Most of us are familiar with Roomba, the extremely popular robotic vacuum that scours your floors and carpet, sucking up all type of debris, even when you’re not at home. But as great as it is to have a clean floor, there are plenty of other places that can be breeding grounds for germs, from our smartphone displays and toilet bowls to bed sheets and chopping boards.
That’s where a similarly puck-shaped new cleaning robot enters the fray. Called CleanseBot, it’s an automated smart cleaning and disinfecting robot that emits UV-C light to kill a claimed 99.9 percent of germs without needing any nasty chemicals to do so. It’s small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, making it a great travel accessory, and it can be used in handheld mode or it can travel around autonomously using multiple sensors.
“In ‘Under Blanket’ mode, CleanseBot will roll around and sanitize and disinfect sheets and blankets on its own,” Jyssica Schwartz, head of marketing for CleanseBot, told Digital Trends. “In ‘Handheld’ mode, you can pick it up and sanitize your cell phone, your kid’s toys, light switches, toilet seats, kitchen counters — anything you want. It also has a ‘PowerBank’ mode; we have a 3700 mAh battery in it and a USB charging port, so it also acts as a portable charger.”
OK, so the idea of traveling everywhere with your own personal robot sanitizer sounds kind of extreme, but you only have to watch one of those TV documentaries in which a black light is taken into a hotel room to appreciate that it might be necessary. According to a 2012 study presented at the American Society for Microbiology, the dirtiest areas in hotel rooms are bathroom surfaces, light switches, and bedspreads. In that kind of setting, it makes perfect sense to arrive prepared to carry out a quick war on germs.
As ever, we offer our usual warnings about the potential risks inherent in crowdfunding campaigns. However, if you’re nonetheless keen to get involved, head over to CleanseBot’s project page on Kickstarter to throw down your hard-earned (and hopefully clean) cash. A single robot will set you back $99 and comes with a handheld cover and charging cable. You’ll want to hurry, though: There are only three days left on the campaign clock.
