Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

Create Account  |  Retrieve Password

The World's Most-High Tech Urinal

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sun Nov 19, 2006 09:28 AM
from the japan-might-argue-with-that dept.
It's funny. Laugh. Hardware
Mudzy writes "In an effort to handle its nighttime public urination problem, Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, is considering installing high-tech urinals that disappear below street level during the day. Then at night, an operator comes by with a remote and the Urilift hydraulically lifts to sidewalk level in about two minutes. Then the unit is ready to serve all the nighttime party animals who don't mind peeing in a very exposed public urinal. The $75,000 system has been installed across the Netherlands, and have spread to London and Belfast, but Victoria will be the first North American city to try them out."
+ -
story
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

The World's Most-High Tech Urinal 50 Comments More /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More
Loading... please wait.

  • High Tech Urinal? (Score:5, Funny)

    by billimad (629204) on Sunday November 19 2006, @09:32AM (#16903830)
    They're taking the piss. Sorry.
    • The next stage in this product's development will be to include long range alcohol sniffers and the latest advances robotics. These urinals will be released at dusk and immediately go on patrol, sniffing out drunks and following them around until they get so p*ssed...
    • No joke. Just don't use it at twilight or you get stuck in a urinal for 12 hours.
        • Actually, scratch that. Some enterprising university goers will either find a way to spoof the remote control they use to control its ascent and descent (hilarity ensues), or will remove one from the hole as a souvenir for their dorm.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by hcob$ (766699)
            All it takes is a frequency scanner and data recorder. First night, get the frequency it operates on. Next night show up with a datalogger to sniff the data used to raise/lower the device.... Or, you could buy a remote off one of the poor guys whose job it is to raise the damn things.
          • Considering the recent console news, I had to throw this one in...

            So, they spoof the remote, make their own remote control to play with the urinals... a "Pee-mote" as it were...
            *Ba-dum-CSHHH!* I'm here all night folks. Try the veal.
  • I found the fact that that page snagged video cameras amusing, then funnier that the subject of the first 'related posts' was

    amazingly small

  • Seriously, watch the video, it's hillarious ;)

  • they're cool (Score:3, Funny)

    by operato (782224) on Sunday November 19 2006, @09:36AM (#16903860)
    the one in belfast is cool. it's just down the street from me and instead of using the one at my place i walk down there to do my stuff and meet girls who are there spectating (they're jealous because they can't stand up to do it).

    • Re:they're cool (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 19 2006, @09:59AM (#16904002)
      A girlcanpee standing up. All you have to do is insert your middle and ring fingers between your fanny lips, to hold them apart and so keep a clear path for your stream; and press your index and little fingers either side to aim. It's easiest to find the correct position by squatting down just the very first time you try it, so as your "gates" open naturally, then standing up with your hand in place; but once you've found the correct position, you can do it every time and not even get your fingers wet.

      Practice in the shower and use a mirror if you can't see how you're going wrong. It's well worth mastering the technique -- it can be handy for scaring away the wrong sort of guys!

      • Re:they're cool (Score:5, Funny)

        by jimicus (737525) on Sunday November 19 2006, @11:52AM (#16904742) Homepage
        Can we have a "-1, Too Much Information" mod?

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by advocate_one (662832)
        ah yes... not getting your fingers wet... what really matters is not getting your skirt/pants/jeans or knickers wet either... or keeping it in the urinal and not getting it all over the floor...

      • Re:they're cool (Score:4, Funny)

        by Plutonite (999141) on Sunday November 19 2006, @05:27PM (#16907480)
        Let's just put it like this:

        A girl can't pee while standing up and post with her real nickname :)

          • Re:they're cool (Score:4, Informative)

            by hattig (47930) on Sunday November 19 2006, @12:45PM (#16905122) Journal
            In Britain, by the way, the waste plumbing is always on the outsideof the house.

            That's for older houses up to the sixties - either they were so old they used to have external toilets, and the process of converting a room into an inside toilet is made easier by running the waste pipe externally, or they didn't think better of it.

            Most (all?) modern houses have the waste pipe inside, in a corner of the house, although the vent still goes up through the roof.

            I'm sure the bath/shower and toilets use the same waste pipe however.

            Future houses may have to incorporate a grey-water storage tank underneath, which will use sink and bath outflows to reuse for toilet flushing and garden watering. Dunno how they'll deal with the soap issue for the latter...

            God, why did I spend a few minutes writing a post about British waste pipe engineering?!

            • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

              by SteveAstro (209000)
              Actually, an internal stack is pain when there is a blockage, say your son has stuffed the bath sponge round the U bend and tried to wash it away... Cue 20 feet of 4" pipe full of unmentionable, with an access trap at the bottom. In your lounge.

              Steve

            • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

              by Yartrebo (690383)
              So long as it's real soap (sodium and fatty acids), it's non-toxic and unlikely to cause much of a mess. It's even digestible and is metabolized in much the same way as fat.
    • You've obvious not heard the same stories as me about lesbians pissing in nightclub urinals.
    • Never heard about the TravelMate?
      http://www.travelmateinfo.com/page002.html [travelmateinfo.com]

    • Re:they're cool (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 19 2006, @10:25AM (#16904170)
      >..snip..girls who are ... jealous because they can't stand up to do it..

      Don't be to shure of that. I live in the Netherlands and in 'my' city's center there are a few a these installed as well. A fair number of ladies now use a 'plastuit'. I don't know a english word for that gadget. Check out http://www.plastuit.nl/ [plastuit.nl] It takes a bit of getting used to, but it does work. And then there are those whom have mastered the art of doggy like lift-one-leg style of pee. I'll leave the details of that to your imagination. But it must be said that it does work.

      Martin.
  • then it would be perfect for a cron job. Why do you need to pay someone to click the friggin button?
    If not cron, maybe X11 to the rescue?

    • then it would be perfect for a cron job. Why do you need to pay someone to click the friggin button?

      If it ran Linux, you could automate this with a cron job, but you would also have to deal with the fact that flushing is permanently on the "To Do" list, and if you complain that it is not functioning you are told to go "code it yourself". The toilet would also come with a hefty support contract at a cost approximately 500% of the purchase price.

      On the bright side though, the new flashy lights and color s

  • They want you to pee in a corvette?

  • Sad Day (Score:5, Funny)

    by arcite (661011) on Sunday November 19 2006, @09:49AM (#16903940)
    :::sniff:::

    I went to uni in Victoria. Call me nostalgic but, I'll really miss the urine soaked side walks downtown...It just won't be the same dammit!

  • this is not new. we have had these in my home town, Reading/UK for a long time. people used to piss on the streets at night. but we have these now. http://s5h.net/u?b9a [s5h.net]
    • Thank you Captain Obvious. However, anybody who read the article summary (not you apparently) would know that it's already being used in Europe.

      What's different is that this is the first installation in North America where there is quite a taboo against urinating in public here.

      • This could be a simple omission, or it could be an artifact of a USian-centric viewpoint. After all, according to Google Maps London and Reading are only 42.4 miles (~68 km) apart. By our standards, that makes Reading a suburb of London.... and it's common practice to refer to an entire metropolitan area (a city and all of its suburbs) under the name of the main city. So... following that practice, Reading is part of London.

        that 42 miles is about 3 hours of driving time. i take a great offence that you th

  • Pointless (Score:3, Insightful)

    by DarthChris (960471) on Sunday November 19 2006, @09:52AM (#16903960)
    People who to drunk to care will do it wherever (or piss their pants if they're completely wasted).

    People who are desperate because there's no open public toilets will continue to (attempt to) hide behind a tree, bus stop or anything else.
    • while (typeid(this) == single) { printf("Still single :("); }
      cute, but: while (typeid(this) == single) { fprintf( stdout, "Still single :(\n" ); } might be an improvement, printf doesnt have the ability to flush the output buffer like fflush(stdout); has.
  • I like to use it when I'm near such a urinal to lower it down, especially when people are peeing ;=)
     

  • Why So Complex? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by niXcamiC (835033) on Sunday November 19 2006, @09:52AM (#16903968)
    Here in Guatemala, we just have a spiral shaped wall, with a urinal in the centre. Way cheaper, and you can use it in the day.
  • ...just like Urinus appears every night in the starry skies.

  • And this is different than the pissoirs in Europe? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by the_rajah (749499) * on Sunday November 19 2006, @10:00AM (#16904012) Homepage
    Other than the obvious "high tech" aspect to these pissoirs [google.com] and having them only available at night which just doesn't make sense to me, since I occasionally have to urinate during daylight hours.

    I've also seen these in North African countries that I've visited like Tunisia and Morocco. I'm guessing the French brought the concept.
    • Other than the obvious "high tech" aspect to these pissoirs [google.com] and having them only available at night which just doesn't make sense to me, since I occasionally have to urinate during daylight hours.

      You have apparently not been through large cities very often. I'm staying in the Hilton hotel in San Mateo, CA on a weekend getaway with my lovely wife. (She's sleeping in upstairs) Going through San Fransisco, we hit several of the "economically disadvantaged" areas, and the smell of old urine was f

  • Isn't this the wrong approach? (Score:3)

    by Channard (693317) on Sunday November 19 2006, @10:11AM (#16904072) Journal
    I mean, if you to get to an indoor toilet before you wet yourself, then you shouldn't have drunk so much in the first place. But given how we've now got things like 'do not ram in eye' labels on knives etc, it's not surprising that we're catering to the lowest common denominator.
    • Interesting that it only caters to males, and not females... Is that an insult to males pee habits? or is it sexism against females because it is not inclusive?

      --jeffk++

      • Don't be silly.. (Score:5, Funny)

        by Channard (693317) on Sunday November 19 2006, @10:20AM (#16904122) Journal
        .. girls don't pee. They expel all waste products as a pine-smelling vapour emitted through their pores.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by dubbreak (623656)
        That was brought up locally (I'm a Victorian) and the arguement is the public urination problem in the downtown core is due to male urination not female, hence the focus on male urination. I am sure the standup urinals could be used by adventureous females, the same ones who would actually go squat in an alley (face away from urinal and bend over slightly?).

        In all honesty it is not fair, but it is an ends to a mean. The organisers only care about preventing more public urination, not making it easier for
  • At least the high tech model is more usable than this this [c6.org] one.

  • Here's real high tech for urination (Score:3, Informative)

    by megazoid81 (573094) on Sunday November 19 2006, @10:56AM (#16904368)

    First, there is the computational urinal from the MIT Media Lab, called You're In Control (Urine Control). More information at the project's web site [rafelandia.com]. The urinal has a screen above it, and you can play video games by appropriately directing your urine stream.

    Then, less high tech, but still very useful is the p-mate [p-mate.com], which is a device that permits women to pee standing up. Now, if only there could be a device for men to get multiple orgasms [forwardedfunnies.com].

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by KingArthur10 (679328)
      Many places are lucky they're installed at all. Here in the US, it would cause a lot of pissed off Christians to get that program going. Remember, we may have *penises and/or vaginas*, but we're not suppose to admit it. The last thing most of the religious people want to have is that fact being out in the open. And if you read this post, you're dirty dirty dirty!!!!!!

      • Re:But what about... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by cayenne8 (626475) on Sunday November 19 2006, @10:21AM (#16904140) Homepage Journal
        "Many places are lucky they're installed at all. Here in the US, it would cause a lot of pissed off Christians to get that program going."

        I dunno...these things would be a Godsend for New Orleans during Mardi Gras!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        Quite often there aren't enough port-a-potty's around for you to find one....and afterawhile of drinking on the streets, that stuff starts to run through ya pretty fast, and it isn't like you're too terribly embarrased as to where you have to 'whip it out' to take a leak.

        On the other hand, I wonder how long it would take when these came out, that the city/state would be sued for discrimination against women who needed to go 'in public', or would be slapped with injunctions about them not being 'handicapped friendly'.

      • Unfortunately, you're probably correct associating our countrywide genital shame with the pervasive religious majority.

        Who wants public urination at all? Not me. A little modesty, attributable to whatever source, keeping you from pissing in front of me is a good thing.

        This is a cool product, addressing an icky problem -- I'd just hate to see these installed unnecessarily, actually encouraging people to relieve themselves in public.

        These things need all the hookups that a standard bathroom requires -- water,

    • Re:I have a legitimate question (Score:5, Insightful)

      by X-treme-LLama (178013) on Sunday November 19 2006, @11:03AM (#16904414) Homepage
      I'll grant you waiters and anyone handling my food. Other than that, why? I shower once daily and put my dick into a clean pair of boxers. My hands touch all sorts of dirty filthy crap during the course of the day. My johnson however (unless its a crazy day) stays tucked safely in said boxers until I take it out to pee. My johnson is probably thousands of times cleaner than my hands. If anything I should wash my hands BEFORE I touch it. But afterwards? I'm not catching anything from it, so unless I pissed all over my hands what's the point?

      Jeez people, it's just skin.

      Oh, and for the record, urine is generally sterile unless it picks up bacteria while exiting through the urethra. Well if you're dirty or diseased you should be washing anyway.

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2009 Geeknet, Inc.