It's enough to make you laugh

[austin_dern]

What, exactly, was wrong with faucets that architects for public spaces like malls reject them? As far as I can see they're perfectly good, well-proven, technological solutions to the challenge of giving people a supply of water with which to wash hands and possibly face. Even button-triggered, timed faucets provide water fine. Why reject them?

This pique is prompted by an Orchard Road mall designed by some trusting soul who never noticed the fantastic technologies of 1950s General Motors shorts were generally impractical. It's not enough that he used infrared triggers for the water, guaranteeing one has to keep waving for one chance in three of getting a brief stream of water not aimed anywhere near the hands; he also set infrared triggers for the soap, for one chance in three of a tiny squeeze of soap; and for the hot air hand dryers. No great loss there, since air dryers don't dry hands, but still.

All these dispensers are hidden under an aluminum cover, so that there's no hint of where the faucet, the soap, or dryer are, except for evenly spaced imprinted icons, vaguely lined with the dispensers. It's designed as a trough, rather than separate sinks, so all this is at the lowest acceptable level; the sink's not quite at my knees, but they're trying.

It's so needlessly difficult and ugly I know the architect got an award.

Trivia: An extinctospectrophotopolariscopeoculogyrogravokinetometer was carried by Scott Carpenter's Mercury capsule, Aurora 7. Source: For Spacious Skies, Scott Carpenter and Kris Stoever.

Currently Reading: The Black Cloud, Fred Hoyle.

Comments

[whiffert.livejournal.com]

"Trivia: An extinctospectrophotopolariscopeoculogyrogravokinetometer
was carried by Scott Carpenter's Mercury capsule, Aurora 7. Source:
For Spacious Skies, Scott Carpenter and Kris Stoever."

Also known as the little red lamp that indicates everything.

[mwmiller.livejournal.com]

So, what do extinctospectrophotopolariscopeoculogyrogravokinetometers measure anyway? Signs of pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis?

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I wondered who'd ask. The instrument was designed to measure the airglow, a faint light visible from orbit. The device was to measure its wavelength, intensity, and height. The meaning, (according to Jack Hereford, one of the developers, was:

extincto- The extinction-photometric method.
spectro- Use of tristimulus colorimetry filters (this may actually be a step backwards for comprehension)
photo- photometer (the base instrument)
polari- measuring the polarization
scope- a visual instrument
oculo- relating to the eye
gyro- the bright-line orientation test
gravo- the zero-gravity aspect of the test
kineto- the dynamic aspect of the experiment
meter a measuring device.

That is, it was a device ``to measure the brightness of objects in white light by polarity and by color.''

It's hard to resist the idea that they got a little silly in the naming and started adding syllables just because they could.

[moonfires.livejournal.com]

It was probably one of the Germans.

[mwmiller.livejournal.com]

I think this is part of a long-term plan to reduce and eventually eliminate water bills. The first step was the roundish knobs that are difficult to grip; the second, the handles that swing left/right/forward/back and are maybe labelled hot and cold, but not in a way that's at all helpful; eventually, public restrooms won't have sinks at all, just bottles of hand sanitiser. (He slimed me!)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Bottles of hand sanitizier are common enough here -- as the SARS crisis started slightly paranoid treatment of microorganisms got really popular -- and many fast food chains have sinks in the dining area. MOS Burger, particularly, encourages you to wash before and after, and has a couple hand sanitizers scattered around for the purpose.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I was once in such a restroom and after getting the soap dispenser to squirt some onto my hand, I simply could not figure out how to activate the faucet. I was stuck with soap on my hand and no way to rinse it off. Given that the liquid soap they use in restrooms will usually give me an allergic reaction if I don't wash it off very thoroughly, this was not a happy state of affairs.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Based on experiment, it appears there are two standards for sensors, one that ``works'' if you put your hands in the right place, the other if your hands are in motion (washing together?). So if I try trail-hunting for it by waving hands slowly back and forth while shaking them, I can get the things to work maybe a bit over half the time. Still, gr ...

Re: Don't know if you wanted a straight answer, but

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I grant the advantage in reducing the number of surfaces you have to touch; and the odd thing is the infrared sensor works perfectly well at the urinals and the western-style toilets. It's their use in sinks where it just doesn't work. (And it still leaves the surface-paranoic's nightmare of the door handle unaddressed; I don't see why any public bathroom designer sets doors that open inward.)

[moonfires.livejournal.com]

Where I used to work it had infrared faucets. Most of them worked fine, which was great. A few had misaimed sensors or something, which was annoying.

The hot air hand dryers actually work. The key is not to be dripping wet when you use them, and to actually follow the instructions and rub your hands together. I've had no problem with them since figuring them out ;>

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

So the air dryers will dry your hands as soon as you've shaken off enough water that they aren't that wet ... which seems to violate the colorful cartoons from the National Environment Agency asking you not to shake your hands off.

There's a new twist come to some malls, a sort of enclosed armature with air jets from both sides. That works a bit better, and it looks like something from a late 60s science fiction movie, but it still doesn't work very well.

[moonfires.livejournal.com]

You don't leave the sink with dripping wet hands. I'm sure if you shake your hands off and leave puddles around in Singapore the N.E.A will send some cartoon otter after you and admonish severe beatings with its tail.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Actually, nearly all (public) bathrooms use rubber padded mats around the sink. The one that irritated me has (grumble) aluminum sheets with regular punched holes. And bathrooms are cleaned three or four times daily, as posted. So there's always evaporating water anyway.

[argon-centaur.livejournal.com]

They may claim "safe and sanitary", but I think it's to save on the water bill. I've seen people just walk away and leave the water running. So it amounts to putting several hundred dollars worth of gadgets in to save maybe several hundred dollars on the water bill.

And of course, if you're in a large area, and they don't work, who are you going to complain to?

As far as the sink being low, that may be to accommodate folks in wheel chairs. But they're always too low for me. IC or not, I stand pretty tall, and find I have to lean over further than I'd like to use public sinks.

And the "soap" is always crummy. You never seem to be able to get a good lather out of it.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Ah, now, some places -- particularly Tokyo Narita airport -- have gone over to a deliberately foamy soap. That works great and you can't help get a marvelous lather from it. Most recommended.

precisely

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

many theengs reachthe point of becoming exaggerated overkill, before once again being smacked back into the reality of being functional...
*fuzzles yer fur*

Re: precisely

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, but I find I'm more accurate the more I exaggerate things.