the playfully interactive poe urinal responds with animation

upon approaching the urinal, a cartoon character named 'poe' appears on the wall, offering an interactive experience as one urinates.

manikandan edited by heather carlsen December 16, 2013 2 min

the playfully interactive poe urinal responds with animation
all images courtesy of mani

specifically produced as a playful urinal for institutionalized toilets, ‘poe’ by indian designer mani offers an interactive experience while one relieves himself. upon approaching the urinal, a cartoon character named ‘poe’ appears on the wall, the figure seems bloated and begins to move on a weight scale while the user unzips. the digital interface is connected to an array of polka-dot board pin sensors, lined along the surface, which react accordingly. as soon as liquid is detected, the image of ‘poe’ starts to shrink and reduce in size, doing cute motions such as signaling a sign of relief with sound effects to say thank you. the animations were based on themes that emerged after qualitative ethnographic research around perceptions of peeing. video cameras were also installed into toilet spaces to help better understand the overall behavioral pattern of what people do while urinating, discovering that signs of relief were the main emotions expressed.

‘POE – the playful urinal’
video courtesy of mani

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urinal with animation projected just above the urinal at the eye level of the user

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urinal in use with water pee

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pee simulators distribute water, experimenting with the design

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close shot of the urinal while in use

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the front and back side of the urinal, with its 118 sensor pins that help to precisely detect the location of the pee

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key frames of the animation built on the theme of ‘feeling relieved after peeing’

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projection mapping technique was sued to design the spatial arrangement of the pins

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prototype of the pin based pee sensor system

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a camera was installed in a public toilet to capture toilet usage behavior

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the making of the urinal itself

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