[HN Gopher] Show HN: Loodio - A Bathroom Privacy Device
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Show HN: Loodio - A Bathroom Privacy Device
Hi HN! A few years ago our company moved to a new office. That
office has a insufferable bathroom in terms of privacy. You could
hear a needle fall on the floor inside of it which made it very
uncomfortable to use the bathroom. Many people ran the tap water
or fake coughed to cover their "noises", especially doing "no 2".
I got sick of not being able to be comfortable in the bathroom and
hearing everyone's toilet business so I decided to make a music
player using a Raspberry Pi and soldered on a motion detector that
started a white noise and music whenever you entered the bathroom
to hide these sounds. A lot of people said they wanted one so I
thought hey I should try to make this into a product. A lot of
time and money was wasted hiring consultants until I 13 months ago
said "enough of wasting money, I'll just build it myself". Today I
launched a kickstarter and am selling 50 units. Link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/loodio/loodio-bathroom-... I
know people in US have loud fans and such to cover for this, and a
lot of people just play music on their phones but the problem with
that is: when you manually play music in there you indicate you are
going to do something embarrassing! How else are you solving this
problem? I tried all existing solutions like the Sound Princess
from Japan and other chinese crap on Amazon/Ali but they were not
up to the task. I think there could be a market for Loodio. What
do you think?
Author : testmasterflex
Score : 70 points
Date : 2022-04-27 15:32 UTC (7 hours ago)
| typeofhuman wrote:
| Instead of white-noise or music, why not play the sounds of
| people using the bathroom? You know like, peeing, pooping,
| farting, chatter, moans and groans. This way our own noises
| become indiscernible from the background noise.
| haolez wrote:
| This is nightmare material.
| typeofhuman wrote:
| You could have different settings, like: Nightclub Wasted,
| Sporting Event Pumped, Elite Cocktail Hour. All with their
| own brand of sample sounds.
| teddyh wrote:
| You could also decorate the bathrooms to match:
|
| https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2255
| throwfaraway5 wrote:
| Imagine to go wash your hands and have the sound of a drunk
| guy vomiting as ambience :)
| ASalazarMX wrote:
| If the toilet is not the best place for those sounds, I don't
| know where. As long as the odor is managed, the sounds are
| inevitable. Maybe a loud air extractor?
| netizen-936824 wrote:
| Great SaaS opportunity
| imiric wrote:
| Clearly the sounds need to be generated by AI.
| TAKEMYMONEY wrote:
| I'd 3-way dial in to this service instead of the "Lenny"
| chatbot for spam phonecalls
|
| https://lennytroll.com/
| quadcore wrote:
| _This way our own noises become indiscernible from the
| background noise._
|
| What if it's the other way around?
| pjerem wrote:
| If I understand op well, the entire open space can hear what
| happens inside.
|
| Imagine if every time some of your coworkers go in for a little
| pee pee, you hear "peeing, pooping, farting, chatter, moans and
| groans" at maximum volume.
|
| You know what ? That sounds like a hella fun workplace. Don't
| forget the gross spitting sound.
| typeofhuman wrote:
| Everyone laughs and eventually becomes desensitized to it and
| thus we lower the stigma of explosive farts and bms.
| iSysAdmin wrote:
| I would wait for another place instead of entering into such
| bathroom...
| Giorgi wrote:
| ASalazarMX wrote:
| Wondering how many people will try to time their sounds to the
| soundtrack for maximum stealth.
| k_ wrote:
| > How else are you solving this problem?
|
| Working from home.
| brimble wrote:
| Having an "executive bathroom" is at least 20% of the benefit
| of WFH. Under-appreciated in discussions about this.
| swah wrote:
| And I shower during work hours.
| k_ wrote:
| That, and also workout during compilation. Which does also
| seem good for concentration, so win-win?
| brimble wrote:
| An afternoon "shake the after-lunch drowsies" shower is
| truly a glorious thing.
| Hamuko wrote:
| Haven't had to queue up for the bathroom during work hours in
| two years!
| achikin wrote:
| Looks like it could be replaced with Amazon Echo or any similar
| voice-enabled speaker which is 1/5 of cost.
| RedBeetDeadpool wrote:
| The device Jeff Bezos uses to record your private conversations
| and sell to advertisers?
|
| I mean, I guess its not the end of the world if Amazon
| recommended to me laxatives, toilet paper, or a plunger when I
| needed one.
| ThinkingGuy wrote:
| Or one of the many simple products built for this exact purpose
| that have been widely available in Japan for decades.
| traceroute66 wrote:
| > I think there could be a market for Loodio. What do you think?
|
| No.
|
| As others have pointed out, upmarket Japanese toilets have this
| feature as well as many other comfort features (auto bidet rinse
| and dry feature etc.)
|
| People who want this feature will therefore just go out and buy a
| Japanese toilet, since not only will they get the soundtrack but
| they will get all the fancy comfort features too.
|
| For everyone else, unless a medical condition prevents you from
| doing so, the answer is simple .... make some very minor
| adjustments to your diet and you will find you can avoid doing a
| "no 2" in the office altogether and just do it in the comfort of
| your own home in the morning and evening.
| pestatije wrote:
| Loodio means "I hate it" in spanish, so I'd suggest a change of
| name.
| testmasterflex wrote:
| Yes I learned that some time ago and found it pretty funny so I
| kept it.
| raldi wrote:
| I dunno; seems like a clever coincidence to me.
| sph wrote:
| Same in Italian
| tiborsaas wrote:
| Relaxing music doesn't mask the noises enough I'm afraid you are
| hoping. It either needs to be very loud or have a different
| genre, like metal or dubstep to suppress umm... brown noise.
|
| I'm also not sure if announcing anyone I'm doing stuff in the
| bathroom is what I'd always want.
| testmasterflex wrote:
| It also plays a waterfall sound simultaneously that somehow
| cancels out the other sound. Have had a prototype running for 3
| years that's done the job well. No more tap water waste and
| embarrassing moments.
| pjerem wrote:
| > Relaxing music doesn't mask the noises enough
|
| Try listening to "The Great Mighty Poo" :
| https://youtu.be/Vdd4rBlsj2o
| Xeoncross wrote:
| Why not just buy a $30 white noise machine and leave it running
| all the time?
| linguistbreaker wrote:
| This has been a product in Japan for decades because they live in
| such close quarters and are very polite.
| RobertRoberts wrote:
| I used to not be able to pee (shy bladder?) if a bathroom had
| even a single other person. But then I was in a situation where I
| had no choice (regularly) and I simply had to face my problem. It
| took _years_ and constant mental practice, but I simply got
| better at dealing with this and I am better off for it.
|
| I hope this works out for you, as I know most people will simply
| not be able to deal with their discomfort in the same way I did.
| And telling people to "face their problem" is not the same as
| saying "face your problem, and also I will make your life a
| little easier in the mean time."
| dmje wrote:
| I'd call a company in this space Sound Hides In Toilets
| dry_soup wrote:
| Many of those bidet toilets in Japan have this feature built in.
| I've never used it myself but I heard the sound they use is
| running water.
| rapnie wrote:
| Maybe 'sounds of the sea' works well. Crashing waves, seagull
| cackles, thunder in the distance. You can easily catch the
| cadence and thunder along.
| bastardoperator wrote:
| I'm a human and I'm not embarrassed of doing what every human
| does. I think farts are kind of funny too. I heard a dude moaning
| once, that was awkward but I just assumed he's gonna feel a lot
| better after everything is said and done.
|
| The real issue is lack of privacy. Worst problem I ever had was a
| kid crawling under the stall at Red Robin and saying "dad", and I
| was like no bro, I don't think your dad is in here.
| abnercoimbre wrote:
| I hear that in Europe you have to pay to access a stall. Are
| those doors more secure and therefore private? Otherwise
| crawling under like that kid means you can use the toilet for
| free.
| lcvw wrote:
| They usually run down to the floor in my experience, and are
| generally much nicer in general. I wish NYC would do paid
| bathrooms instead of just having no public bathrooms.
| precommunicator wrote:
| Usually the machine, such as turnstile (or human, or both)
| that control access, is before even entering washrooms.
| cypherg wrote:
| Thought of building this exact thing myself. Huge problem, huge
| market.
| my69thaccount wrote:
| What was wrong with the sound princess? That's exactly the same
| product.
| testmasterflex wrote:
| So the problem with the princess is that you need to hold your
| hand in front of a proximity sensor to make it play. It has the
| same issue I mentioned in the post, that it announces to
| everyone that something embarrassing is happening. And the
| sound was annoying. Plus you needed to mount it with screws
| onto a wall, which I guess would be fine if it didn't have the
| other disadvantages mentioned.
|
| Loodio plays chill music and requires no interaction. Plus it
| has the night lights and the display, which I want to make
| larger and have other features planned for it.
| leephillips wrote:
| "How else are you solving this problem?"
|
| Working at home.
| d--b wrote:
| I think it's fairly common in Japan to have music continuously
| playing in shared toilets. With a strong preference for brass
| bands.
| peppertree wrote:
| > I tried all existing solutions like the Sound Princess from
| Japan and other chinese crap on Amazon/Ali but they were not up
| to the task
|
| Just how loud is your shit? Maybe just ask your coworkers to put
| on head phones.
| boosteri wrote:
| May I have your attention, please! Will everyone please put
| their headphones on! I repeat - will everyone please put their
| headphones on ..... We're gonna have a problem here...
| Beltalowda wrote:
| "Excuse me everyone, I'm going to the toilet to take a shit so
| everyone please put on their headphones, cheers!"
|
| Yeah, definitely 0/10 on the awkwardness scale.
| anhner wrote:
| The problems some people have, I swear... I busted out laughing
| reading that some people cough trying to cover the sound of shit
| hitting the water. I thought that was just '90 bad comedy tropes.
|
| How do I solve this "problem"? Simple, it's absolutely no problem
| at all.
|
| Who the hell cares that your coworkers hear you taking a shit?
| Guess what, they also take shits and their asses make the same
| noises, do all of them cover it up in such ridiculous ways? Until
| today, I didn't even think this was even a problem.
| throwaway042722 wrote:
| > started a white noise and music whenever you entered the
| bathroom to hide these sounds.
|
| If you are looking for music to play, "Let it go" from Disney's
| Frozen would be perfect.
|
| It is loud enough to cover the sounds, and it is appropriate to
| the moment.
|
| "Let it go, let it go, can't hold it back anymore..
|
| I don't care what they're going to say"
| krmmalik wrote:
| This is a really well thought out product. Well done. You have
| solved a very real problem with this product in a very fitting
| way. I also really liked the 3D animation on the kickstarter
| page. I will buy one as soon as I have some spare cash.
| curiousgeorgio wrote:
| > How else are you solving this problem?
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pe7jtFvMYA (Portlandia sketch)
| sneak wrote:
| I think the same use case is covered by a radio or speaker that
| simply plays 24/7 in there. This doesn't need to be a smart
| device, no motion detection is needed.
| nacnud wrote:
| IIRC, The Angelic (pub in Islington, London) used to play
| comedy shows from BBC Radio 4 on a loop. Makes customers smile,
| covers up noises - everybody's happy.
| p1mrx wrote:
| Or just wire a sound generator into the lighting circuit.
| aquir wrote:
| I agree, this product is unnecessarily overengineered
| [deleted]
| JulianWasTaken wrote:
| Something that sits in a bathroom is likely to need regular
| cleaning. What's the plan for being able to wash this thing? It
| seems to have a bunch of open spots for water to seep into the
| electronics.
| testmasterflex wrote:
| Plan is to make it fully water resistant at a later point.
| jasondigitized wrote:
| My company had Sonos in the bathroom playing music non-stop. The
| best part was that you never knew what you were going to get. Wu-
| Tang one day followed by Yanni the next.
|
| It is odd that software companies spend a ton of money on amazing
| office environments yet bathrooms still feel like you are
| inhabiting a barn yard.
| DrBoring wrote:
| I worked at a startup where the single room bathroom opened
| into the kitchenette. It's rather unpleasant to smell your co-
| worker's poo as you're heating up your lunch.
|
| I'm not sure if the office space was like that when they leased
| it, or if they had it designed that way intentionally due to
| space constrains. But when they expanded the office, they
| missed the opportunity to change the bathroom so it opened into
| a hallway of the new square-footage.
| raldi wrote:
| Seems like a thoughtful design. Doubling as a Bluetooth speaker
| is a significant feature.
| princevegeta89 wrote:
| "chinese crap"
|
| Uh, I see what you did there OP. How about some modesty there?
| maxicarlos08 wrote:
| I prefer to shit in silence
| catchmeifyoucan wrote:
| One addition that would be great is a shower timer, and a
| humidity sensor to auto-detect how long I'm in the bathroom
| testmasterflex wrote:
| Thanks for your comment. May I ask what your aiming for by
| knowing your shower time? To save water?
| codedokode wrote:
| I guess it is to prevent some people from taking a shower for
| too long while others are waiting.
| aquir wrote:
| I never understood why this is bothering anyone, it's part of
| life! A bit like those toilet sprays...stuff stinks that's it.
| For me this is a solution for a non-existing problem.
| detcader wrote:
| I am highly sensitive to not bother anyone but I agree with
| this. This reeks of the tech mentality of trying to overcome
| nature and separate everyone into neat little pods.
|
| Eventually we are going to have to face and accept our natural
| human bodies as a species. For hundreds of years the market has
| offered us escape from them, with new technologies to plaster
| over our "faults" every decade. If only we had listened to the
| hairy armpit feminists when they were shouting this at us in
| the 60s and 70s...
| Karawebnetwork wrote:
| I can offer a perspective: being a woman in tech is already
| very othering.
|
| You can be the only person on an entire floor to use that
| bathroom. Having your coworkers hear what is going on inside
| can be very distressing (especially when we consider existing
| taboos).
|
| Some neutral bathrooms that share a room between genders can
| amplify this, for example where I work there is a shared sink
| but cabins have wooden doors that go from floor to ceiling.
| Great to hide from eyesight, not so great for sounds. Exiting
| the cabin and noticing that a coworker of another gender was in
| the same room hearing everything you have done can be anxiety
| inducing.
|
| People with health conditions also come to mind. IBS for
| example can result in some violent evacuations. Not everyone
| wants their coworkers to be aware of their health conditions.
|
| People expect privacy, that's it.
| rco8786 wrote:
| That's silly. Wanting privacy during our most vulnerable
| moments is deeply ingrained into our psyche, all the way down
| to our lizard brains.
|
| This is a very real and very legitimate problem to be solved.
|
| Surely, you must feel perfectly comfortable walking around
| naked, having people watch you defecate, or having sex in
| public? After all, it's part of life!
| moron4hire wrote:
| I honestly don't give a shit if someone knows I'm taking a
| shit.
| oceanplexian wrote:
| It's all fun and games until you have explosive diarrhea
| and your coworkers are making Taco Bell jokes for the next
| 6 months.
| moron4hire wrote:
| I don't work at a tech company or with other programmers
| anymore, so nobody is that juvenile.
| clint wrote:
| Won't reply to all the strawmen at the bottom of your post,
| but I and lots of people don't care what people HEAR while
| we're using the bathroom.... its a bathroom for god's sake!
| Everything happening in there is normal and I'm not sure why
| you are imagining yourself to be "vulnerable" inside a locked
| private room.
| rco8786 wrote:
| > I'm not sure why you are imagining yourself to be
| "vulnerable" inside a locked private room.
|
| The whole reason we all agree that having a locked room to
| do your business in is ideal is _because_ it 's such a
| vulnerable position to be in. We feel better about being in
| a locked room, but you can never get your basic instincts
| to not feel vulnerable when you're mid defecation/mid
| urination. It's animalistic and can never go away.
|
| Quite literally, knowing people can hear us take a dump
| triggers survival instincts because our brains think we
| could be alerting predators to our whereabouts while we're
| not in a position to run or fight
| jasondigitized wrote:
| I'm willing to bet 50% of people in the U.S. get anxious
| when having to do their business in a public bathroom.
|
| Doing your business next to a stranger in Tevas with hobbit
| feet and a serious gastro intestinal issue is nightmare
| fuel for me.
| outsidetheparty wrote:
| It's funny how people tend to assume their own
| characteristics are global phenomena, or at least common;
| isn't it?
|
| Looks like the actual number is somewhere closer to 2.8%
| - 16.4% of people
| [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28554367/]. (This study
| was specifically about "shy bladder" but that seems a
| pretty close proxy)
| rco8786 wrote:
| Disagree that it's a close proxy. Not being able to
| perform at all is much different than feeling
| uncomfortable about people hearing you do said deed.
| jasondigitized wrote:
| Not shy bladder at all. I'll let it rip. Doesn't mean I
| or others enjoy the experience.
| yurishimo wrote:
| I'm one of these people. Luckily as a man, I don't mind
| taking a whiz in a public restroom, even if it's
| disgusting, but id almost rather have an accident in my
| car than stop and take a #2 in a nasty gas station
| restroom. My bathroom at home is a sanctuary and I never
| take it for granted.
| gallamine wrote:
| I once had a buddy walk up behind me while I was at a
| urinal and smack the back of my head - one of the most
| infuriating things ever. Ever since I'm hyper aware of
| people behind me at the urinal.
| zdragnar wrote:
| Though I human, I prefer my coworkers think I am a robot.
| newman8r wrote:
| This is probably an interesting way to group people - those
| who care vs those who don't. I tend to be very conscious of
| the noise I'm projecting - I always prefer for people who I
| can't see to not be able to hear me. I'm not just talking
| about the restroom - this also includes talking loudly in
| public, playing music loudly around others, etc. I feel
| it's like a privacy thing to me. I'd prefer people not to
| notice me unless it's intentional.
| k_ wrote:
| Especially since I kinda doubt said sprays are good for our
| health. At least they're not better than what they're
| covering...
| zimpenfish wrote:
| There was a story recently about someone having blotchy face
| issues which got better when they were WFH during the plague
| but almost instantly came back when they were re-officed.
| Turns out (via an allergy test) they were allergic to some
| industrial chemical that, surprise, was one of the chemicals
| in the toilet air freshener and were basically being pepper-
| sprayed every time they went in.
|
| [edit: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/skin-
| irritated... ]
| cube00 wrote:
| Any reason for cancelling and hiding the first Kickstarter for
| what appears to be the same product from 2020? [1]
|
| [1]: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/loodio/loodio-
| bathroom-...
| testmasterflex wrote:
| Accidental misclicked and launched previous version.
| (Kickstarter has a confusing UX)
|
| It had FM-radio that didn't work and a crappy nokia 5110
| display. We were "95% done" with that prototype, according to
| the consultants, and I was 60K in. I decided to pull the
| handbrake after realising that was not going to end well when I
| had no clue how to build the unit and those "5%" would probably
| cost me another 100% if you know what I mean.
|
| I have since needed to learn how to design PCBs and mechanical
| design, redesigned everything from scratch and now ready to
| sell some units. Super stressful period.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > I decided to pull the handbrake after realising that was
| not going to end well when I had no clue how to build the
| unit and those "5%" would probably cost me another 100% if
| you know what I mean.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety%E2%80%93ninety_rule
| snapetom wrote:
| Hehe. Nice detective work. OP did say they moved to the office
| a couple of years ago, and his idea came about 13 months ago,
| so perhaps he jumped the gun on creating the project then
| withdrew it?
|
| Love a good "caught red-handed" internet moment, but this one
| might be Occam's Razor.
| SamBam wrote:
| Correct me if I'm wrong, but won't the white noise near the
| source mostly just affect the perception of sounds for the person
| in the toilet, and less so for the people outside?
|
| Kind of like if you're doing the dishes and have the water
| running, people can hear you just fine, but you can't hear
| anything that's said to you.
|
| I know in psychologists' offices they often have the white noise
| device in the waiting room for this reason.
| testmasterflex wrote:
| It does block all sounds and it's not very loud either. It's
| actually a waterfall sound I recorded on a vacation. We have
| been using it for 3 years now and you can now relax in our
| office bathroom. Sometimes I remove the unit for testing stuff
| and people get very annoyed, haha.
| UncleEntity wrote:
| > It's actually a waterfall sound I recorded on a vacation.
|
| Would've gone with whale songs for a more authentic nature
| experience but that's just me.
| adamomada wrote:
| They might think you're doing a J in there
| pandemicsoul wrote:
| That was my first thought! The concept works fine for a
| bathroom with multiple people if they're all trying to go at
| once. But if you're using this at home, the best place for it
| is actually outside the single-user bathroom.
| kodah wrote:
| Doesn't that just change the distribution requirements of the
| device? Basically, stick one in each stall.
|
| Non-sequitur: I am _really_ disappointed that I have not seen a
| _brown noise_ joke on these threads yet.
| emaginniss wrote:
| It would be better if the device played the sound of someone
| aggressively having diarrhea. Then, the people outside wouldn't
| know if it were the person or the device.
| nonrandomstring wrote:
| Ring modulation is the best effect for this.
| oceanplexian wrote:
| > How else are you solving this problem?
|
| The tech companies I've worked at have started to build "gender
| neutral" bathrooms. They are a fully locked/enclosed rooms with
| sound proofing, i.e. no gaps at the bottom of the door. Sometimes
| you need to take a long session or maybe are not feeling great in
| the bathroom department (Probably TMI) and it's almost as good as
| WFH.
| smartaz42 wrote:
| Wouldn't that be SFH?
| mxuribe wrote:
| Or, PFH?
| pvinis wrote:
| this covers both no 1 and no 2. lets go with that one.
| Beltalowda wrote:
| One of the advantages of wireless headphones is that you can
| take a shit while still listening in on those mostly (or even
| entirely) useless meetings :-)
| hancholo wrote:
| That's what I liked about some of Google's bathrooms:
| individual bathrooms with showers even.
| BasilPH wrote:
| > but the problem with that is: when you manually play music in
| there you indicate you are going to do something embarrassing!
|
| I'm honestly not sure how big of a problem that is. What else
| would you go to the bathroom for, then pee or poop?
| encoderer wrote:
| Drugs, obviously
| lstodd wrote:
| Drugs, sex and rock'n'roll. Seems like the last part is being
| solved.
| azinman2 wrote:
| This reminds me of someone I stayed with once in NYC that had a
| bathroom attached to their living space. He went in, turned on a
| music player real loud, so I just heard him shitting with loud
| music playing.
|
| I question the ability to actually undo the sounds.
| ugjka wrote:
| Why do you need motion detection, can't you just hook it up with
| the light switch?
| withinrafael wrote:
| Neat idea but I'm not yet convinced this speaker masks any
| revelant bathroom sounds* and has no real added value over a
| water proof Bluetooth speaker (e.g. Fugoo). That's not to say the
| product is wrong/bad but the Kickstarter content just didn't
| convince me. (A video with actual demo from the outside would go
| a long way.)
|
| I was also confused by the product wanting to be an all in one
| device for setting the "date night" mood, showing me the time,
| being a light source, etc. I think these are all distractions and
| should be cut from your plans. I imagine it would reduce your
| footprint and costs.
|
| Still rooting for your success, thanks for trying to solve this
| problem!
|
| * Elongated toilets are common in US and echo loudly. I can't
| imagine a speaker canceling out those sounds.
| tyingq wrote:
| Active noise cancellation would make for much more amusing how-to
| videos.
| ge96 wrote:
| We listened to many "noises" and created a machine learning
| (model deployed) on edge device which you can put in your
| bathroom to cancel sounds.
| p1mrx wrote:
| Active noise cancellation doesn't work with speakers in a room.
| tyingq wrote:
| Passive bass traps then. A bit of googling suggests 200-400Hz
| is the range they are trying to help with.
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(page generated 2022-04-27 23:01 UTC)