Hand washing and sanitizing may come as second nature to most hospital staff, but for visitors and volunteers it might not be so easy to remember. PullClean is a smart redesign of the pull door handle that incorporates a hand sanitizer dispenser.

The built-in hand sanitizer reminds everyone going through the doorway that keeping their hands germ-free is important in a hospital setting. It’s simple to operate: just press the bottom of the door handle to dispense a small amount of sanitizer.

Door handles are known to be bacterial hotspots, so it makes perfect sense to put hand sanitizers there. Every time you go through a doorway, you’re prompted to sanitize your hands, keeping you and everyone around you safe from germs.

When the sanitizer dispenser is empty, it is easily replaced with a key, just like a public restroom soap dispenser. The PullClean includes software that tracks sanitizing rates by hour, day, or week. It tells you the amount of sanitizer left and when the cartridge should be changed.

The post Press to Clean: Hand Sanitizer Built Into Door Handles first appeared on Gajitz.

Getting kids to brush their teeth properly is, for lack of a better phrase, like pulling teeth. Cartoon character toothbrushes, brushes that play music, and specially-flavored toothpaste really don’t help. But soon there will be a way to make brushing more like fun, which every kid and their parents will appreciate.

Grush is a toothbrush combined with a video game – mashing up kids’ least favorite activity with one of their favorites. The setup consists of a toothbrush that works as a motion-sensing game controller, the Grush cloud server which stores brushing activity and shows it to parents, and interactive mobile games that run on Android or iOS devices.

The games guide kids through proper tooth brushing, giving them points based on their performance. There are several games specially tailored for specific ages and genders. Kids can take care of virtual pets, fight tooth monsters, conduct an orchestra, and even fly planes as they brush.

The parents’ app displays when children brush and how well they’ve brushed. Parents can use this information to provide rewards or give encouragement, or even to show to the child’s dentist at their next visit.

Any parent who has ever struggled to get their kids to brush properly knows that this is a long-overdue advance in the field of tooth cleaning. Designed by engineer Dr. Yong-Jin Wang and gaming futurist Ethan Daniel Schur, the Grush is raising money on IndieGoGo for an initial production run.

The post Gaming Toothbrush Makes Brushing Fun + Easier For Kids first appeared on Gajitz.

It may seem surprising to people in the western world, but hundreds of millions of people still wash their clothes the old-fashioned way: in a stream or bucket. It’s hard work that takes several hours from start to finish, but it’s the only choice in much of the world. Designers Alex Cabunoc and Ji A You created the GiraDora as a way to simplify the act of clothes washing and drying.

The GiraDora looks a little like a tall beverage cooler, but inside is a smaller bucket and an agitator. After loading up some laundry, soap, and water, the user sits on the lid of the GiraDora and uses a foot pedal to churn the agitator. No electricity is needed – this machine runs on pure human power. When the washing is done, the GiraDora transforms into a spin dryer.

While doing laundry seems like a small thing to those of us who are able to accomplish it with machines every day, it isn’t as easy for people who don’t have access to machines or reliable electricity. The GiraDora increases efficiency and cuts down on the number of health problems related to spending hours every week doing laundry. The device was an entry in the Dell Social Innovation Challenge.

At a cost of $40, the simple machine is still beyond the means of many people who need it. But as the inventors point out, is also presents an opportunity for the owners to earn extra income by doing laundry for friends and neighbors. The GiraDora team wants to test their device in several disadvantaged communities in South America, then continue testing in India. The overall goal is to get the GiraDora into the hands – and under the feet – of one million users.

The post $40 Foot-Powered Washer + Dryer Could Change the World first appeared on Gajitz.

Dental hygiene has evolved one step further. Contemporary society requires tooth cleaning to be time efficient. Manual toothbrushes therefore become obsolete, replaced by mechanical ones that are themselves becoming more and more cheap and disposable. One new toothbrush will last you much longer and is about as time efficient as possible.

The Blizzident toothbrush promises to clean your teeth in six seconds – a large departure from the minute or so you waste with your electronic toothbrush. Resembling an athletic mouth guard, it’s 3D printed after the mouth impression you get from your dentist is digitized and sent to Blizzident. The substantial price of $300 may deter some, but if it can get your kids to brush their teeth twice a day, it might be worth it.

The post Gone in Six Seconds: New Toothbrush Erases Plaque + Time first appeared on Gajitz.

The subject of “personal cleanliness” tends to be a bit taboo in our culture, but it becomes immediately and unavoidably important when you are in the wilderness, away from any type of formal restroom. In these conditions, you have to come up with some rather creative ways to stay clean. The Hygienna Solo is a tiny plastic spout that fits onto a water bottle to turn it into a personal bidet.

A bidet might seem a little odd to people in certain parts of the world where they aren’t common, but they provide a very, very clean feeling without leaving behind any litter like toilet paper.

The functionality is simple and intuitive. The end of the Hygienna fits into the mouth of the water bottle. A squeeze starts the spout of water, which flows quickly enough to provide a nice, fresh feeling.

The Hygienna Solo is small enough to fit discreetly into your purse, pocket or luggage without drawing too much attention. At 15 grams and about three inches in height, it won’t take up very much space – certainly less than a couple of rolls of toilet paper. Each Solo is $10, so if  you use it in place of toilet paper it pays for itself soon enough.

The post Simple Device Turns a Water Bottle Into a Portable Bidet first appeared on Gajitz.