British design student Derek Muir has designed the Stingray toilet seat which "reduces noise by 40 percent and is ideally suited e.g. for parents who may not flush toilets at night in case it might wake up young children." The secret behind the invention is that the underside of the polyurethane seat forms a complete seal around the rim, plus there's constant contact between seat and lid, when the lid is lowered.

Right. I knew we could do it. I knew we could outdo the techno-weirdness of Japanese toilet seats.