Urinal
Latest
Scientists solve the urinal pee splash-back conundrum
What a urinal gives in size, convenience and quantity, it takes away in bouncing droplets of hot piss back onto your trousers and shoes. Researchers at Utah State University are hoping to remedy the problem that makes everyone think that you have a bladder control issue by redesigning the urinal cake to end splash back. The university's famous Splash Lab, led by Dr. Tadd Truscott, has developed a new device that's being called a "black hole for urine," an idea that's 100 percent better than The League's pee bib. After looking at all of the various existing urinal insert technology that's floating around, the team looked to nature for inspiration.
Sega urinal game 'Toylets' goes on sale to general public, sink companion still missing (video)
In an effort to reduce male patron's messiness (and grab some cash from locales not necessarily associated with gaming) Sega's Toylets can now be found in restrooms across Japan -- and even in a handful of cities overseas. You won't need to make the laborious trek to your nearest bar or arcade to beat the high score any more, however, as Sega's now put the urinal games terminal up for sale to (Japanese) Joe Public. A sensor at the base will detect pressure and, er, volume which acts as the controls. A screen at eye level will show your progress, and you can expect several short-but-sweet games in the style of Rhythm Tengoku or Warioware. It all comes a price though -- you'll need to stump up 140,000 yen (around $1750) for the device itself and 10,000 yen ($125) a piece for games. The porcelain is (unfortunately) not included.
NMA takes a look at urine controlled games
If you've been anxiously anticipating an update on the current state of pee-based bathroom gaming technology, urine luck! In the above news brief, Next Media Animation and its eclectic, somewhat terrifying and consistently hilarious 3D side show takes a look at gaming technology designed to make relieving yourself even more enjoyable, assuming you've got the right (male) plumbing. Alternative ideas are presented for bathroom gaming solutions for those of the female persuasion, though the shower imagery is one we could have done without.
Urinal games make a splash in a British pub
Urinals aren't just for advertisements any more, they're for gaming now. One British pub, The Exhibit, has slapped some urinal games into its lavatory, with the hopes of enticing more male customers. With bathroom video games.
Sega Toylets lets you game with your boy bits (video)
Sega, the once proud innovator of console design, is back in the gaming hardware business! Only not in the fashion you might think. The company has just rolled out a trial of its Toylets system, which embeds a pressure sensor into otherwise innocuous urinals and gives life to every bad piece of joystick-related innuendo you ever heard. Four games are available right now, to be enjoyed through a display mounted at eye level, including one where the intensity of your delivery helps blow a girl's skirt up and another that offers (asynchronous!) multiplayer competition. The latter game matches you against the previous dude to have used the porcelain repository, thereby finally providing Japanese men with a measurable way to settle pissing contests. It's official: we're moving to Japan.
Eco urinal concept saves time and the environment
You do wash your hands when you're done, don't you?
Urinal power plants to juice up Lollapalooza-dwelling robots
Do you have to relieve yourself? Is your robot low on batteries? Your previously problematic world could soon be harmonized in one magical step. The Bristol Robotics Lab has been feeding funny trash to its Microbial Fuel Cells for quite some time -- rotten fruit, decomposed-in-sludge fly juice, grass clippings -- things like that. The Lab has now found that the nitrogen-urea-chloride-potassium-bilirubin cocktail present in urine is a particularly useful waste fuel which will play nicely with stacked fuel cells, as long as the fuel is, um... flowing. They've already partnered with waterless urinal manufacturer Ecoprod to create a portable urinal power plant that "could be used [...] at music festivals and other outdoor events," and hey, if HP can power their data centers with excrement, who can take offense to this? [Image of Dr. Ioannis Ieropolous holding a microbial fuel cell courtesy of University of the West of England]
GDC09: Urinal ads, they're so hot right now, urinal ads
As we can scientifically demonstrate, urinal advertisements are the new hidden severed limbs -- which were already the new sacrificed goats. Now, thanks to Duke Nukem, we have another opportunity to feed the beast, spotted in the GDC bathroom.So, yeah, it's not exactly pleasant. But you people say you want the "full GDC experience" and this is the kind of thing that happens. We're sorry. Check it out after the jump.
SMS-based SatLav service guides Londoners to public toilets
If you've ever found yourself stuck in London with the insatiable urge to urinate in an alleyway, help is on the way. Believe it or not, a new SMS-based toilet finding service actually has the aforementioned predicament as a top priority to solve, and the Westminster City Council is hoping that people utilize the system to keep streets a bit cleaner. Cleverly dubbed SatLav, the technology enables individuals passing through London's West End to text the word "toilet" to 80097 in order to receive a (hopefully hasty) reply with details to get to the nearest public restroom. Unfortunately, the service will cost users £0.25 ($0.52) each time they use it, so we're a bit skeptical that alleyway urinators will happily cough up some coin rather than just sticking to old ways.[Image courtesy of BBC]
Urinal game banned by killjoy Belgium police
Remember that urinal-based racing game that was making the rounds this summer? You know, the one you drive with your pee, and which warns you against drunk driving if you're not controlling your car too well? Well the Belgium police didn't seem to find it too amusing, and have banned the "Place to Pee" version of the game installed at GamePower Expo in Gent, Belgium as an indecency offence. We're guessing they're just tired of missing out on all those exciting men's room tourneys.[Thanks, Joel S]
Urilift: the disappearing public urinal (and we do mean public)
While there's no shortage of bathroom-based oddities floating around out there, the Urilift system definitely takes top honors. Since the presumably alcoholics anonymous-approved Wizmark urinals can't keep everyone from getting a little tipsy, officials in Victoria, British Columbia are taking a note from European countries to keep urine off the streets. Rather than leaving inebriated party-going males nowhere to relieve themselves on the streets, the government is considering installing hydraulic toilets in the roadways, which are remotely triggered at night to appear from their subterranean dwelling place. While there's no doors or privacy factor involved, those who were previously choosing to take it to the sidewalks probably won't mind all that much, and designers say the open design discouraged loitering and criminal activity anyway. Priced at $75,000 a pop, Victoria plans to become the first North American locale to try these newfangled restrooms out -- and hey, at least we know where to head for a clean(er) Spring Break now, right?
