Pee-controlled gaming coming to your bathroom soon

Pee-controlled gaming coming to your bathroom soon

BY NICOLETTE EMMINO

Get ready for a trip to the bathroom to get pretty interactive with “pee-controlled” urinal games.

Urinals equipped with hands-free gaming consoles. (Image via Captive Media)

After three years of research, Captive Media, a technology and manufacturing company based in the U.K., introduced the stream-controlled gaming system a year ago in a London bar. The firm recently raised $700,000 in funding to bring the hands-free technology beyond Europe and to the United States.

According to the company’s research, the average man relieves himself for 55 seconds. Now those 55 seconds can be used playing games in addition to the monotonous task of relieving your bladder.

So what is an interactive urinal?

Instead of the traditional trip to the loo where you do your business and leave, Captive Media has introduced the concept of high-definition, 12-inch LCD screens above urinals in public bathrooms. The screens come integrated with sensors encased in an IP-rated enclosure. The system is embedded with Windows 7 and is powered by one of Intel’s Atom dual core microprocessors.

The gaming console uses infrared sensors rather than microwave sensors so that plumbing does not have to be tampered with in public restrooms. Captive Media also thought it was important to implement a sensor unit that did not contain cameras for safety and privacy reasons.

How it works

The device is placed directly above the urinal. You approach the urinal while advertisements are playing on the screens. When they system detects your presence, a game appears on the screen. (For example, in the video below you will see the skiing challenge.) The contactless sensors detect the position of your urine stream. Then you must direct your flow right or left in order to navigate on the screen. When you are finished, the score appears on the screen.

Players are even encouraged to post their scores on Twitter to a live leaderboard so they can compete with their friends.

Watch the video below for the product animation demonstration.

What about women?

Although anatomy makes it impossible for women to use this device, Captive Media will also introduce a unit for the ladies room that will contain quiz games in locations such as hand-dryers. ■