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New Technology That Could Cut Public Restroom Wait Times
- stormbrew 12y agoSo... that thing they've always done on airplanes?
- rogerbinns 12y agoThe planes don't show which restrooms are free, just that one or more are. I've been on a few flights where there are several people waiting, and no one is sure which are occupied since you can't see around corners or into other aisles.
- joncrocks 12y ago"New technology". You mean a light? Or a door slider?
- 6cxs2hd6 12y agoYes. And yet, still a better tech story than Yo.
- josephschmoe 12y agoTo be fair, this falls very well into the "Internet of Things" category. Imagine this scenario: You're at a convention and looking for a bathroom - but the convention hall floor just closed and there's big lines everywhere. You have to choose: A. Wait in line B. Look for a less occupied bathroom With this, you could look at a map with simple %'s and see not only average usage - but the exact occupation rate right now. You could then see that the Hall A's restroom is only at 50% capacity and head over there. A similar technology could be employed for seating and room occupancy as well, telling you better break rooms or where all the crowds are. Wouldn't it be awesome if you knew your coworker was in her cubicle, even if she wasn't on the computer? Or if you're a building manager, you could note the number of people who use certain restrooms, hallways and meeting rooms and adjust accordingly to redirect traffic elsewhere. Essentially, these sorts of things are what traffic engineers have been doing for a long time - but applied to people instead of cars.
- bradddd 12y agoI can't wait for the cluster analysis generated quest to find the 3 archetypal bathroom-user types.
- alexmarcy 12y agoI wasn't aware this was even something people worried about until I saw someone else doing a low-tech version of it a while back... http://www.rgj.com/story/money/business/2014/02/19/-reno-inventor-peep-no-more/5600733/ http://www.rgj.com/story/money/business/2014/02/19/-reno-inv...
- DrinkWater 12y agoIs that a troll post by Forbes? I am confused.
- n0rm 12y agoFixing lights on doors is new technology?
- joezydeco 12y ago"Tooshlights can also collect data on restrooms’ usage rates: for example, a consistently green light in a sea of red may tip off the maintenance crew that a loo is out of order or needs to be cleaned." This doesn't really clarify what happens with a stall that's out of order or in an, ahem, "unusable" state. In fact it sounds more confusing because now the person that was first wants to become first again and wait for another usable stall to open...
- jasonpeacock 12y agoOr just install cell-phone jammers in the restrooms...