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Dixie cups became the breakout startup of the 1918 pandemic
- lifeisstillgood 6y agoI just saw the most obvious and brilliant invention - it's a dispensing bottle of hand sanitizer on a stand - you press a pedal at the base and a gearing presses down and dispenses a dollop. it solves so many issues !
- boogies 6y agoThere are automatic battery-operated (probably infrared?) dispensers posted in public places in my area. The whole thing is smaller than a tissue box, so the logistics are probably a lot simpler than they would be with dispensers the height of the distance between the ground and people's hands.
- lifeisstillgood 6y agoWe had those at work long before covid, and they were always failing in some way, batteries, detector fouled etc Just the simplicity seemed ideal
- userbinator 6y agoYes, a mechanical foot-operated dispenser would be perfectly realistic with the technology of a century ago.
- dylan604 6y agoIf it ain't broke, don't fix it. A simple pedal on the floor seems perfectly acceptable. Doesn't need batteries to replace. Nothing wrong with that. Not everything needs to have "tech" applied to make it functional
- userbinator 6y agoExactly, that's the point I was trying to make. (I'm not sure why I got downvoted though --- I see something like that being possible with 1920s technology as a good thing. I recall foot-operated refrigerator doors being marketed in 1930s ads.)
- SECProto 6y agothere are lots of people who don't have the physical ability to use a floor pedal (wheelchair, elderly/using a walker, etc) for whom a simple sensor dispenser works great. Checking the dispenser once/a few times a day wouldn't be a big hassle. It's not even tech, it's just off the shelf junk that any shop can buy for an extra $5 over a manual dispenser.
- joegahona 6y agoSame. Mostly ours was empty or didn't trigger reliably, but one time I walked by and it was just a steady stream of sanitizer onto the floor.
- jayd16 6y agoMost of the time they were just empty. These days they're stocked with soap and batteries. You already need a person to come by and refill it so I really don't think the small electric one is at that much of a disadvantage.
- Natsu 6y agoI'd love to see more automatic doors, especially on restrooms, but I understand that automatic doors are pretty expensive for some reason?
- ceejayoz 6y agoNo need to have 'em automatic; just ensure they open outwards, so you can push 'em open with your foot.
- echelon 6y agoFire code requires that doors swing open in the direction of egress under certain conditions: https://www.nfpa.org/Assets/files/AboutTheCodes/101/101_FAQs.pdf https://www.nfpa.org/Assets/files/AboutTheCodes/101/101_FAQs... (PDF link)
- Nextgrid 6y agoCan this be worked around with two sets of doors (opening in separate directions) or doors that can swing either way?
- IncRnd 6y agoUnless, according to code, there isn't enough room in the outer area, or opening outwards would create a hazard. This is often why many public bathroom door open inwards, and yet passed code inspections. The very first sentence of the paragraph in your link's section on this subject mentions these exceptions.
- echelon 6y agoMy post includes the clause "under certain conditions". I was trying to inform the OP of fire code regulations that might impede this design. I'm not sure why this was responded to so negatively.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- catblast 6y agoThey have had these for years in OR suites to dispense surgical scrub soap. They use an air bulb and tubing rather than mechanical link since that is much more durable and cheaper to replace. These obviously present an accessibility issue in public places that don't generally apply to ORs. I think the hand operated or IR is the good enough solution in most cases though.
- amelius 6y agoWhat problem does it solve? Consider a normal hand sanitizer bottle with a pump. Pressing the pump with your hand may make your hand dirty (theoretically) but you can immediately disinfect it with the drop of sanitizer you just dispensed!
- lifeisstillgood 6y agoHonestly my theory here is that my hand is probably clean, but I am disinfecting to reduce harm to others or myself. Once I touch that bottle, standing in a public place for days touched by hundreds of random hands, I think my hand is not merely unclean, but looks a lot like Emil in Robocop after he gets smashed into that green goop at the end of the movie. I prefer to use the soles of my shoes frankly - and if I prefer it I suspect most others would hence increasing the likelihood of use and so efficacy of the solution.
- joegahona 6y agoAssume that's true, what if you knew 100% that the person who touched the sanitizer pump seconds before you has COVID and has snot on his hands. What's the problem? You're going to disinfect that, right?
- baddox 6y agoIf you knew that, you might choose to avoid the area because the disinfectant probably isn’t 100% effective (not to mention you don’t want to be breathing the air right around where an infected person was just breathing). That’s not really a contradiction.
- amelius 6y agoIf you think like this, then of what use is the sanitizer in the first place?
- saagarjha 6y agoExcept for the times where there is no sanitizer, so now your hand is "extra dirty" in your mind.
- vermarish 6y agoI've seen music stores who have repurposed their hi-hat stands for this exact device.
- polishdude20 6y agoWhy not just have it hand operated? If you're going to sanitize your hands directly after pumping it, what's the big deal?
- spike021 6y agoIn N Out in California has ones like this. You just squeeze this rubbery piece and it causes the sanitizer gel to come out, then you just use it on the entirety of your hands after. No big deal.
- KeepFlying 6y agoI've never understood this about public bathrooms. I don't need my soap dispenser to be automatic since I only use it when I'm going to be washing my hands already. It's weird to see automatic soap dispensers but manual "hand pump" paper towel dispensers.
- qrbLPHiKpiux 6y agoMany things are over engineered just because. Throw a battery in it, hell, just throw a chip in it. In most cases (Most cases) analog Trumps digital.
- zaroth 6y agoThe soap dispenser is automatic because in theory it reduces the amount of soap used. Except for the ones built into the sink which try to shoot soap at you while you’re rinsing, and it becomes a game to dodge it.
- sturgill 6y agoI’ve had more than one experience where you go to use a hand operated and it’s empty. Then you wonder who touched that thing before you and what did you pick up. I despise the hand operated ones now. Same with mechanical faucets in a public bathroom. I don’t want to turn it off once my hands are clean...
- zaroth 6y ago
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- s5300 6y agoNot ADA compliant, therefore not worth it in the eyes of most businesses.
- nsomaru 6y agoThe use of these has exploded in South Africa during the current pandemic. It’s quite common here. Also interesting to watch the market dynamics at play as the price has steadily come down and everyone is copying it.
- beamatronic 6y agoThey may not be able to keep that name very much longer in the current context
- gambiting 6y agoWhat's the current context? I've never heard the name Dixie cup before, I guessed from the article that it's just a paper cup?
- messe 6y agoNot an american, but I'm guessing they're referring to the fact that Dixie is a nickname for the Southern US, in particular the states that were part of the Confederacy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie EDIT for those on a downvoting spree: I don't mean that the above meaning of Dixie is the origin of the Dixie Cup name, just that that's what I thought the original poster was referring to.
- kshacker 6y agoMake All Google Again :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_cup#Dixie_cups https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_cup#Dixie_cups As an American, Dixie cups are dixie cups :) I know, that's no answer but that was my intent, I do not think we use the term everyday and prefer to say paper cups, but if someone said "dixie cups" I would not be surprised, just like in some other places you could "xerox" a document instead of "photocopying" it.
- Simulacra 6y agoIt's interesting how we've come full circle on disposable, single-use plastics, particularly with respect to the plastic ban reversals in the age of COVID. I am curious to see if this will lead in years to come, greater single-use items, or less.
- baddox 6y agoI don’t know that anyone’s minds have really changed regarding disposable products. The situation is what changed, so that we now tend to think disposable products are okay for the moment given the pandemic.
- KeepFlying 6y agoRight, but will the worries about sanitation fade quickly enough or will we just accept that disposables are cleaner despite the environmental impact? In the short term I'd say it makes sense to me, but long term I really hope we find other solutions.
- ghaff 6y agoIt took years of nudges and eventual laws to seriously reduce a lot of single use plastics. Do you want to be the politician basically requiring the use of reusable plastic bags again? Or getting back into things that were always silly like plastic straw bans? It will be a decade before you reverse the switch to plastic bags.
- Simulacra 6y agoIn many places the switch has already occured back to disposable plastic bags i.e., it's getting them to switch back again to reusable is the question. How long will the public etc. accept the continued use of disposable? It could be years..
- ghaff 6y agoReusable bags aren't even allowed in Massachusetts. I'd be surprised if that changed anytime soon and who knows if the laws requiring you to pay for "multi-use" plastic bags in some locales if you don't bring your own will "ever" end up being reinstated.
- mmhsieh 6y agoProblems notwithstanding, I depend on Zoom now. Maybe 100 years from now it will be thought quaint that we flew around in metal tubes to meet people in person.
- rkoten 6y agoWith the prospect of brain interface development in the next 100 years, it's possible we'll be able to have a meet-in-person perceptional experience while being physically away, virtually wherever.
- owl57 6y agoMeet-in-person perceptional experience implies at least an order of magnitude less latency than Zoom. And such low-latency communication will probably be good enough with traditional video calls, novel brain interfaces will add less value. And yes, latency physically can't be good enough if users are on different continents. So, interestingly enough, this future synchronous communication tech can have some de-globalization impact.