Mr Friendly urinal is a whizz at personalised advertising

Weblog: With its built-in display this smart urinal guarantees to grab users’ attention

Usually, when we talk about streaming in relation to technology, it's in reference to data streams. Mr. Friendly is a new technology looking to capture your attention while capturing another kind of stream: it's a smart urinal with advertising on board.

This waterless urinal has a built-in display “guaranteed to capture 40 seconds of a gentleman’s attention” – and, thankfully, an antibacterial coating as well as an odour trap.

This urinal also has wifi, because its maker wants you to be able to “remotely manage the media you display on the urinal, hassle-free, with no need for USB sticks”. That should not be considered a luxury: nobody wants to change their ads by swapping out a (possibly slightly damp) USB drive. That would be a wee bit low tech for our liking.

And what about the technology? How does the urinal, um, detect the presence of a potential customer? Don't worry: it's not a pressure sensor; the advertising starts based on proximity. mrfriendly.nl