- Title: BELGIUM: 'Let it Pee' say inventors of new interactive gaming toilet
- Date: 25th May 2008
- Summary: (L!3) EDEGEM, BELGIUM (MAY 14, 2008) (REUTERS) CARTOON OF THE MANNEKEN PIS ON INTERACTIVE TOILET, LOGO OF 'PLACE TO PEE' GAME PROGRAMMER FOR 'PLACE TO PEE' WERNER DUPONT (LEFT OF SCREEN) PLAYING A GAME, ENGINEER FOR 'PLACE TO PEE' BART GERAETS (RIGHT OF SCREEN) PLAYING ANOTHER GAME GERAETS PLAYING 'PEE-TO-SKI' GAME WITH BOTTLE OF WATER AND PRETENDING TO PEE TO ILLUSTRATE H
- Embargoed: 9th June 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Belgium
- Country: Belgium
- Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVACSGUBWGKF480UDS715XBYC00K
- Story Text: 'Give piss a chance' is scribbled on the business card of two Antwerp-based Belgian inventors who created a new way of peeing in public which they hope will deter the strays, the drunks and the inconsiderate from fouling their local environment.
Werner Dupont developed the software and the games for the mobile toilet known as 'A-Place-To-Pee'. And Bart Geraets engineered the unique electronics - a trade secret - to give birth to probably the best peeing contest in the world. The two men were sorting out last minute glitches last week before putting it to the test at the weekend when it was introduced to the wide open public.
The main idea is to have fun and encourage people to go to the loo instead of watering someone's flower bed after a heavy drinking session ('pee-up'// 'knees up') at the open air concert or festival.
The booth is especially designed to hold two users at a time. They can choose from different video games like blowing up aliens in the stratosphere or skiing down a virtual slope.
They hit their target by aiming their pee onto sensors positioned on either side of the toilet bowl.
In the space game, peeing kills aliens and navigates a spaceship through meteorite fields.
You win by blowing up the mothership which requires three or four people to pee very fast, very hard and one after the other.
The sensors carry the logo of Belgium's national treasure, the Manneken Pis, a world famous statue of a small peeing child which stands in the heart of the capital Brussels.
With 'Pee2Ski', the virtual skier slaloms right to left with every swerve of the user's jet of amber fluid. He gets to the finish line by pushing a constant stream of pee for thirty seconds.
Dupont and Geraets say their invention will not only save the environment it can also protect their Flemish cultural heritage.
As true Belgians, Dupont and Geraets got the idea by drinking traditional Trappist beer and dreaming about their national treasure, the Manneken Pis.
Geraets and Dupont say they have a lot more games available although the users themselves can't choose them. They have to be uploaded by someone else before hand. This was a deliberate design decision based on the need to keep the toilet totally 'vandal-proof'.
In one of the other games, the users vote for their favourite US presidential Democratic Party candidate. Without an official endorsement, however, this could be said to be no more than 'peeing in the wind'.
Geraets and Dupont are developing another game called 'The Drunken Dick' in which the video screen shows the belly of a drunken man moving over a urinal. The challenge is to direct them towards the centre and pee straight.
Other ideas involve screaming faces popping up on screen as you start peeing, pleading with you to choose the next urinal.
Geraets and Dupont joke that they want the Miss Belgium jury to use their device to vote for the national beauty.
But the most important test was yet to come, and the two inventors chose a local music festival in the small Flemish town Arendonk to launch their invention. The plan was to find out if it would be a success, if they needed to improve it and how.
Conditions were perfect for the launch: a good atmosphere, good music, a couple of thousand people, long hours of standing and, most importantly, a lot of beer drinking.
For the guys, the interactive toilet was an immediate hit. Even if some found it a little difficult to figure out at first.
"I thought I had peed before but since I used this cabinet I realised I have never peed before. This is the most incredible peeing of my life," said 24-year-old Belgian, Yonis.
"It didn't work for me, it did not respond right. I don't know, maybe I didn't pee enough," said another Belgian, 29-year-old Jeroen.
But the main problem with the interactive toilet became obvious very quickly: how do women get to play? The inventors were at hand to provide them with 'Urinelle', a cardboard cone which is normally used by women involved in outdoor pursuits like walking or climbing and which allows them to pee standing up.
However there were very few takers. One woman said she didn't find it very hygienic and a couple of women who tried it didn't know what to do with the Urinelle's after using them.
Female festival-goers Eveli and Charlotte said they would only do it if the top door was closed because they didn't like being so exposed.
But even that was not enough.
"We can't play the game, no," said Eveli
"We can't pee so far" said Charlotte.
"We can't pee so far!" said Eveli.
"It was gross" said Charlotte.
The inventors admitted that they needed to go back to the drawing board and come up with a better device for women because, in the end, you had to give this a chance.
"We always say 'Give piss a chance' Yes and 'Let is Pee' of course' they laughed.
Overall, Dupont said everything was beautiful. He said they just need to improve on the 20 second start time for each game and make it faster, make sure the toilet is emptied regularly since the devices don't work when the loo is full. And they are determined to come up with a solution for the girls.
Eveli and Charlotte, who had tested the mobile toilet earlier, had to come back and get their autograph - on the back of a Urinelle, of course.
Geraets works in the Research and Development department of Antwerp University where he helps develop mechanisms using sensors to facilitate movement for the severely handicapped. He says that this is where he got the idea of the sensors.
Neither of the two inventors could be described as gold diggers and they have no real plan to commercialise their mobile toilet - although they would not refuse any offers and they insist on keeping the technology a secret. They say their main aim is to have fun and to share that sense of 'joie de vivre' with others. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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