A Japanese idea that should be spread more
Everybody, at least once, played a pissing contest with friends to see who urinate the farthest, maybe on the snow. Or alone outdoors or just in your toilet trying to aim at some kind of invisible target.
Some years ago, SEGA, probably by exploiting this habit, launched a bathroom video game console controlled by the player’s urine. The device could measure the speed and intensity of males’ flows using sensors. They called this urinal Toylet.
These unusual consoles had four video mini-games installed, and the titles could be a money-spinner for the company because they could show ads before the user starts to pee.
A pressure sensor in the urinal measured the strength and location of the urine stream as it hit the basin, while an LCD screen displayed the graphics and rewarded the pee’s strength, length, and accuracy through a points system.
One of the game’s challenges for players was called Graffiti Eraser where you had to blast graffiti off the wall with a high-pressure flow. Another title called Mannekin Pis (named after the eponymous statue of a urinating boy in Brussels) calculated exactly how much urine the player produced while Battle! Milk from Nose put the toilet user up against the previous person in a challenge to see who had the strongest flow. Instead, in The North Wind and Her, the player had to lift a woman’s skirt with high-pressure blasts.
These games were designed to make restrooms more fun and also to keep the user’s eye on the target. In addition, players could also download their high scores onto a flash drive.
These toilets were trialed until the end of January 2011 and were installed in four Tokyo metro stations, including Akihabara, Soga, and Ikebukuro. Some units are available at Tokyo Joypolis.
Then, a British company called Captive Media developed and patented this system in 2011. Their system operates by using infra-red detection of urine temperature, with the sensors integral to the screen unit positioned above the bowl. The system is installed in The Exhibit Bar in Balham, London, and Ta Bouche Bar in Cambridge, UK.
Players control the system by directing their streams left or right. The system has two games: On the piste, a skiing game, in which the player must knock over penguins to score points, and Clever Dick a quiz game, in which players must answer True or False questions.
Players can then access the Captive Games website to view their scores on a leaderboard. In addition, the screens display entertainment content, including YouTube videos and Internet memes, as well as the venue’s own promotional material and third-party advertisements when not in use.
Another interactive urinal named PlaceToPee, formerly named PleeStation (plee means toilet in Dutch), was devised in Belgium by software engineer Werner Dupont and electrical engineer Bar Geraets. The pair came up with the idea during a drinking session in a bar and attracted the interest of sanitary equipment company Guedens Sanitair Verhuur, which provided financial support to develop a single unit. The urinal was installed at the 2007 GamePower Expo in Ghent with a racing game that allowed visitors to steer on-screen cars with their urine. The system also gave warnings to players about drunk driving if their urine was off-target, but it was shut down after the Belgian police deemed it to be indecent. But the following year, the makers displayed PlaceToPee at the “Arendonk Zingt & Swingt” festival, and the game installed allowed users to answer on-screen questions by urinating in a particular direction.
Source dailymail.co.uk
