Health and intelligent bathroom designs for contemporary homes

Bathrooms are intimate spaces. Depending upon the space and the lifestyle of a person, they could be small or lavishly large where you can languish in the bubble baths. Typically, with hard solid surfaces, bathrooms are spaces that can be scrubbed and cleaned spick and span, yet, these are also the space where, you end up doing, what most would like to call – “all the dirty work”! The vagaries of infections have become all the more apparent these days, despite maintaining basic levels of hygiene. Every surface from sink handles to shower faucets to shower walls, curtains, towels, etc. all of these are potential hot zones for the spread of infections.

With Covid still dangerously present, such a scenario could be all the more vulnerable to attacks of bacterial and viral infections. In a new world order where personal hygiene, social distancing, sanitised environment and water conservation would become all the more important – health, hygiene, sustainability, technology and luxury designs would become key to bathroom innovations of the future.

Smart toilets as a health tool
Technologically-enabled, smart toilets can actually play an important role in monitoring health at hospitals and homes. Toilet seats that measure blood oxygenation levels, heart rate and blood pressure to signal when someone is at risk of congestive heart failures are being researched and developed. While these have yet not entered mainstream for regular commercial use, sensor-enabled toilets equipped with LED lights, Bluetooth, built-in Amazon Alexa, where you can inquire

about the weather, play your favourite tunes, hands-free, motion activated and heated lid, are already here! With a future that is increasingly getting ridden with risks, the newest innovative bathroom solutions that have entered the Indian market and are going to be widely used, are:

Touchless toilets and seat covers that open and close on its own and also heats the seats with UV rays passing through it. All these make the seats more hygienic and safe for the next user.

Automatic Concealed Touchless Cisterns that use active infrared technology, pneumatic flush technology and wireless communication technology for automatic flushing. Water efficient, these cisterns can activate half flush or full flush by programming through a remote control or by the wave of a hand. These are made of high quality anti-fungal, antibacterial resin which ensures hygiene.

Digital Shower Systems deploys simple push button controls on a touch screen that integrate temperature dials, water, sound, light and steam, by creating a spa-like experience.

Waterless Urinals – Another area where there is a large consumption of water (even potable water at times) is that in the urinals. Each flush could tantamount to litres of water being expended. Waterless urinals use liquid sealers and rely on density differential between the sealant and the liquid waste

Touchless Soap Dispensers are fitted with motion sensors that detect hand motion and in some cases infrared energy that is emitted through bodily heat, these soap dispensers automatically dispel a fixed amount of liquid soap.

Conclusion
Although budgets would vary, the well-aware discerning millennial with high disposable incomes are willing to spend more money to enhance their bathrooms and get well rounded professional help in doing so. Built using both hardware & software connected to smartphones and other devices, these bathrooms are easy to fit and improvise upon your existing bathrooms. So, in India, wherever water is scarce, water-saving products would be a great source of requirement and wherever the water is available in abundance the luxury products can be a great piece of customer satisfaction. Smart isn’t it.

For more details, contact:
Bantwal Ramesh Baliga,
CEO,
Watertec India Pvt Ltd

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