New sharp-shooting 'toilet showers' get straight to the point

[Anchorman]

Electronics giant National is flush with the success of its Beauty Toilet Series, but it's now aiming to make its gadget-packed toilet seats even cleaner and more environmentally friendly, according to Spa! (9/11).

With 65 percent of Japanese homes now using toilet seats that are heated and can provide a warm water bidet spray and butt cleaner, National turned its attention toward making a seat that didn't consume energy for heating when it wasn't being used.

"We carried out all sorts of tests to try and come up with a toilet seat that heated up only when it was being used and didn't need to be warmed otherwise. Eventually we hit on using aluminum, which easily absorbs heat, and set about trying to create a toilet seat capable of being warmed in an instant," Yukio Okumura of National's Wellness Marketing tells Spa! "We worked it out so that a sensor detected whenever somebody entered the toilet and set off functions that automatically lifted the lid and heated the seat. The seat was made so that it would become totally warm in about six seconds after the lid rose.

Okumura says company surveys and beta testing showed it took an average of six seconds from the time people opened toilet doors until they sat down, so that was how long engineers were given to get seats warm. But, as is frequently the case with market research, the reality turned out to be actually quite different.

"We were really surprised to learn just how many people sit on their toilet seats in less than six seconds," Okumura says. "There are absolutely loads of people out there with some unexpected sorts of habits, like those who only live in their underwear when they're at home, or others who leave their toilet doors open all the time."

Nonetheless, there were some times when the marketers got it right. Once such case led to what National calls its "etiquette point" in its latest series of high tech toilet seats. The "etiquette point" is actually a small LED light inside the toilet bowl. It's there because market research has showed that when there's something to aim for while they're having a pee, men will almost invariably try to hit the target. By incorporating the "etiquette point" in their latest toilet seats, National hopes it will keep them cleaner. It wasn't easy getting to that point, though.

"We made a pee simulator that replicated what we thought was the average amount of time a man spent urinating and tested it over and over again. Each time we simulated a pee, the simulator sprayed a steady flow of about 400 cc of water for 30 seconds at a height of 75 centimeters from the floor," Okumura tells Spa! "We changed the target point around to all different places on the bowl and measured how much spray hit other areas. We finally settled on putting the etiquette point in the area that generated the least amount of spray, which happened to be in the center of the bowl, just above the waterline." (By Ryann Connell)