Have you seen those automatic water taps in upscale restaurants and hotels that allow the water to flow only after they sense a user's hands near the valve? Exactly on the same lines, ninth grader D Yuva from Bengaluru has developed a sanitiser dispenser called a Touch Me Not dispenser that provides the liquid sanitiser only when it senses the movement of your hands. This high school student says, "Everyone is scared about contracting COVID-19. When a common sanitiser bottle is used in offices and other places, many people would touch the bottle. There is a high risk of coming in contact with the deadly virus. Hence, I thought of the idea to build this sanitiser dispenser."
Since Yuva has been trained by QtPi, a start-up that trains children to build robots and drones, he shared his idea with mentor Gunjan Sethi. He says, "I shared this idea with my mentor during the lockdown period and my mentor was ready to help through a video call. After connecting through a video call, we developed this sanitiser device within four hours."
Yuva has a kit given by QtPi to build various devices and he used an arduino-based main board, sensors, actuators, building blocks and mobile app to build this dispenser. He says, "I have made two shelves with the help of building blocks and placed sanitiser on the right side and liquid soap on the left side. Since the sanitiser senses the movement of your hands, I have fixed the sensors to the dispenser. In case, if you move your hands towards the right side, you get sanitised and if you move it to the left, then you get the liquid soap."
Yuva and Gunjan have posted their video on QtPi's YouTube channel and. In the coming days, they are expecting the schools, hospitals and offices to approach them for getting Touch Me Not dispenser fixed in their places.