Tag Archives: UV light

This UV-Sanitizer hub kills any germs lingering on your toothbrush in just 30 seconds

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Just 30 seconds of exposure to UV light can practically kill any bacteria or virus that may be lurking around between the bristles of your toothbrush. The Oclean was designed to help sanitize the one product that’s responsible for your daily oral wellbeing – the toothbrush. Given that it’s something that just lies around in the open all day and just gets rinsed before entering your mouth, the Oclean helps quickly and effectively sterilize your toothbrush before (and even after) use.

Designed as a quick sanitation-station for your brushes, the Oclean has two zones, an active ultraviolet zone that blasts your bristles with UV-C light to kill microorganisms, and a regular storage zone for keeping your toothbrushes at other times. Just before brushing, take your brush from the storage zone and place it in the UV-C zone for roughly a minute… then rinse, paste-up, and begin your brushing routine. The wall-mounted Oclean works as a neat brush-holder too, holding as many as 5 brushes, while being able to actively sanitize 3 at a time (thanks to a pull-down switch) that helps activate the UV light whenever you need.

Designers: Eric Hu and Max Song

Autonomous robot uses UVC light to disinfect warehouses

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Researchers from MIT have developed a new way to keep shared spaces free of the coronavirus and other pathogens: a UVC light-equipped robot. UVC light is capable of disinfecting surfaces and neutralizing aerosolized virus particles, but it’s dangerou...

This UV light sterilizer gives you a 99% bacteria-free toothbrush!

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Those $5 Steripods certainly aren’t the best protection for something that stays in the bathroom all day and goes in your mouth. BASE is a minimal toothbrush sterilizer designed to upgrade your oral healthcare routine using the latest UVC LED technology to kill 99.9% bacteria.

BASE is a conceptual sterilizer that is aimed at providing the maximum level of oral hygiene and safety to you. Toothbrushes hold more than 10 million bacteria which is more than a toilet seat so it needs more than a plastic cap to stay clean and protected. UV rays at 253.7 nm wavelength are used as a bactericidal and within 5 seconds BASE kills 100% of the commonly found germs. In a complete 40 second cycle, it also kills 90% of spore-forming bacteria and it is recommended to sterilize the toothbrush for a full 2 minutes for the highest level of hygiene. The device encloses the toothbrush just enough to contain the UVC radiation to the area required (bristles, head, and neck of the toothbrush) while also allowing the right amount of convective airflow to help dry the toothbrush.

The silicone holder is pressure mounted for easy installation and removal for cleaning. The smooth mirrored finish provides an optimal ray bounce surface for UV light so it can efficiently disinfect the toothbrush and itself. It also records your brushing habits in the app so the data can be referred by you or your dentist. There is an added PIR sensor that will only activate the sterilization when nobody is in the room for extra safety. It senses the motion around it at all times within a 3.5m radius at an encompassing angle of 176 degrees. I also love how it has a subtle timer feature that helps you pace your brushing and complete the recommended 2-minute habit of cleaning. The OLED display and UVC LED use power efficiently so BASE can go up to a month without a recharge and when needed, you can use a USB Type C cable. It is an aesthetic, modern and highly-functional toothbrush holder and sterilizer that gives your oral health and bathroom an upgrade!

Designer: Neutron Her

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This article was sent to us using the ‘Submit A Design’ feature.

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Toast the bacteria off of your smartphones!

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We all collectively want to roast this pandemic out of existence, it has truly turned us all into Monica Geller with the constant disinfecting and cleaning things. Our phones are actually dirtier than toilet seats and we obviously use it all the time, so considering the rise of the bacteria we should make sure to also sanitize our phones along with our groceries (what a time to be alive). Combining two of Monica Geller’s favorite things, cooking + cleaning, this neat toaster actually is a smart appliance that disinfects your phone.

This conceptual toaster was designed to make disinfecting your phones a little easier and, honestly, more fun! Instead of the usual wipe down, this turns the task into a small interaction with the product that leaves you with a nice feeling instead of “I have to wipe my phone 25 times a day because there is a pandemic”. It aims to make the interaction between products and people more playful. The toaster also charges your phone while disinfecting it which is a nice way to reduce your screen time, I mean your phone is being “toasted” so you can’t take it out till it’s done! While the concept is still being developed, I assume it uses UV light to disinfect and sanitize the phone while wirelessly charging it.

The physical form is that of a minimal, modern toaster – something we recognize and value. While we are on that topic, we could also have a panini press or grill that does the same job for tablets and laptops! It reminds me of how the fresh plates at a restaurant are always warm and that leaves you with a sense of them being clean. That is the very emotion I gather when I imagine using this smartphone toaster to disinfect and charge my phone. Food and technology are evidently my two favorite things and if they are disinfecting, then its a win-win in this crazy world!

Designer: Lee Sungwook

MTA spends $1 million to test disinfecting NYC subways with UV light

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Early next week, the MTA will begin disinfecting subways and buses using ultraviolet light in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19. The pilot program will test small UV light devices developed by the Colorado-based startup Puro Lighting. If all...

MIT’s color-changing ink could let you customize your shoes

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Imagine if, rather than buy your favorite shoes in blue or red, you could buy one pair of shoes and change the color depending on how you feel each day. Maybe you'd decide to add multicolored flames or zebra print. A new, reprogrammable ink might let...

Prototype Bandage Glows under UV Light When it Detects Harmful Bacteria

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The smart man knows a bandage only hides his wounds. And University of Bath Professor Toby Jenkins is a very smart man. That’s why he and his colleagues from various UK universities and hospitals are working on a bandage that glows under ultraviolet light when exposed to toxins produced by pathogenic bacteria.

prototype_glowing_bandage_dressing_by_toby_jenkins_et_al_1zoom in

As reported by the University of Bath in the video below, it’s important that the bandage’s non-toxic dye glows only when exposed to the toxins produced by harmful bacteria. Scientists say the toxins are produced only when the bacteria grow to a certain number.

See, it can be hard if not impossible to detect if harmful bacteria have infected a wound, but because an infection is dangerous, patients often end up taking antibiotics even if it’s not actually needed. Sometimes the wounded do get infected but their bodies can take care of the bacteria on their own. Unnecessarily taking medicine runs the risk of creating antibiotic-resistant bacteria, never mind the potential for side effects. Factor in the cost of treatment and hospital stay and you can see why this bandage could be revolutionary.

The scientists’ paper is behind ACS’ paywall, but you can learn a bit more about the bandage on MIT Technology Review.

Innovative CreoPop 3D Printing Pen Ditches Heat for UV Light

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UV 3D Printing Pen

There is still room for improvements in the 3D printing field, as the creators of this pen suggest. Instead of heat, CreoPop uses UV light to make matter more adequate for 3D printing.

3D printers in the form of pens are definitely not a novelty, as these things have been around for a couple of years, now. However, researchers and inventors haven’t played around with the way raw materials are melted in order to give birth to new things. While heat is effective for melting polymers, it’s also quite dangerous, especially when used in such small devices as a 3D printing pen. With that in mind, the developers of the CreoPop pen thought that UV light could be a much safer solution

CreoPop didn’t ditch only dangerous heat in the favor of UV light, but it also replaced traditional polymers with a liquid resin. As soon as this material is extruded from the pen, UV light cures and hardens it. As a consequence, the risk of skin burns is reduced to zero, fact that makes CreoPop adequate even for children.

However, CreoPop is not without downsides. The meltable plastic used by conventional 3D printers is getting cheaper and cheaper, while the proprietary cartridges used by this pen cost between $2-3. Each of these can be used for making a 46-foot line of plastic. Forcing people to buy the company’s own refills brings to memory not only typical 3D printers, but also inkjet 3D printers, whose consumables often cost more than the device itself.

Speaking of the price of the device, CreoPop costs $89, or at least that’s how much the company making it will ask in the near future, when a crowdfunding campaign will be launched on Indiegogo. At that price, the 3D printing pen will come with 5 cartridges, and the expected shipping date is in Q1 2015.

Admittedly, we’ve come a long way in this field, and I don’t refer only to how the materials are extruded from 3D printers. Now there are some 3D printers that use metals and even wood, others that print veins and ears, so it shouldn’t surprise us that advancements are made every day. After all, every different approach takes us closer to what might be the perfect 3D printer.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the LIX 3D printing pen that enables you to draw in midair and the BioPen 3D printer for orthopedic implants.

Doctor Who Tardis Book Light with UV Pen

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tardis book light Doctor Who Tardis Book Light with UV Pen
Let the world’s most famous British police call box help you read at night with the Doctor Who TARDIS Book Light Doctor Who Tardis Book Light with UV Pen. But just like the Doctor, this light has more tricks up it’s sleeve- it comes with a UV pen:
tardis book light uv Doctor Who Tardis Book Light with UV Pen
Write a secret note- the pen’s writing can only be seen under the soft blue light of the Tardis booklight. Great for people who like to take notes in their books but don’t like any visible marks in them. It has a clip on the bottom and an adjustable neck so it can be used beyond just books.

buy now Doctor Who Tardis Book Light with UV Pen

Doctor Who Tardis Book Light with UV Pen