IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Splash-free urinals (2025)

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Urinal design and engineering effectiveness
Commenters frequently debated which splash‑free shapes work best, trade‑offs in cleaning, and real‑world performance of designs like the Cornucopia and Nautilus.

“TLDR: The 'Cornucopia' has the least amount of splashback, however the 'Nautilus' is the recommendation of choice, to accommodate ease of cleaning and variations in the height of the user.” – manarth

2. Personal habits and hygiene preferences (sitting vs. standing)
Many users shared their own routines, noting that sitting reduces splash and discussing aversion to public‑toilet seats due to perceived uncleanliness.

“The secret to splash free male urination is..sitting down.” – plasma_beam
“IF the toilets look in decent repair I personally will use the cubicle and sit down.” – footydude

3. Socio‑cultural commentary on cleanliness, class, and behavior
A recurring theme was that lapses in toilet hygiene are not tied to education, wealth, or upbringing, but reflect broader human behavior and class attitudes.

“Shows also that money doesn't buy class.” – short_sells_poo
“In the line of thinking of educated toilet shitters - why clean up after oneself when there is, from childhood, always some underpaid person of color that does the cleanup for you?” – mschuster91

🚀 Project Ideas

AimAssist AR

Summary

  • An augmented‑reality mobile app that projects a dynamic aiming target onto the urinal surface to guide the user's stream and minimize splashback.
  • Core value: reduces personal splash and cleaning effort by turning aim into a visual game.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Male restroom users in offices, venues, and public facilities; facility managers seeking hygiene improvements
Core Feature Real‑time AR overlay (via phone camera) showing a personalized “sweet spot” based on user height and urinal geometry, with haptic feedback on good aim
Tech Stack Unity + AR Foundation (ARCore/ARKit), Python backend for user profile storage, optional BLE beacons for urinal ID
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue‑ready: B2B subscription $5/month per facility (white‑label SDK) + free consumer tier

Notes

  • HN users highlighted aiming tricks: “walthamstow: Just aim at the sweet spot where your stream smoothly swirls into the plughole…” and “danw1979: … splash‑back reducing urinal mats … work really well.” An AR guide tackles the same problem without hardware changes.
  • Encourages discussion on behavioral nudges (similar to fly stickers) and could be piloted in tech campuses where users already embrace QR‑based check‑ins.

SplashGuard Smart Mat

Summary

  • A sensor‑enabled urinal mat that measures splashback force and frequency, transmitting data to a cloud dashboard for facilities staff to optimize cleaning schedules and validate design effectiveness.
  • Core value: turns an invisible hygiene issue into quantifiable metrics, reducing unnecessary cleaning and highlighting problem urinals.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Facility managers, janitorial services, and building operators in high‑traffic venues (airports, stadiums, offices)
Core Feature Pressure‑sensor array embedded in a replaceable antimicrobial mat; edge‑computed splash score sent via LoRaWAN to a web‑based alert and analytics portal
Tech Stack STM32 MCU + piezoelectric sensors, LoRaWAN gateway, Node.js/Express backend, React dashboard, optional ML for anomaly detection
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue‑ready: Hardware lease $20/month per mat + $3/month per mat for data analytics SaaS

Notes

  • Commenters praised existing mats: “danw1979: … splash‑back reducing urinal mats … work really well.” but noted inconsistency (“RattlesnakeJake: … upside‑down one … counterproductive.”). Smart mats provide objective feedback to resolve such disputes.
  • Generates data useful for HN‑style debates on cost‑benefit of splash‑reduction tech, and can trigger automatic re‑order of mats when wear is detected.

UrinalDesign Hub

Summary

  • An online collaboration platform where engineers upload urinal CAD models, run cloud‑based CFD simulations to predict splash metrics, and share optimized designs (e.g., Cornucopia, Nautilus) with manufacturers.
  • Core value: accelerates science‑driven urinal innovation by lowering the barrier to fluid‑dynamic testing and crowdsourcing the best splash‑free geometries.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Mechanical engineers, product designers, sanitaryware manufacturers, and academic researchers
Core Feature Web‑based CAD viewer integrated with a CFD solver (OpenFOAM via AWS Batch); splash‑score visualization, design ranking, and downloadable STL/STEP files for prototyping
Tech Stack React + Three.js for CAD, Python/Fortran CFD backend, Postgres for metadata, Git‑like version control for designs
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue‑ready: Tiered subscription – Free for community designs, $49/month for pro simulation credits, $199/month for private IP and manufacturer API access

Notes

  • The thread repeatedly calls for better designs: “manarth: TLDR: The 'Cornucopia' … however the 'Nautilus' is the recommendation of choice…” and “d-e-r-e-k: … still unavailable to purchase 4 years later.” A hub bridges that gap by making simulation accessible.
  • Sparks discussion on open‑source hardware, mirrors the success of communities like OpenStreetMap, and gives HN readers a concrete way to apply physics‑based thinking to a everyday annoyance.

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