Keep Your Hands Clean with These Handwashing Timers and Dispensers
View a list of amazing projects that showcase how to keep your hands clean while avoiding touching certain surfaces.
The recent COVID-19 crisis has brought about a whole slew of challenges, one of them being how the virus can be transmitted. SARS-CoV-2 can live on certain surfaces for up to three days, which means proper handwashing technique is imperative. The projects below are wonderful examples of how makers can come together and create things that benefit us all.
Hands-Free Sanitizer Dispenser
This project was made by Sai Kovuru and Sri Tarun, and it works by using a pedal attached to a moveable pipe that allows for hand sanitizer to be dispensed without the need to touch anything. Although the device doesn't use any electronics, the design is still good because of its simplicity and reliability.
Corona Handwash Timer
The Corona Handwash Timer is a great handwashing timer to remind people how long they need to wash their hands effectively. It operates by using a simple IR emitter/detector pair that senses when something is in front of it. Then, its Arduino Uno starts a countdown timer which signals its completion by changing its RGB LED's color from red to green.
Automatic Alcohol Dispenser
This device was created by the user engineer2you as a way to safely dispense hand sanitizer in a smarter way. All a person has to do is walk up and place their hand near the ultrasonic sensor to receive a shot of sanitizer. It works by toggling a miniature pump on and off when a certain distance threshold is reached. As a bonus, its onboard OLED display shows nice reminders and encouraging messages to motivate others to keep their hands clean.
Touchless Handwashing Timer / Nightlight
Finally, we come to this excellent project made by Hackster's own Alex Glow: a touchless handwashing timer that also doubles as a nightlight. It utilizes Adafruit's Circuit Playground Express which is full of useful sensors, such as an accelerometer and one for ambient light. In this case, the sound sensor is used to detect when the faucet is on and then triggers a 20-second countdown that alternates the onboard LEDs between off and orange.