OSAKA--A futuristic “human washing machine” that caused a stir at the
1970 Japan World Exposition has undergone a 21st century makeover for
the Osaka Kansai Expo in April.
The original machine, exhibited by Sanyo Electric Co., now Panasonic
Holdings Corp., didn’t catch on commercially.
But more than a half century later, Osaka-based showerhead maker
Science Co. is developing the new version based on cutting-edge
technology.
It plans to exhibit the “Mirai Ningen Sentakuki” (human washing machine
of the future) inside the Osaka Healthcare Pavilion run by the Osaka
prefectural and city governments.
Visitors to the exhibition site will be allowed to try it out.
The company is also planning to release a home-use edition.
“We’re about 70 percent there,” said the company chairman, Yasuaki
Aoyama, during a lecture held here Oct. 23. “We plan to offer 1,000
general visitors an opportunity to use it during the expo.”
Aoyama said seven to eight people will be able to experience a
“wash-and-dry” job each day.
The company is accepting reservations on a special page on its website.
The human washing machine is shaped like the cockpit of a jet fighter.
It even has a transparent cover that opens to the back.
The device partially fills with hot water when the bather sits in the
seat in the center. Sensors embedded in the seat measure the person’s
pulse and other biological data to ensure the bather is washed at an
appropriate temperature.
At the same time, an AI system determines whether the user is calm or
excited, and projects images on the inside of the transparent cover to
help the person feel refreshed.
A wash and dry takes 15 minutes.
Sanyo Electric’s human washing machine exhibited during the 1970 event
was called Ultrasonic Bath.
When the bather sat inside the egg-shaped tub, it automatically filled
with hot water and emitted ultrasound waves.
It also released plastic balls to massage the person’s body.
Visitors waited in long lines to glimpse the exhibit, and Aoyama, who
was a fourth-grader living in the city at the time, was among them.
He said his imagination went into overdrive when he saw the machine.
At the time, many homes had no bath and people routinely used public
bathhouses.
“It made me excited, thinking about what kind of future there would
be,” he recalled.
Now that his company deals in bathtubs and showerheads developed with
technology that utilizes microscopic bubbles to clean the body of the
bather, he decided to create his dream machine in time for the expo.
“We will offer a new human washing machine as a legacy from the 1970
expo,” Aoyama said.
