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Bathroom of the Near Future
Text | GoJim
photos | Kimio Ng
Edit | Henry Lau
Design | Franco Au-Yeung

We have entered an era with almost everything at home is “smart”. The bathroom is in no way less important than the living room, and what people care about now is less on the materials but more on smart technology! For the near future, bathroom equipments are not just highly convenient, they also improve health and are energy efficient. They can even be aesthetically pleasant and add some style to the space.

The art of angleless

TOTO Neorest NX

 

At its 100th anniversary, Japanese bathroom brand TOTO has just launched the Neorest NX toilet to welcome the next 100 years. Described by Japanese media as an art piece, Neorest NX toilet is made of ceramic glaze, instead of the standard material resin, and the quality material is further highlighted by the smooth surface and curves. The toilet’s seamless and angleless structure  makes it easy to clean and less likely to have bacteria piled up. According to TOTO’s designer, the design brief of Neorest NX included injecting ultimate beauty into the bathroom. In addition to offering a visual appeal, it has to make its user feel pleasant at the same time.

Neorest NX is full of features equipped with the latest technologies. For example, the Tornado jet flushing system keeps the toilet ultra clean and significantly save water from 13 litres to of the traditional toilet to 3.8 litres. The flushing water is electrolysed for antibacterial function. The brand new Air In Wave feature cleans the bottom of the user gently through more than 100 nozzles. Compared with the previous model, the coverage of the cleaning area is about 30% more and the water flow is more gentle. Neorest NX cleans and disinfects itself with electrolysed chloride ions found in tap water. It also cleans itself every eight hours with sterile water to make sure it is absolutely spotless! The toilet is now available in Japan and is expected to hit the shelves in China and other Asian regions as well as the United States starting from next summer.

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Dry Hands at the Sink

Dyson Airblade Tap

 

With the limited living space in Hong Kong, most bathrooms would not have a hand dryer, but Dyson Airblade Tap cleverly combines hand drying technology in  a tap. Put your hands under the tap and water comes out automatically for hand washing. After that, just open your hands and up to 35 litres of air are forced through apertures of 0.8 mm wide at 690 km/h to scrape water from hands. The hands are dried in just 12 seconds. The whole process is touch-free which greatly reduces the chance of getting bacteria onto the tap. it is also completed within the sink, meaning no water is dripped on the floor. The built-in HEPA filter can effectively filter up to 99.9% of the bacteria and viruses in the air to ensure a hygienic drying process.Most importantly, Airblade Tap helps saving money and has a lower environmental impact. Compared with using paper towels, it cuts down the cost by 97% and carbon footprint by 71%.

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The Comfortable Waterfall

Nebia Shower

 

Nebia Shower rose to fame as Apple’s Tim Cook and Google CEO Eric Schmidt highly recommend it after trying. In fact they were early investors of the project, and its Kickstarter campaign raised 20 times more than the target amount. The name Nebia comes from the Italian word ‘nebbia’ which means mist, and this is what the showerhead is all about. It features specially designed nozzles that atomise water into millions of mist-like droplets. With the same amount of water, these droplets create 10 times more surface area than a regular shower and wash away the shampoo or shower gel much more effectively. A standard shower requires 20 gallons of water, with Nebia the figure is reduced to 6 gallons!Apart from using 70% less water, Nebia also offers a clean and comfortable shower experience. The atomised water droplets make you feel like you are hugged by a cozy mist. The tiny size of the droplets means more water comes into contact with the skin, resulting in a rejuvenating experience that relax your muscles. According to their research, 97% of the thermal energy is lost down the drain in a regular shower, while Nebia can transfer 13 times more heat from the water into the environment and into the user for better thermal energy efficiency. Made of TPU and matte anodised aluminium, the showerhead can be adjusted up and down and in a range of angles. Nebia’s sleek design is certainly one of its highlights and it almost doubles as an ornament in the bathroom.

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Facial Instructions

MirroCool

 

MirroCoolWith face recognition technology getting more advanced and developed, artificial intelligence housekeeper is playing a more important role even in the bathroom department. San Francisco startup MIRROCOOL has brought us the smart mirror MirroCool. It may just look like an ordinary mirror and it does show  reflections like what other mirrors do, but when you stand in front of its magic begins. The built-in face recognition system detect and recognise the distinctive facial features of a registered user and sync to user’s phone. It greets you by your name and starts being your personal assistant. The system recognises facial gestures to control the device, such as showing weather forecast, public transport timetable, your schedule or stock prices on the 5-inch display on the mirror. All can be done without touching the mirror. You can even take a selfie with the high-definition camera behind the mirror by just blinking your eye.MirroCool is equipped with a high-speed quad-core processor with 2 GB RAM and internal storage. Its specially developed facial gesture recognition can identify 70 different gestures. MIrroCool can also function as a home surveillance device when you are away. If the camera detect an unregistered face, it will take pictures of the stranger and send them to the owner’s mobile app. MirroCool is available in four different wooden frame or frameless options. It is available for pre-order now for delivery in Q1 2018.

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Quick and Shiny

Dyson Supersonic

 

Many people probably don’t know that hair, once damaged, cannot be repaired. Therefore the first step in basic hair care is to avoid causing damage to the it. One of the main causes of damaged hair is heat and therefore If the air flow from hair dryer is hotter than 150℃, it will damage  the hair and make it dull.

Dyson’s Supersonic has set revolutionary standards in hair dryers with its intelligent heat control and the patented Air Multiplier technology. The glass bead thermistor measures exit temperature 20 times every second and reports it to the microprocessor. Then the intelligent heat control maintains the optimum exit temperature, helping to prevent extreme heat damage and making the hair appear shiny. With the Air Multiplier technology, the hair dryer creates a focused jet of air angled at 20 degrees for precise drying and styling. The engineering team also made an effort in minimising the noise without reducing the air flow. Additionally, Heat Shield technology is used on the attachments for keeping their surfaces of cool during the whole blowdrying process. Supersonic offers four heat settings including a constant cold setting and three speed settings. The hair dryer comes with magnetically attached nozzle and diffuser as well as a storage hanger for easy and convenient use in the bathroom.

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