China has now started to implement Artificial Intelligence to stop people from stealing toilet paper from public washrooms.?
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On Shamian island in Guangzhou, China, toilet paper dispensing machines in washroom cubicles are equipped with a facial-recognition camera. The machine scans the face of the person inside the cubicle and allows them to remove 90 centimetres or 35-inches long toilet paper at a time.
If within 10 minutes the same face is detected by the vending machine (AI), it wouldn't release any more toilet paper. This isn't the first time China is implementing AI-based toilet-dispensing machine. They were first spotted in restrooms at the Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing.
Toilet paper being a single-use paper product has a drastic impact on the environment. As per research by Brondell, 27,000 trees worth of toilet paper is wasted every day. It takes 37 gallons of water to create one roll of toilet paper. Bleaching the paper uses 235,000 tons of chlorine that pollutes the local water, while also consuming 17.3 terawatts of electricity per year.?
While this is a cool initiative that would help in wastage of toilet paper, many are unhappy with cameras impacting their privacy in washroom stalls. Moreover, many have also complained that there are long queues to get toilet paper as the automated toilet paper dispensing system takes several seconds to scan and release the paper.
Chinese authorities are also taking further steps in smartening their toilets in cities like Shanghai and Shenzen, with more than 700 cities joining the bandwagon soon. The authorities have developed over 150 smart toilets that use IR lights and ultrasound sensors to sense how long a person is staying in a particular toilet stall.
There are sensors that are also responsible of monitoring air quality, along with measures to control water level depending on the time being spent.
SCMP
Beijing now also has facial recognition at communal waste-collection centres that monitors people who are dumping waste in incorrect categories to make them recycle in the correct way.