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Digital equipment in public facilities
Posted by: barrmar on May 20, 2010
Anyone that has used public toilet facilities over the last few years will have noticed the proliferation of digital equipment replacing more traditional utilities.
These automated facilities include taps that turn on when you place your hand underneath them, toilets that flush as you walk away and automatic paper towel dispensers.
The companies that provide the equipment have obviously been putting in a lot of work to develop the alternatives.
There are some benefits to some of these facilities. Water does not get wasted as the taps close as soon as you walk away. The toilet should always be flushed as it no longer depends on a person to start the action.
As for the automated paper towel dispensers, the only possible benefit is that you get a fresh sheet of paper that has been untouched by anyone else.
The benefits seem very trivial compared to the research and development than has been invested in these devices. The disadvantages may in fact outweigh the benefits.
To start with, all these devices stop functioning when the power supply stops. No power could mean no water, no flushing toilets and no paper towels. Then there is the ever-present likelihood that the equipment malfunctions. The equipment does malfunction. The water saving taps keep running until someone is able to intervene and turn off the master tap. Sometimes the water is dispensed in an utterly useless trickle.
And when there is a problem with the automatic paper dispenser then it is back to shaking the hands dry.
There are arguable hygiene benefits, but these are generally negated by the fact that most facilities only have one or two devices that are automated. Moving from the automatic flushing to manual taps leaves plenty of room for the transfer of germs in our germ-phobic society.
Surely digital equipment should have some real benefits, otherwise why bother? Do you really have a problem turning on your taps all by yourself?
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