On Tuesday 18 January 2011, 17:36 SGT
Japanese toilets are famed for functions such as posterior shower
jets and perfume bursts, but entertainment company Sega has gone a
step further by installing urine-controlled games in Tokyo
urinals.
Four types of "Toylets" games are available to be played during a
test period ending this month at four male bathrooms in pubs and
game arcades, in a project aimed at drawing attention to digital
adverts.
Each urinal is fitted with a pressure sensor, and a small digital
display is placed at eye level. Digital adverts are shown after the
games.
Games include "Graffiti Eraser" in which a user tries to aim at the
pressure sensor in the urinal to erase virtual graffiti on the
display.
Or there's "Mannekin Pis" -- named after a Brussels fountain
depicting a urinating boy -- which measures the volume of the
user's stream.
Another is called "The North Wind and The Sun and Me", in which the
strength of a urine stream determines the extent to which a virtual
girl's skirt gets blown up by a digital wind.
"Splashing Battle!" pits the user against the previous urinal user
in terms of stream strength.
First-time foreign visitors to Japan are often baffled by the
complexity of Japanese high-tech toilets, which feature
computerised control panels, usually with Japanese language
instructions as well as pictograms.
The "Toylets" will only be available at limited locations until
January 31, "with no concrete plans to make them into actual
products," said a Sega spokesman.