Michael Eugene Heisler
Founder and President of Innovative Research Technology, Inc. | Inventor of The Urinator
Michael Eugene Heisler is an electronics specialist, inventor and entrepreneur with more than four decades of practical experience spanning maritime electronics, electronic product design, precision temperature-control technology, synthetic specimen development and biological and genetic privacy.
He is the founder and President of Innovative Research Technology, Inc. and the inventor of The Urinator, an electronically controlled portable temperature-maintenance system first produced in 1998.
Michael has continued to develop and refine the technology for more than 25 years, including the subsequent development of The Urinator BT, which brings Bluetooth monitoring and control to the original electronic temperature-control concept.
Alongside the electronic system, Michael was also involved in the development of Dr John's Famous Pee Pee, working with medical and laboratory expertise to create a synthetic urine formulated to reproduce the relevant chemical characteristics of a natural human specimen without requiring an individual to provide their own biological sample.
Together, these technologies reflect both sides of Michael's work: practical electronic engineering and his longstanding interest in protecting biological and genetic privacy.
Merchant Marine electronics career
Michael's technical background began long before the establishment of Innovative Research Technology.
From 1986 until the late 1990s, he spent more than 14 years serving in the US Merchant Marine as a Master Radio Electronics Officer.
His work involved the maintenance, diagnosis and repair of sophisticated shipboard electronic equipment, including radar and communications systems.
Working with complex electronics at sea required considerably more than theoretical knowledge. Equipment had to remain dependable in demanding operating conditions, while faults often had to be diagnosed and repaired without the resources that would ordinarily be available in a conventional workshop.
This gave Michael extensive practical experience in electronics, electronic fault diagnosis, radar and communications systems and the methodical identification and repair of complex technical problems.
That experience subsequently became the foundation for his work as an inventor and product designer.
Inventing The Urinator
Drawing on his professional electronics background, Michael designed and developed the original Urinator, which entered production in 1998.
At its heart was an unusual engineering challenge: creating a compact, battery-powered electronic system capable of bringing a liquid to approximately normal human body temperature and then maintaining it reliably within the required temperature range for an extended period.
Rather than relying upon uncontrolled chemical heating, Michael developed an electronically regulated system designed to provide predictable and repeatable temperature control.
He was involved not simply in conceiving the product, but in its design, manufacture and subsequent production, turning an engineering concept into a commercial product capable of repeated real-world use.
Its development drew directly upon his experience with:
- Electronic control systems
- Temperature sensing and regulation
- Low-voltage electronics
- Heating-element design
- Power management
- Electronic fault diagnosis
- Component reliability
- Product testing and refinement
- Portable electronic system design
The product has subsequently remained in production in evolving forms for more than 25 years.
Developing a synthetic specimen
Temperature control was only one part of the technical problem Michael sought to address.
A substitute specimen also needed to reproduce the relevant physical and chemical characteristics of natural human urine with sufficient consistency for laboratory analysis, while avoiding the need for an individual to provide their own biological material.
Michael therefore worked with a doctor and laboratory expertise in developing the formulation that became Dr John's Famous Pee Pee.
Rather than simply producing a liquid resembling urine in appearance, the objective was to create a carefully formulated synthetic specimen reproducing the relevant chemical characteristics expected of natural urine.
This added a second field of practical product development to Michael's work. The Urinator addressed the electronic and temperature-management challenge, while the synthetic formulation addressed the composition and consistency of the specimen itself.
The two developments consequently became closely related parts of the same technology.
They also reflected an issue that has become increasingly important to Michael over the years: a synthetic specimen can provide the required type of sample without requiring the individual to surrender their own biological material and the genetic information contained within it.
From the original Urinator to The Urinator BT
Michael has continued developing the underlying technology as electronic components and consumer technology have advanced.
That process eventually resulted in The Urinator BT, a Bluetooth-enabled evolution of the original system.
The newer generation retains electronic temperature regulation while adding smartphone connectivity, allowing the temperature-control system to be monitored electronically and aspects of its operation to be controlled remotely.
The progression from the original 1998 product to a Bluetooth-connected version more than 25 years later illustrates an important aspect of Michael's expertise.
He did not simply invent a product and move on from it.
He has spent decades manufacturing, observing, troubleshooting and progressively refining both the product and the technology behind it, incorporating newer electronic capabilities while retaining the underlying principles that made the original design reliable.
More than 25 years of real-world product experience
One of the strongest foundations for Michael's expertise is the amount of real-world experience accumulated since The Urinator first entered production.
Over that period, Innovative Research Technology has received thousands of customer reviews and testimonials, including video reviews and accounts from long-term customers commenting on the product's performance, reliability and longevity.
For an inventor and product designer, this provides a particularly valuable form of practical knowledge.
Laboratory and workshop development can establish whether a design works under controlled circumstances. Decades of manufacturing a product and receiving feedback from people using it in the real world provide another layer of experience: how components age, where failures can occur, what users find difficult, which aspects of a design remain dependable and where improvements can be made.
Michael has consequently been able to develop his technology through an unusually long cycle of manufacture, customer use, feedback and refinement.
Biological and genetic privacy
A major focus of Michael's work and personal interest is biological and genetic privacy.
His concern is straightforward: when an individual provides a genuine biological specimen, they may potentially be providing considerably more information about themselves than the limited information for which the sample was requested.
Human biological material may contain DNA and other information capable of revealing identity, biological relationships, inherited characteristics and potentially medically relevant genetic information.
As analytical and genetic technologies have advanced, the amount of information that can potentially be obtained from biological material has grown significantly.
Michael believes individuals should retain meaningful control over that information.
This concern also helps explain the relationship between the two principal technologies he has spent decades developing.
The Urinator provides the electronic engineering needed to maintain a specimen under realistic physical conditions, while Dr John's synthetic urine was developed to provide a chemically representative specimen without requiring the individual's own biological material.
For Michael, therefore, synthetic specimen technology is closely connected with a broader question: whether providing a sample for one specific purpose should automatically require a person to surrender biological material capable of revealing substantially more information about them.
His perspective on genetic privacy is consequently not simply theoretical. It has developed alongside decades of designing, manufacturing and refining technologies intended to provide an alternative to the use of an individual's own biological specimen.
Areas of expertise
Michael's practical expertise includes:
- Maritime radio and electronic systems
- Radar maintenance and repair
- Communications electronics
- Electronic fault diagnosis
- Precision electronic temperature control
- Portable heating and temperature-maintenance systems
- Low-voltage electronics
- Electronic product design
- Product development and prototyping
- Manufacturing and long-term product refinement
- Bluetooth-connected temperature-control technology
- Synthetic specimen development
- Synthetic urine technology
- Biological sample privacy
- Genetic privacy
- Privacy issues surrounding biological and genetic information
Practical engineering and product-development expertise
Michael's expertise is principally technical and experiential rather than academic.
It is built upon more than 14 years working professionally with sophisticated electronic, communications and radar systems as a Master Radio Electronics Officer in the US Merchant Marine, followed by more than 25 years designing, manufacturing and continually developing specialist electronic and synthetic specimen technologies.
The longevity of The Urinator provides an unusual body of practical product-development experience. Michael has followed the underlying technology from initial design and commercial production in 1998 through decades of manufacture and customer use and into a new Bluetooth-enabled generation.
His involvement in developing a carefully formulated synthetic specimen adds another dimension to that experience, encompassing not merely the electronic management of a specimen but the practical requirements involved in creating an alternative to an individual's own biological material.
His authority therefore comes from a combination of professional electronics experience, invention, hands-on engineering, product manufacture, long-term development and decades of first-hand involvement with the technologies and privacy issues he discusses.
Today, Michael continues his work through Innovative Research Technology, Inc., combining his background in electronics and product development with a longstanding commitment to individual biological and genetic privacy.
Last update: 03.09.2026
