Ariel and Hila Ben-Amram are the co-founders of SpinX, a robot that has been designed to clean toilets which is currently halfway through its Kickstarter goal of $50,000.
Sadly, the robot doesn"t look anything like C-3PO walking around with a toilet brush, rather it is a self-contained unit that fits into something that would replace your current toilet lid. When someone wants to clean the toilet, all they need to do is press a button on the side of the lid unit and the SpinX will start cleaning.
Firstly, a smart scanner will assess the shape of the bowl and the extent of the mess. Then a robotic spinning brush arm that shoots a jet of water and cleaning product will unpack itself and descend down from the lid and get to work cleaning the bowl of the toilet. Meanwhile, the SpinX lid will also spray jets of water and soap and clean the actual seat, blasting it with compressed air to dry it off. The whole cleaning process takes about 90 seconds.
In terms of maintenance, the SpinX has a detachable battery that needs to be charged every 30 washes and the brush arm is said to be self-cleaning and drying too, while users will have to replenish the soap pellets as required. Many things are said to be self-cleaning, and only extensive use by customers will tell if the unit lives up to its claims. Surely, people would want to do a monthly check anyway just for peace of mind.
The robotic lid even has a feature that stops it from slamming, automatically lowering itself slowly. If all goes well on the Kickstarter then people who pledge $199 should receive one in mid-2018. Of course, as a reminder, a pledge towards a crowdfunding campaign does not guarantee that you will receive anything at all.
As a concept and the way it has been shown in the video, this contraption seems like it could be very helpful, considering that there have been robots developed for even more obscure things like weeding the garden.
Of course, it remains to be seen as to how robust this unit turns out to be, particularly in households with clumsy or careless individuals in residence. However, the fact that it does not feature any smartphone integration already puts it ahead of the Satis toilet made by Japanese firm, Lixil, that shipped with a hard-coded Bluetooth PIN. The oversight effectively gave a nearby attacker full control of the toilet"s lid, bidet, drying, and flushing functions, causing discomfort or distress for users.
Source: Digital Trends | Image via AIVAnet