this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2025
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I mean, you could just use smarter stuff that's open source and has local API, or do what I do and build your own devices where you can ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Even there though, what is the actual point of a phone app controlled smart toilet, even if you open sourced the whole thing? Unlocking one's phone and tapping the app icon, and then presumably a button on the app, is going to take more time than one press of a lever that one is right next to anyway, and the latter doesn't present as many points of failure.
Well if you read the product description it was to allow AI Bidet control. However they had not received funding for AI so it was outsourced to a team of laborers in India using cameras and joysticks.
It also logged the consistency, frequency and matter samples from all BMs so you could make informed dedication opinions.
Spoiler
/sHmmmmm
Damn was supposed to be defecation autocorrect got me.
Oooohhhhh, that makes sense.
I heard they sold a license for the camera feed and controls access to EA for their next pay-to-play iOS game. The shareholders are really excited for this synergy.
I asked for AI Biden control smh
I have no interest in one, but playing devil's advocate, some might consider it more sanitary since you don't have to touch the toilet to flush and have the choice of not being near it, hopefully avoiding any spray.
Also, if your guests use the restroom, you can startle them at any time.
How do the guests flush the toilet without the app? They have to ask you?
That occurred to me while writing my comment, as well, and I don't like the implications.
I would imagine they have to ask you, yes. If the toilet can be flushed without authentication, they'd probably still have to ask you how.
Of course. My roof, my water, my rules! /s
Foot pedal flush really needs to become a thing.
Wait, why isn't it? There's been so many weird flush designs over the years.
Probably just the extra cost of linkage and maybe risk of tripping over it
The pullcord kind used to be pretty common, I think. This is just that with a pedal.
I assume lack of demand. In your own home, you'd be keeping the handle clean, and public washrooms often use the touchless sensor types.
Now. I'm guessing you only have to go back to 2000 for that to be a futuristic new thing, though, while the history of the modern flush toilet goes back to the Victorian era.
Designing foot-operated things tends to fly in the face of modern accessibility standards. Wheelchair users already have enough problems using public toilets.
They can still have both. A foot pedal for those who want it, a standard handle for those who don't or can't. In fact, retrofitting existing handle-flush toilets to add foot pedals could make a lot of sense.
Oh shit, I guess that's true, yeah. Wheelchair bathrooms are there own thing but not every place has them, at least where I live.
It is in campers, lol.
Huh, so they do exist then.
Yeah, wouldn't want to get bacteria on your hands a few seconds before washing your hands.
Yeah I'd much rather spread poo particles all over my smartphone instead
Can you not go from the toilet to the sink without your phone?
Ok maybe the flushing part is a bit overkill and mostly a joke, but a toilet that can deliver notifications like if it's clogged for example before you use it and make it worse would have fantastic utility IMO
This makes zero sense. If it's clogged, you'd know beforehand when you look in the bowl. Why the would anyone need a notification for that?
The ONLY utility that I could see here is if the notification logged who did the clogging so you could give them shit.
Toilets can appear to have flushed fully, but still have...material...stuck in the U-bend that hasn't completely evacuated the toilet. A subsequent flush won't work, even though the water in the bowl is clean.
Ask me how I know.
That said, this could almost certainly be better-solved in other ways. Maybe by preventing the tank from refilling if there's still something in the u-bend (then you'd know it needed attention because there'd be no water in it)?
How do you know?
Let's just say this happens a lot in my house.
A little display or indicator light somewhere on the toilet itself would be better than connecting it to some IOT app
Oh, absolutely. I was responding only to "If it's clogged, you'd know beforehand when you look in the bowl."
An app for a toilet is a stupid idea, full stop.
This just isn't an issue that needs technology as a solution.
125% agreed. I was responding only to "If it's clogged, you'd know beforehand when you look in the bowl." I think there's potentially an engineering solution--a fluid dynamics engineering solution--but definitely not an app.
One word.
Toddlers
But in this scenario don’t the toddlers need phones? Wait do toddlers all have phones now?
I guess, but I've never heard of a toilet clogging before it's used.
There's other better examples, though. Smart thermostats get plenty of use from the people I know with them. A fridge that tracks how long stuff has been inside would be dope. Smart lights have uses.
Toilets can appear to have flushed fully, but still have...material...stuck in the U-bend that hasn't completely evacuated the toilet. A subsequent flush won't work, even though the water in the bowl is clean.
Ask me how I know.
Well, I suppose it is the kind of system where a lot of weird non-deterministic things can happen.
What kind of sensor are we thinking of here? Optical? I know it's a real issue to find something that doesn't foul or misread even in the simpler application of an RV septic tank.
I wonder if you could just put a window in the U-bend for manual inspection. It's supposed to be full of "clean" water most of the time anyway.
Yeah, not to mention, adding any sort of electronic components to the thing would be dicey at best. A lot of bathrooms don't even have power outlets anywhere near the toilet.
I'd prefer some sort of pressure-activated valve or something, but this is an engineering challenge that's beyond my meager skills.
The privacy issues are nasty, but a smart toilet could actually be an incredibly useful device.
Can you imagine if every time you went to the bathroom, your toilet could do some of the basic stool / urine tests you get at the doctor's office? Certain diseases could be caught extremely early, and you wouldn't have to do anything different.
And then there are bidet functions. Forget smearing poop all over your ass with paper, wash the poop off with nice warm water every time.
I wouldn't want to have to use a smartphone app for that, but there's no reason you couldn't have a simple set of buttons on the toilet itself. You could keep the manual flush lever and only use that if you preferred, but if you wanted an even better experience and a better clean, that option would be available.
Stuff like openWRT routers get a pass.
If it has a local host API I would use it because it never has to connect to the internet.
People also just need to be more selective about where and how they automate.
For example, I wanted my coffee to automatically start in the morning. So instead of buying a "smart" coffee maker, I bought the dumbest possible one and a smart switch. Now, no matter what happens with that switch, the worst that can happen is I have to manually hit a button to get coffee.
Yes, I don't hate the idea of smart-ish devices, if they're not cloud-dependent in any way and have some kind of manual override.
It's kind of painful to have a kitchen full of devices each implementing their own half-assed OSs separately, or even more than once in one device.
I have a wifi-enabled garage door opener whose manufacturer discontinued the Google Home connection for so that you have to use their app and see their Amazon or Walmart ads. I also have a wifi-enabled alarm system whose manufacturer apparently doesn't care about Matter integration or whatever. So leaving the house in my car requires the use of two different apps (three if I also need to turn off lights).
In actuality I just use the physical buttons. But there was a time that I had a beautiful dream of getting a smart lock and setting my house up to lock the doors, close the garage door, and arm the alarm when I pushed a button in the car--and, more importantly, undo all of those things in reverse when I got home.
with Home Assistant it doesn't matter if your device adds a Google Home connection, Alexa, Apple Home, etc. Exactly what 'smart homes' should be.
I need to get on that, I guess.
I wish I was this smart. We really want to do a smart light show using Xlights but every time I try to learn it I feel so frankly dumb.