TOOSHLIGHTS SMART LATCH

Have you ever entered a large public restroom and wondered which stall might be open? Did you awkwardly try to look below the door to see if someone’s feet were there…or knock on the door?

Tooshlights is the first and only restroom traffic management system that will increase traffic flow and efficiency in public restrooms by letting the guest know “where to go”.

When a stall is occupied, the smart latch is activated, the indicator light on the ceiling above the stall turns red. When the guest leaves the stall and opens the smart latch, the light turns green.

The smart latches communicate wirelessly with the indicator lights, which in turn are linked as a network to a wireless hub. The hub stores the usage frequency of each stall and communicates the information to the facility’s computer system. This information allows efficient scheduling of servicing, supplies and cleaning, by predicting service intervals based on usage. The system can also show if a stall goes down.

Occupancy information can also potentially be fed to an app, that can show a guest in a large venue which restroom has more open stalls.

Tooshlights came to M Industrial Design as a start up with just two employees and a simple working prototype. Our brief was to redesign and reengineer the Tooshlights to meet some tough design goals. The appearance design had to be beautiful enough to inspire architects to specify it, the housing had to accommodate electronics, switch and battery and be no wider than 1” to accommodate variable site conditions. It had to be rugged enough to withstand the public restroom environment.

M Industrial Design handled the design and engineering of the product, including the oversight of the electronics design of the smart latch, indicator and Hub.

MID also fabricated the first working prototypes, produced all production documentation and inspected and approved first article production parts.

Tooshlights has now been installed in several major airports and sports stadiums across the US and is well on its way to success.

Gone are the days when a restroom guest didn’t know squat!