E-toilet

    Voiçi un article en anglais concernant la sortie en Août 2006 d'un type de sanitaire: le e-toilet. Il est l'illustration parfaite de ce que peut être l'électronique domestique, voir içi, le réseau internet domestique au quotidien.

Les trois principaux acteurs nippons sur ce marché, Matsushita, Toto et Inax se battent depuis février à coups de modèles toujours plus performants, toujours plus recherché,...toujours plus utiles? On peut se poser la question au vues de certaines options: choix d'une "playlist" musicale pour tromper l'ennui (en fait surtout pour cacher la gêne occasionnée par les bruits corporels), régulation de la température de la cuvette ou de la pièce...

Les 3 acteurs jouent surtout sur le marché de la santé avec un e-toilet directement connecté avec le téléphone d'un médecin par exemple, ou pouvant calculer votre taux de diabète. D'autres modèles sont annoncés d'içi à 2008.

The e-toilet war has started in Japan Two industrial Japanese giants are “fighting” for a very rich market, nationally and internationally. Domotics will enter our house, starting from the toilet. For some though it could be the beginning of Orwell’s big brother The examples of applied domotics have accustomed us to dream about an electronic house in which each room automatically answers to every desire and necessities one has, but in Japan this dream is becoming a reality. Starting from the toilet. Computerised lounges and kitchens are fascinating, but for the Japanese electronic toilets are even more so and about 2 million people have bought the latest example of electronic toilet with water and air jets whose temperature can be chosen. For this reason Matsushita analysts are optimist about the success the web-connected toilet” is going to have, a hygienic installation that can analyse a human body whilst using the toilet and then send the results to the doctor: this prototype was presented at the end of October in Japan. A futuristic product, with great social and health potential, which should be on the market in a few years. This though is not the only piece of news that comes from Japan. In fact, from February, between Matsushita Toto and Inax, giants of the electro domestic and sanitary market, a proper “electronic flush” war has started fought with microchips and researches to get first to this very rich market. There’s the toilet that lights in the dark, automatically lifts the plate when the man arrives, and accompanies physiological activities with songs and music chosen out of a selection. These are the characteristics of Inax’s model out on the market since last April. Other models will be able to repeat encouraging sentences or requests from parents or flatmates, which will be soon created by Inax and Toto in the next two years. Thanks to vocal recognition, these models will be able to react to a human voice and do the simplest things for the lazier people such as vary the water temperature. In the past months toilets that can absorb smells have been created, in order to facilitate the use of the toilet that in Asiatic buildings usually has no windows. In May, Matsushita launched an extra luxurious model on the market, that costs 3000 dollars and not only greets the person entering the toilet, but also makes him find the top lifted and regulates the room temperature (the temperature can change of seven degrees in less than 30 seconds). All this is to be added to characteristics such as bidet jets and backside massages. The next generation of this type of machinery though made its debut last June with the immision on the market, from Toto, of a toilet that can measure the sugars in the urine by taking a sample with a spoon. This makes a toilet a very useful medical instrument for the elderly and the handicapped. The “web-connected toilet” is part of this generation and promises to become the first "Internet-appliance”. It is a hygiene system that has a seat with electrodes and carious sensors and a Lcd display. The results of the analysis are transmitted from the toilet to the doctor through a mobile telephone connected to Internet. This way doctors will be able to monitor their patients at a distance without have to hospitalise them. This should also ease home care for the elderly which has become rather necessary in Japan, where rest homes are full and not enough.

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