Concept illustration: a calm contemporary bathroom at dawn, with stone walls, a timber vanity and low sun across the wall

A Fordcastle initiative · Open and mission-driven

The bathroom innovation system.

Everyone in the world visits this room, every day. Almost no one listens to what it could tell them. The Bathroom Innovation System is where makers, researchers, funders and communities build something better together, in three parts: an ecosystem of partners, shared infrastructure (bathroom.OS), and open experiments.

Join the ecosystemStart a conversation

Early-stage initiative. No product to buy. We say so up front.

Concept illustration
Daylight falls across a timber shelf, ceramic basins and a round mirror in a quiet hotel bathroom

The room

It's where the day begins and where it ends. Where we are most private, and sometimes most vulnerable.

First thing in the morning. Last thing at night. Through illness, recovery and old age, when dignity matters more than anything. The body leaves small signals here every day. Almost nobody reads them, because the room was never built to listen.

Why now

The sensing is ready. The shared foundation isn't.

Sensors that can notice what the body is doing are now small and affordable, and companies are bringing them into the bathroom one product at a time. What's missing is the layer underneath, so that all of it can work together, be trusted and be built on.

01 · SILOS

Every product starts from scratch

Each device brings its own app, its own data format and its own privacy promise. Nothing shares, so nobody can build on anyone else's work.

02 · EVIDENCE

Claims outrun proof

Without common methods, a clinician, an operator or a funder can't easily tell which bathroom technologies actually work.

03 · TRUST

This is intimate data

People will only share what happens in this room if it serves them first and stays in their control. That has to be designed in from the start.

So we're building the shared layer. An open ecosystem, open infrastructure and real-world experiments, in regional hubs around the world.

How we work

Three levels that feed each other.

Every focus area grows across all three. A real-world experiment produces evidence. Infrastructure turns it into shared standards anyone can use. The ecosystem brings the trust, demand and funding for the next experiment. Then it goes round again. The operating system is the technical layer inside the Infrastructure level; the whole initiative is these three levels.

The three-level loopExperiments produce results that become reusable standards in infrastructure. Infrastructure earns trust and policy attention in the ecosystem. The ecosystem brings demand and funding for the next experiments. LEVEL 1EcosystemFunders, providers, researchers,makers, operators, communities LEVEL 2InfrastructureOpen data model, standards, consent,evaluation methods, governance LEVEL 3ExperimentsTime-bound, partner-funded testswith openly shared results Trusted shared standards earn policy attention Results become reusablestandards Demand and fundingfor the next experiments LEVEL 1EcosystemFunders, providers, researchers,makers, operators, communities LEVEL 2InfrastructureOpen data model, standards,consent, evaluation, governance LEVEL 3ExperimentsTime-bound, partner-funded testswith openly shared results Results become reusablestandards Trusted standards earnpolicy attention Right-hand loop: demand and fundingfor the next experiments
Concept illustration: a city skyline at dusk with a faint thread of teal lightConcept illustration
LEVEL 1

Ecosystem

People, not just products. Funders, health and care providers, researchers, hardware makers, startups, operators, regulators and communities, linked across regions. It decides whether anything scales.

  • An open map of the bathroom innovation landscape
  • Startup profiles
  • Convenings in regional hubs
A bright bathroom with marble walls, a timber vanity and a wall-hung toilet
LEVEL 2

Infrastructure

This is where bathroom.OS lives: the technical layer that lets fixtures, sensors, data and apps work together, plus the trust and standards around it. Technical and relational: standards only work when people and partners stand behind them.

  • Archetype twin of real bathrooms
  • Performance layer: sensors tested through a standard interface
  • Outcomes layer that learns what works
  • Shared biomarker and outcome language
  • Privacy and consent by design
  • Open evidence base and governance
A long, warmly lit corridor with doors at the far end
LEVEL 3

Experiments

Time-bound, partner-funded tests in real places: homes, care settings, public restrooms and clinics. Real people, real rooms, honest results.

  • Each has a question, a setting and a protocol
  • Results are shared openly
  • Findings become standards in the infrastructure

Inside the Infrastructure level

This is where bathroom.OS lives.

bathroom.OS is the technical layer: the connectivity that lets fixtures, sensors, data and apps in a bathroom work together. It sits inside Infrastructure, one part of the wider Bathroom Innovation System. These are the first building blocks we are designing, in plain language. None is live yet.

BLOCK 1

Archetype twin

A library of real bathroom types (homes, rentals, care settings, hospitals, workplaces and public restrooms), each modelled as a digital twin: layout, fixtures, plumbing and who uses it. It grounds everything else.

BLOCK 2

Performance layer

Partners test sensors and fixtures through one standard interface, in modelled rooms, so results can be compared fairly.

BLOCK 3

Outcomes layer

Learns what works: which kinds of sensing and design lead to better outcomes, in which kinds of room.

BLOCK 4

Shared language

One biomarker and outcome vocabulary across ecosystem, infrastructure and experiments, so a finding in one place means the same in another.

Show us your bathroom

Help us map what bathrooms really are.

We're designing this now. Not live yet.

Nobody has an open, honest picture of what bathrooms actually look like: in homes, rentals, care settings and public buildings. We'd like to build one with you. A library of bathroom archetypes, and from it an archetype digital twin that grounds the sensors and experiments that follow.

1Photos and rough detailsA few photos, plus size and fixtures
2Layout extractionLayout read from the photos
3ArchetypesRooms grouped into common types
4Sensor placementWhere sensors could sit, tested virtually

Illustration of the intended approach. No dataset exists yet, and nothing is being collected on this page.

What we'd ask

  • A few photos of your bathroom
  • Rough room details: size, fixtures, who uses it
  • Optional: any mobility or access needs

What you'd get back planned

  • A simple accessibility and safety check
  • Ideas for small improvements
  • Early access to the open library

Your privacy design direction

  • Location data stripped from photos
  • Faces blurred
  • Processed on your device where possible
  • Clear consent; your photos stay yours
  • Withdraw any time
Join the early list

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Initial focus areas, indicative

Each focus area grows across all three levels.

Illustrative and subject to change as partners join. Gut health is the first active focus; the others are directions we expect to open as partners and funding come together.

Focus area
Ecosystem
Infrastructure
Experiments
Gut healthFirst active focus
EcosystemGastroenterology researchers and digestive-health startups in one network.
InfrastructureAn open stool-form and gut-signal data standard.
ExperimentsA study with a clinical research partner comparing sensing methods in real use.
Urinary and women's healthUTI, hormones
EcosystemWomen's health founders, clinicians and funders mapped and connected.
InfrastructureShared definitions for urinary and hormone signals, and consent for sensitive data.
ExperimentsA home-based test of early-warning signals, with an industry partner.
Hydration and kidney / metabolic
EcosystemNephrology, metabolic-health and performance communities.
InfrastructureCommon methods for urine-based hydration and metabolic markers.
ExperimentsA protocol comparing hydration readings against reference methods.
Ageing in place and care
EcosystemCare providers, housing operators and ageing-services funders.
InfrastructureStandards for falls, continence and mobility signals, with dignity safeguards.
ExperimentsA trial in a care setting, with a reinsurer or care funder as partner.
Public restrooms and sanitation
EcosystemVenue operators, city agencies and sanitation specialists.
InfrastructureAn open way to measure cleanliness, supplies and water use across sites.
ExperimentsA pilot across public restrooms with an industry partner and a host site.
Infection control
EcosystemInfection-prevention experts, hygiene makers and regulators.
InfrastructureShared evaluation rubrics for hygiene and touchless technologies.
ExperimentsA comparison of hygiene interventions in a clinic or care setting.

Partner types above are generic. No partner has committed to any focus area.

Level 1 in practice

We started by mapping who is already building.

Before anything else, we built an open map of the companies, researchers and investors around the connected bathroom. It is the starting point for the ecosystem, and it is still growing.

104companies in the current map data
28people, tracked separately from organisations

Being on the map means we are tracking a company, not that it is a partner or customer.

See the current landscape →

One network, regional hubs, one evidence base.

Hubs are places where partners convene and run experiments locally, while results flow into a single open evidence base. We are speaking with people in these regions, not announcing hubs.

Asia-PacificAustralia and New ZealandJapanKoreaSingaporeIndiaIsraelEuropeUKNorth AmericaBrazil

Melbourne is one anchor among several. Regions listed are where we are looking, not where hubs exist today.

How to take part

Five ways to be involved.

Fund an experiment

Back a time-bound test with a clear question. Results are shared openly.

Contribute to infrastructure

Help shape the data model, standards, consent approach or evaluation methods.

Join the ecosystem

Researchers, providers, makers, operators and communities: get on the map and in the room.

Build on the platform

Make a fixture, sensor or app that plugs in, once the pathway is open.

Host a site

Offer a home, care setting, public restroom or clinic for an experiment.

Talk

A first conversation about fit and interest.

Join

Become part of the ecosystem and the map.

Shape

Co-design a question, setting and protocol.

Run

A time-bound experiment with agreed funding.

Share

Results published openly and fed into standards.

Principles

What we are committing to.

  1. The bathroom deserves the design attention we give the kitchen.
  2. Good data serves the person who produced it first.
  3. Privacy is a design requirement, not a feature.
  4. Hardware lasts decades, so the software and standards around it must too.
  5. Clean water, sanitation and dignified access are infrastructure.
  6. Evidence is shared openly, and a platform earns its name when others build on it.

Our open commitments

"Open" is a promise we intend to be held to. These are the commitments behind it.

Open evidence base

Experiment questions, protocols and results are published openly, including results that don't go our way.

Shared standards

The data model, sensor and biomarker standards and evaluation methods are open for anyone to use, review and contribute to.

Privacy as a design requirement

We intend to build around user-owned data, a personal agent that runs on the premises, and federated insights, with consent that can be withdrawn. This is the design direction, not a shipped product.

Where this stands

An early-stage initiative, built in the open.

  • There is no product to buy and no live service.
  • We are building the ecosystem: the open map, relationships and a first set of conversations.
  • The first experiments are in design, with gut health the first active focus.
  • Funding is being assembled. No partner has committed to anything yet.
  • The Bathroom Innovation System is a program of Fordcastle Pty Ltd, and is open to partners, funders and builders from day one.

If you fund, build, research or run bathrooms, let's talk.

Thirty minutes is enough to see whether there is something to do together.

Join the ecosystemStart a conversation

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