Stadium Installs Pee-to-Play Video Games

Coming soon to a men's room near you: a video game that its maker describes as "a unique pee-controlled washroom media system."

The first one to be installed in the U.S. can be found at a baseball stadium in Allentown, Pa.-Coca-Cola Park, home to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

A man walks up to what looks to be a standard urinal, above which, set into the wall, is a video screen. The video depicts, say, a mountain slope down which the viewer is skiing. The viewer, in order to avoid obstacles, must ski right or left. This he accomplishes by directing his urine flow accordingly. The motion is picked up by sensors and translated to the screen.

The maker of the system, a UK technology and manufacturing company called Captive Media, says in a statement that outside the United States its system has already been installed in bars, hotels, airports. A variety of games are offered, all of which are controlled by the player's aiming right or left.

"Currently the majority of Captive Media's revenues come from sales of the units," explains the release, "but the company forecast their biggest revenue stream will come from brands advertising on their screens."

Stream. Geddit?

Captive Media has launched a hands-free gaming system fitted at eye level above the urinal.

The Coca-Cola Park installation has an advertiser: the Lehigh Valley Health Network, which, in an IronPigs release, quotes its chief of urology as saying: "We see this game as a fun and unique opportunity to remind men about the importance of prostate health."

Says the IronPigs' general manager in the same release, "These games are sure to make a huge splash."

After a user completes play, he gets a score that allows him to compare his performance to that of other men. "High scores," says the release, "will be displayed in real-time across various videoboard displays within Coca-Cola Park."