{"id":3030,"date":"2026-06-13T10:57:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T10:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/?page_id=3030"},"modified":"2026-06-13T11:06:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T11:06:38","slug":"internet-toilet-roll-holder","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/?page_id=3030","title":{"rendered":"Internet Toilet Roll Holder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/toilet.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"631\" src=\"https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/toilet.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3035\" srcset=\"https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/toilet.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/toilet-300x185.jpg 300w, https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/toilet-768x473.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/toiletroll.chrisspeed.net\">https:\/\/toiletroll.chrisspeed.net<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/toiletroll.chrisspeed.net\/reads\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Figure 1. Live feed from the toilet roll holder. Full toilet rolls can be identified as having the highest value up the Y axis, and significant use of the toilet roll can be identified in the drops in data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2014, my family became part of the Hub of All Things project, which explored how everyday objects could generate personal data. Working with Chris Barker, I helped build an instrumented toilet roll holder using the Electric Imp platform, with an infrared sensor tracking how much paper remained on the roll, streaming live to an online graph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What started as a seemingly trivial case study quickly became something far more revealing. The data exposed patterns I hadn&#8217;t consciously registered in years: when the cleaner visited, when guests used the bathroom, even a child&#8217;s runny nose. My eight-year-old daughter&#8217;s question\u2014&#8221;can it see me on the toilet?&#8221;\u2014captured the strange new intimacy of these sensors perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Living with the toilet roll holder meant renegotiating privacy at home. Visitors needed to be told the downstairs toilet was &#8220;online.&#8221; I found myself wondering whether to redact data when guests used the bathroom, or hand it back to them on a memory stick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But there was an upside too: this was data I owned and built myself, unlike the data harvested by free apps in exchange for &#8220;terms and conditions.&#8221; It hinted at a shift from a Push economy to a Pull economy\u2014where personal data becomes something we control and potentially trade, rather than simply surrender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>https:\/\/toiletroll.chrisspeed.net Figure 1. Live feed from the toilet roll holder. Full toilet rolls can be identified as having the highest value up the Y axis, and significant use of the toilet roll can be identified in the drops in data. In 2014, my family became part of the Hub of All Things project, which explored [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":75,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3030","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3030"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3036,"href":"https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3030\/revisions\/3036"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}