Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bidet controls

Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by mikekchar on Thursday January 19, 2017 @04:09AM (#13434264)

I've never seen this unit nor anything even remotely this complex in a public toilet. The vast majority of toilets I've seen are the basic washlet features and a few give you the added option of spray pressure. The pressure options I've only ever seen in hotels. Not only that, but the vast majority of public toilets are auto-flush.

Having said that, the "bidet" label on the "ladies" button is highly misleading ;-)

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by patio11 on Thursday January 19, 2017 @04:16AM (#13434296)

This use case (use by people who are not literate) is one of those few circumstances where worse-is-better, because public toilets (like one might find in a train station or department store) are typically either mechanically operated (trivial to use) or the lowest-scale models.

That said, this is not a rare, exotic toilet in Japan; it's something which would be unremarkable in an office building or a restaurant that you could reasonably use for date night.

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by mikekchar on Thursday January 19, 2017 @04:36AM (#13434372)

Living as I do in the inaka, I am rarely blessed with such things. Sometimes I think Tokyo is a different world ;-)

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by glandium on Thursday January 19, 2017 @07:10AM (#13435128)

Don't you like the washiki toilets? ;) (seriously, I live neither in a big nor a small city, but there are way too many of them still, in this century)

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by mikekchar on Thursday January 19, 2017 @07:29AM (#13435225)

I don't :-) But that's the reality of the izakayas around here. Actually the virtually brand new (7 years old???) onsen near me has exclusively washiki toilets (very nice new ones). Apparently the older patrons like them. They have handlebars on the wall too, which is a nice usability touch.

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by timr on Thursday January 19, 2017 @05:25AM (#13434616)

I see one like this in nearly every Tully's and Starbucks in Kyoto. They don't have as many bottom-washing options, though.

Still waiting for someone to explain the difference between "bidet" and "behind"...neither one seems to function in the advertised manner.

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by mikekchar on Thursday January 19, 2017 @05:30AM (#13434639)

Behind is for anyone's rear end. Bidet is for women. Not sure I want to explain more fully ;-)

It.... takes some experience... But definitely worth it in my experience :-)

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by timr on Thursday January 19, 2017 @05:40AM (#13434701)

Yeah, I figured that's the theory, but in practice I've found no consistent aiming for either function. Also, most washlets with both also have an independent forward/backward function.

Besides all that, is there some targeting system going on down there? Machine vision? Lidar?

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by mikekchar on Thursday January 19, 2017 @06:23AM (#13434906)

None that I know of. A combination of adjusting yourself and using the forward back buttons usually works. There are also some with pulsating streams for extra scrubbing power.

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by TeMPOraL on Thursday January 19, 2017 @06:08AM (#13434832)

> Machine vision?

God please no. Don't give people ideas, lest we want to have a cloud-connected startup doing just that...

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by kalleboo on Thursday January 19, 2017 @06:50AM (#13435043)

Simpsons did it? https://youtu.be/BPLrNWAsBWU?t=18

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by Nullabillity on Thursday January 19, 2017 @03:44PM (#13439295)

There's also that Adult Swim infomercial... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by dqv on Thursday January 19, 2017 @02:10PM (#13438570)

It's going to happen sooner or later. I'm pretty sure the $8000 models employ some kind of computer vision to adjust the sprayer to the correct "human output interface".

A cloud toilet that examines your feces and urine probably isn't far off (and is probably already in the works).

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by TeMPOraL on Thursday January 19, 2017 @02:48PM (#13438885)

So I guess that beyond Cloud-to-Butt, we'll have a Butt-to-Cloud extension...

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by Mtinie on Thursday January 19, 2017 @06:21AM (#13434898)

The rise of self-aware bidets will end poorly...

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by rangibaby on Thursday January 19, 2017 @06:42AM (#13434999)

Just wiggle your behind around until you get the right spot

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