When sharing a home, there is often heated discussion about who should take vacuuming / sweeping responsibility. I propose a small machine with test strips that perform a dna fingerprint on samples of lint placed in them. Corresponding reference samples belonging to the housemates are placed in seperate receptacles.

The readout will determine what fraction each housemate has contributed to house lint through dandruff / skin flakes / shedding and thus to what degree each must participate in cleanup. It would also provide incentive to maintain scrupulous hygiene, thus lowering ones proportional contribution.

An add-on feature would be a readout displaying what percentage of lint was contributed by humans not in the reference standards. If this number is high, it might be necessary to add a reference - eg for one housemates very mangy girlfiend. One could then make a case that she should do her share of the vacuuming as well.
-- bungston, Dec 06 2002

If we could somehow - dare I say it? - genetically modify each human being so that their skin glow under a different frequency (do I mean frequency?) of light, then bathing each room in a sweep of that colour would show up whose skin is whose.
-- my face your, Dec 06 2002


I think that it's wavelengths, but it has been a few years since I've taken physics.
-- notme, Dec 06 2002


This idea did cause me to wonder, "Do industrial clean-rooms require cleaning?" Wee Mad Arthur may have been on the right track: Install positive pressure air flow throughout the house, and vacuum pressure air locks at each point of ingress and egress. Electrostatic air cleaners running 24 hours a day take care of the rest. Marketers could dub this the "Mr. Clean House", or "Bubble Boy Abodes".
-- jurist, Dec 07 2002



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