These days, it often seems as though most new inventions and innovations build off of other recent technologies in the digital world. In this sense smartphones grow increasingly sophisticated, laptops get sleeker and more powerful, and many of today’s most creative minds spend their time building increasingly advanced iPhone apps and computing software. The contemporary inventor and business innovator is simply more likely to seek the services of an online Reputation Management Company than to use their hands and to model something new. In light of the popularity and ease of such ventures, this move certainly comes as no surprise.
But some of the most innovative inventions and strongest business ideas of the past couple years have come in technology’s most overlooked areas. First, two former Apple employees took a long-unchanged household item – the thermostat – and retrofitted it for the new millennium. They gave it a sleeker design and more user-friendly interface, they programmed it to function like a computer and connect with the internet, and they taught it the ability to learn habitation patterns and actively regulate a home’s temperature. The result was an advanced and ‘smart’ thermostat that had the ability to vastly reduce a house’s energy consumption. A by-product of this result was a stunning degree of business success. In only one year, Nest Labs saw a tremendous growth in sales and got press in several national newspapers.
A new business idea in a similar vein seeks to modernize another everyday staple that hasn’t been upgraded in even longer: the urinal. In restaurants, schools, and public places, the urinals in a men’s bathroom look little different than they did fifty years ago. Sure, many have automatic flush sensors and a few models have been engineered that use a sealant liquid instead of water, but the standard urinal has seen little innovation over time.
That may soon change. Designer Eddie Gandelman’s “When Nature Calls” project envisions a completely redesigned and modernized urinal system. In this system, the urinals are positioned not along a wall but in pods around the sides of pillars, platforms and support columns, a layout that utilizes open space in a bathroom while also maximizing privacy. The urinals themselves furthermore have shapes slightly different from the traditional variety; with deeper walls and rounded backs, they are designed to reduce the amount of ‘splash-back’ experienced by the person urinating.
But the most striking element of the “When Nature Calls” project is the green view that men will get while urinating. Atop the urinal pods will be grasses and shrubbery that add color to the sterile bathrooms and offer an extra layer of privacy. The plants will be watered completely by the urine being discharged in the basin below; charcoal, crushed limestone, and greensand are used to filter the urine up from the ground level to the soil above. Once implemented, this filtration system could make the bathroom a far greener, cleaner, and more eco-friendly place. It also may translate into a great business opportunity.
“When Nature Calls” has been awarded a provisional U.S. patent. It may be coming to a bathroom near you sometime soon.
Article contributed by Jenna Smith