Ultra small UVC sanitizer

Our Story During the Quarantine period due to the Coronavirus that spread throughout the world and reach our country, we were disturbed by the complicated efforts that required us to do simple things that involves touching. Opening doors with the elbow, or pushing an elevator button with my smartphone or key or any other action that requires washing our hands for 20 minutes and being aware to where ww put my hands, was unbearable for us. As Optical design team, We looked for solutions to these problem from our field of interest. The more the Coronavirus crisis evolved we felt the that awareness for UVC advantages for sanitizing surfaces increased. Reviewing the available UVC sanitizers in the market, we have noticed that the products were too large and bulky for everyday use. We believe that a small and portable UVC sanitizer that is efficient enough to sanitize small surfaces and is used as add on to smart phones or key chains. Another thing we have noticed is that all current solutions provide sanitation for flat surfaces only, we couldn’t find any solution for 3D and curved objects like door handles. We felt that with our knowledge and experience in illumination design we can contribute our skills by designing ultra-small UVC sanitizers that may solve the curvy objects issue, and set is as our challenge.

The problem We would like to allow people to freely touch objects without the need for gloves and use of chemicals for sanitation, we want to give people back their normal life and their natural behaviour while they are outside their home.

Our solution An Ultra-small UV-C sanitizer that efficiently sanitizes small surfaces and curved objects to 99.9% sanitation like buttons and door handles.

Our Approach The basic design guidelines for our solution:

Useful for small areas at closed distances – buttons and door handles
Ability to scan curved surfaces
Ultra-small and low weight
High light Efficiency – low power consumption
Versatile use: Add-on for smartphones or key chain
3 seconds maximum scan
Chargeable (USB)
keep skin and eye safety
Attractive product for online selling due to low weight and small dimensions

Main challenges: Minimizing the UVC sterilizer Power source: how long it will last before recharging it

Why do we believe our solution will have an impact on everyone? We believe that people are looking to return back to their normal life without giving-up their habits and compromises their comfort. We think that our architecture will make this device very useful, affordable and mobile for everyone. Attaching it to a smart phone is like connecting it to be a part of your body since smartphones are always with us. People will be able to touch small areas, buttons and door handles without carry bulky devices, gloves and chemicals with them all the time. Another option is to attach our device to plastic cards like employees’ cards or credit cards cases that are also very available for many people. Additional added values with our solution • decrease Coronaviruses concentration in our surrounding and communities. The more people will sanitize their environment, the less contaminated surfaces will surround us. • We believe that is shall be done without additional damage to the environment. Our solution will decrease the use of unfriendly materials for the environment (gloves and chemicals)

What have we done until now? • Analysis of the problem we are trying to solve • Survey of current products in the market and sales margins • Analysis of User reviews and feedbacks from Amazon USA, Canada, UK and Germany
• Basic research of Patents • Basic calculations of UV dose Vs. Radiance Vs. power consumption • Optional available LEDs for our solution • Safety calculations • Ideation of our solution architecture • Preliminary optical and illumination design

What’s next • Engineering efforts o Preliminary optical design o Mechanical and product design o Electronic design o Dealing with Power consumption, operation time and area of santization o Building a prototype o Testing and evaluation – scientific, engineering and user tests and evaluations • Patentability check and patent application if optional