Enter The Ultraviolet Ninja

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That sounds like an excellent psychedelic kung-fu film, doesn’t it?

I’ve been doing my normal duties of researching and digging around for articles lately, and in my search I’ve found several items pertaining to using ultraviolet light as a disinfectant in the home.  Some of these products look pretty interesting, and some of them look like pretty interesting Home Shopping Network stuff that you sell at garage sales once you realize you bought and stored something without using it, ever.  I’ll let you be the judge.

First, the UV Onion, from Yun Li:

uvonion

The UV Onion is a disinfecting device that is both solar and powered by the strength of the UV ninja.  It looks like an onion, so obviously you’d probably use it in the kitchen – Yun Li’s site says it’s made for all rooms of the house.  It has a solar storage battery inside as well for those times when the sun just doesn’t shine.

uvonion

uvonion

Next up, the Photon Scorpion Finder Freedom Micro Keychain Light from Photon Light, Inc:

scorpionfinder
Scorpion Under Ultraviolet Light © Kenton L Elliott

Before I get any further, scorpions, you and your friend the spider can keep your creepy, nasty, misshapen butts away from me at all times.  We have nothing to talk about, ever.  Photon Light has made it so you can detect scorpions in your boots, sleeping bags, under piles of wood, and in other places these little poisonous vermin like to hide.  Apparently scorpions have fluorescent bodies, and the power of our friend the ultraviolet ninja helps to illuminate them so you can give them the boot, per se.  Nasty.

The Scorpion Finder runs about $16.  (thanks, Gadgeteer!)

scorpion finder

Next, the VIOLight Toothbrush Sanitizer from VIOLight:

violight

Makes pretty good sense, huh?  Your toothbrush lives in the bathroom.  You take your pants off in the bathroom, along with doing all kinds of other somewhat disgusting things in the bathroom.  Often, your toothbrush lives near the sink in the bathroom where you wash your hands after doing certain relatively disgusting things in the bathroom.  Doesn’t it make sense that you might want to use the power of ultraviolet light to clean the funk off of your toothbrush?  After all, you do put it in your mouth.

violight

Amazon has this gadget for about $40.

The next ultraviolet gadget is considerably more expensive, retailing at around $280.  Nevertheless, meet the Purelight UV Sterilizing Wand from Gaiam:

purelight

The Purelight wand has a 15,000 hour UV lamp, several settings, and the feeling that you’re crippling bacteria and other nasties forever.  Try to reproduce NOW, microscopic vermin!

purelight

The problem with anything that uses ultraviolet light is basically an issue of form factor – to disinfect something with UV light, you have to have the device in the place you want to sterilize for between 10 and 25 seconds.  With most of the devices out there (take the Purelight wand for example) you might want to sterilize your mattress, but that might take a long time depending on how large your mattress really is.  As form factor increases and prices decrease on this gear, I think the UV disinfecting trend will become more commonplace in homes.  This is of course just my opinion, and we all know how that can go.

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