The, Soon To Be, Smartest Room in Your Home- Part Two

Some people I have spoken with believed that my last blog was cool but unlikely to ever happen. I have to respectfully disagree. I believe that the technology I spoke about will most likely start being massed produced for home bathrooms within the next 10 to 15 years. The technology in todays post might not happen at all, but we can always hope.

The Bathtub

The problem with predicting the future of the bathtub is that its simple design is hard to improve on. They date back over 5000 years and very little has changed about them. Their internal size and shape has varied little, and the exterior changes haven't effected functionality. 

It is unlikely that the tub will change very much, but here are a few things that might be altered. 

1. Collapsable tubs for small spaces. 

My house was built in 1956 and though it is a functional bathroom, it is very small. By being able to remove the tub when not in use, the floor space in my bathroom would almost double. This could be done like a murphy's bed, a collapsible cup for camping, or (my favorite) by have a motorized based that would become the floor (see video)

If that seems to far out, how about just covering the tub up to make it practical when not in use. The most practical idea is to cover it up and turn it into a bench . http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/tubs-toilets-showers-sinks/relax-lounger-for-conoduo-bath-tubs-080057

Looking Back to Look Forward

The Article that first got my attention about bathroom technology was the April edition of Popular Science 2004. They list a few concepts that make mine look practical, but there is one concept in that article that I would really love to see, radio frequency tag readers. I would love to see these things though out the house. Radio frequency tags can identify an item kind of like bar code, but with out the scanning. Popular Science believes that if radio tags, RFID's for short, are added to medicine, your computer could tell you which meds you have taken and when. I think that would be great, but why stop there. Put RFIDs on everything. When you through away that empty bottle of shampoo, your home network could add it to your shopping list, or even better order it for you. In the bathroom this could come in very handy because there are so many different products that you only use occasionally, such as medicines or first aid items. Your home network could tell you when a product is going out of date or has been used up. Now that is a bathroom I would like to have.