Step into my wired bathroom | Showering Enthusiast

DNA:

The World Toilet Organisation says an average person visits the bathroom six to eight times a day, which is roughly about 2,500 times a year. This means we spend about three years of our lives in the loo. No wonder the lowly WC — like the home and the office — has also gone hi-tech, with gadgets designed to make our time in it more fun.

Take the standard shower cubicle. By installing a few gadgets, you can give it an entertainment-cum-spa feel. The Discovery Tri-Fold Wireless MP shower mirror, for instance, comes with waterproof speakers and an FM transmitter that projects a wireless signal from an MP3 or CD player, or a TV, within a 100-foot range. You can buy this fogless mirror for a mere Rs4,400 ($100) at www.shopping.discovery.com. Team this with Philips’s MiraVision Mirror TV and you can have a party in the loo.

The MiraVision is an LCD TV that also happens to be a mirror. Depending on specifications, it costs anywhere between Rs1,23,000 and Rs2,20,000 ($2,799-$5,000) at www.philips.com. And you can get the frame customised to suit the décor of your room.

Other installations like touch-sensitive shower-heads and steam generators (with aroma options) add to the experience. The more adventurous can opt for showerheads by Ondine Electronic Light Shower, which use fibre-optic technology to change the colour of the water-spray from blue to green to yellow by turns.

If you have the space (and the moolah), then a hi-tech jacuzzi with assorted nozzles and sprays, is for you. The La Scala costs about Rs14,00,000 ($32,000), and has a 43-inch HD flat screen TV and a DVD system. And it’s drip-free.

The commode, aka the throne, has also come a long way, and we have the Japanese to thank for this. So far, they’ve churned out toilets with automatic flushing, massage functions, seat warmers, sensors and such. The Japanese Toilet Association (that’s how seriously they take their potties!) reviews new models and makes suggestions for future ones.

The Japanese company, Toto, is famous for its hi-tech commodes — the Neorest being its most famous. Frankly, it’s nothing to look at, but it has more brains than your average toilet user. It has a 16-bit processor under the hood that opens automatically as you approach. The seat warmer has different temperature settings that can be adjusted with a wireless remote. Flush settings include ‘cyclone flush’ and a ‘manual override’ function.

The Neorest also maps your toilet habits (go figure) and accordingly goes into a ‘power save’ (decrease seat temperature, turn off the water heater, etc). And — this is the clincher — it even cleans up after you. Drool over this Rs2,60,000 ($6,000) throne at www.totoneorest.com.

Now, if we could only take care of the pesky roommate who’s banging down the loo door while we’re inside.