a bit of range anxiety). And in one of the most interesting automotive stories from the past week, the world's first 3D-printed car -- the Areion EV-- reached a top speed of 141 kph.
Alt-week 8.4.12: buckyballs, bosons and bodily fluids
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. Remember when we told you last week that we live in a strange world? Well, we had no idea what we were talking about. Seriously, things are about to get a whole lot weirder. High school is certainly a head-scratcher, no matter how old you are, but the mathematics of social hierarchies can't hold a candle to the mysteries of the buckyball. And, if the strange behavior of the familiar carbon molecule isn't enough for you, we've got an entirely new molecule to contend with, while the once-elusive Higgs Boson is getting us closer to unlocking the secrets of the universe. It's all pretty heady stuff, which is why we're also gonna take a quick detour to the world of human waste. This is alt-week.
Video: TOTO robot catches tennis balls, hopes for a deeper purpose in life
Fido conked out for the evening? Your youngster not really into "playing catch" at age 14? Enter TOTO -- a brilliant robotic contraption conceived at Reinhold-Würth University -- that can absolutely act as a suitable replacement. Short for Tracking of Thrown Objects, the camera-equipped system views and tracks incoming objects, and once said object is within catching range, it clamps down in order to grab hold. Eventually, the inventors would love to see the machine have an impact within a manufacturing facility, but considering just how effective conveyor belts have been over the past few scores, we'd say it has its work cut out for it. Video's after the break, and it's worth checking out.[Via PlasticPals]
[1.Local]: I can haz in-jokes
Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.The green-eyed loot monster contemplating readers from the top of this week's We Have a Tabard appeared to be the source of some agitation for one reader. "I wish each and every person who ever used an 'I can haz' joke was firebombed into oblivion, including the author of this story who posted that braindead image," complained Preston. "Internet memes are some of the dumbest trends on the planet."Readers seemed to feel otherwise, peppering this week's comments with insider jokes, geek references, internet memes and a generally wry outlook on WoW and life. Join hands around the bonfire, boys and girls, and let us indulge in an entire post's worth of internet memes and dumb trends ... courtesy of our very own readers.
RIZ-ZOAWD website is stunning
Anagram-lovers unite for the latest revelation in the RIZ-ZOAWD saga. The Japanese website is now live, and it's achingly beautiful. Note to all artists and designers -- you deserve a raise.After several gorgeous images inviting viewers to the main menu, the four classic Wizard of Oz characters are displayed together. Each one is a fabulous re-imagining of the original designs, with the Tin Man getting some extra shine. The only currently active link directs you to a synopsis of the story -- in Japanese. Well, most people should have the general idea, but there's sure to be countless new ideas in this RPG re-telling. Even with English details still in limbo, you can start appreciating the artwork right here -- right now![Via GoNintendo]
Toto's Z-series toilets recalled due to fire hazard
Sure, spontaneous combustion has occurred in a bevy of consumer electronics over the past year or so, but if there was one place even we thought you could count yourself safe, it'd be on the john. Apparently, this assumption is no longer valid for Toto toilet owners, as 180,000 of the company's Z-series units are now being recalled "after wiring problems caused three to catch fire over the past year." The electric bidet accessory is being shown the blame, as the faulty wiring not only torched a trio of units, but also caused smoke to come flowing out of 26 others. As expected, the firm will "repair the potentially fiery units manufactured between May 1996 and December 2001 for free," but we've no idea if Toto will be reimbursing the outhouse rentals for those sans a backup commode.
Toto's Apricot toilet seat plays tunes from SD cards
Sure, talking about toilet seats can be somewhat awkward, but we're fairly certain you'd rather have a seat that sung to you while occupying the restroom than one that, well, didn't. Regardless of whether you're creeped out by a speaker-infused toilet seat or not, Toto is back and better than ever with its new Apricot. The seat maintains the SD slot and MP3 playback abilities of its predecessor, but this rendition also features a few "self-cleaning" abilities, a fragrance emitter, and an automatic light that turns on when it knows you're approaching. Furthermore, it looks to interface with a wall-mounted control unit that can queue up a playlist just as soon as it senses your presence, and as a good steward of the environment, shuts down when not needed to conserve electricity. So if you're strangely curious about sitting on an ultra-clean, sound streaming seat when visiting the bathroom, you can pick up Toto's Apricot next week for a staggering ¥109,200 ($900).[Via Impress]
