The people of Brooklyn and Manhattan may have been slightly taken a back recently when quenching their thirst at one of the many water fountains. Rather than the usual experience, pedestrians found that the water dispensers actually started talking to them.

Y&R, and digital agency YML New York, collaborated with the Partnership for a Healthier America to create this water fountain as part of the new campaign to promote #spreadthewater, an initiative made to encourage Americans to drink more water. It works by issuing audio content every time the drinker’s lips touch the water stream, therefore encouraging more water to be drunk. If they are curious enough to want to hear more from the fountain, they will have to keep on drinking.

Using Arduino, MaKey MaKey and Raspberry Pi to make the fountain work, design collective YesYesNo tested the average time people spend drinking water, to improve the voiceovers delivery and sync the recordings, building the final product from the findings.

Making cities more interactive by using day-to-day objects is undoubtedly a great way to engage locals; we have seen it before, with Bristol’s playable city and Fumo, the interactive bin. New York however is not only making its city more interactive, it’s making it healthier as well.