Invention ends worry of touching toilet seat

Inventors concoct a way to improve the toilet seat.
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
If you're sick of going into the bathroom and facing the prospect of touching the icky parts of the toilet seat to lift and lower it, two Florida men have patented a product to help solve your problem.
It's called the High-Genie, and it is a small, nonelectronic mechanism to lift and lower the toilet seat and lid. The High-Genie was two settings, one (mostly for women) to lift just the lid, and the second (mostly for men) to lift the lid and the seat.
The idea for the High-Genie was born about four years ago when Peter Takos, who spent about 25 years in the construction business and now invests in real estate, was helping his friend Steve Miller remodel his Naples, Fla., condo.
Miller, a mechanical engineer who worked in new-product development for Eastman-Kodak for 28 years, had a little knob on his toilet lid for easy lifting.
"I saw that and I got to thinking," Takos said, sitting in Miller's condo on a recent weekday afternoon. "I said that's a great idea, but it only does half of the job because it doesn't lift the seat."
The High-Genie is a knob, like a cabinet or drawer pull, that sits on top of the toilet lid. That knob is attached to a screw, which goes through the lid, and has a flange on the end.
When the knob is turned in one direction, you lift just the lid. When the knob is turned in the other direction, that flange grabs the seat and the lid and raises both.
Solving problems
The way Takos and Miller see it, men face two toilet-seat dilemmas. The first is whether to pick up the seat. The second is whether to put it back down.
"A lot of men don't like to put their fingers under the lid, so that's why they don't want to pick it up," said Takos of East Naples, Fla. "So with this, at least part of the problem is solved. It's easier to pick up and more sanitary."
But it's also better for the women who complain when the seat is left up because they don't have to touch the seat when they put it back down, Takos and Miller said.
What about people who are just too lazy to be bothered?
"Well, at least part of the problem is solved," Takos said, laughing. "No invention can fix all the human problems."
The most important part of the invention process is letting your problem and your potential solutions stew over time, said Miller, who has been inventing and patenting new designs for decades.
During his 28-year tenure in new product design at Eastman-Kodak, Miller averaged a patent a year. The High-Genie is his 29th patented item.
"You focus on a problem, you get that in your brain, and then you back away from it and just let it incubate for awhile," Miller said. "... So every time you're looking at something, you relate back to the problem at hand and think, how can I apply that little nugget of information?"
From the moment of inspiration four years ago in Miller's bathroom, the High-Genie took on many forms before the partners settled on a final product, they said.
"The main goal was to keep it simple and to make it retrofitable for the millions of toilets that are already out there," Miller said, as he demonstrated the assembly.
Three parts
A High-Genie packet will come with three pieces: the knob which connected to a screw, the base with the flange and a drill bit. With the drilling already done, Miller put the screw through the hole and screwed the base on within five minutes.
The final step is to stick an arrow on the knob and labels on the toilet seat to indicate the direction for lifting the seat, or the seat/lid.
Only a handful of bathrooms are outfitted with High-Genies, because the partners kept their invention secret until the patent came through Nov. 21, 2006.
Two of the prototype High-Genies are in the bathrooms of the home of Miller's son Jim and his daughter-in-law Shannon in Rochester, N.Y.
"He asked if he could test them in our house, and we wouldn't let him take them back now," Jim Miller said.
The High-Genie is good for their kids, Tyler, 8, and Abby, 5, Shannon said.
"I think it's great from a woman's standpoint because you don't have to touch the bottom of the lid," Shannon Miller said. "Little boys and men don't always have the best aim."
And for a younger child, grabbing a knob is a little easier than lifting the lid, she added.
The partners are now exploring manufacturing options with major toilet seat manufacturers, they said. They will either license their product to a major company for manufacturing and distribution or enter into a joint venture with a company and retain some of the marketing and manufacturing responsibilities, Takos said.
Ultimately, the inventors hope to sell the High-Genie for under 10 in major retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's and Wal-Mart, and to break into hotel chains and public restrooms.