Blog

23 March 2006

Urinal Consoles

I’ve had an idea going around the back of my mind for a few years now. I didn’t really think it would work, so I’ve never really pursued it. (Well, that and the fact that I’m too lazy to pursue it...) The idea would be to put a small ball-bearing game in the bottom of a urinal instead of a standard drainage hole. The aim would be to chase the ball around the puzzle using just pee-power. (And you’re all sat there wondering why I’ve not bothered to pursue the idea... I know!)

It’s a (perhaps not-so) well-known fact that men can’t help but aim at anything that’s happened to find its way into a urinal; be it a cigarette butt, a pineapple cube, a pint glass, some drunken student... whatever – we simply cannot help to aim our hose at it and give it a good blast of wee-wee. I’ve been caught out by some “clever” marketing technique that exploited this idea in the past. A drinks company had placed targets advertising their drink in the urinals, the only problem being that when you actually hit the centre of the target, you got serious splash-back. Thanks for that you clever marketing folk. Well done.

Anyway, there’s always someone who takes the simplest of ideas and pushes them to the limit. These On Target urinals designed by Marcel Neundörfer have a pressure-sensitive display screen embedded in them. Not only does this provide entertainment whilst taking a leak, but it also saves on cleaning bills (apparently) as your aim is improved by the game (apparently).