Not new, but discovered today…

The You’re In Control (urine Control)system, by Dan Maynes-Aminzade and Hayes Solos Raffle from MIT Lab, uses computation to enhance the act of urination. Sensors in the back of a special urinal detect the position of a stream of urine, enabling people to play interactive games on a screen mounted above the urinal.

“At eye-level above the urinal a video game appears, complete with jumping hamsters and a simulated urine stream that’s mapped to the location and movement of the user’s real urine stream. Hit a hamster and it turns yellow, screams and spins out of control as your score increases by ten points. The MIT students even built a penis simulator that allows women to spray water into the urinal.” (from Cheesebikini)

You’re In Control questions how technology can challenge and enforce social mores. On one hand, it questions a basic social code of privacy by assuming that (even simulated) public urination is acceptable if the participant is playing a computer game. On the other hand, You’re In Control proposes the application of technology to positively enforce social codes of sanitation.

Via Hebnig.