It seems like stuff is always getting on the carpet... dirt, dust, food, cat puke, etc. What with our busy lifestyles, who has time to vacuum or shampoo the carpteing on a daily basis? Yet the debris accumulates on the carpet daily...

Well here's the solution! The self cleaning carpet works like this: The carpeting itself has millions of tiny holes between the carpet fibers. There are also sensors in the fibers of the carpet that let the mechanism know when something has been spilled on the carpet and needs to be removed.

A special padding is laid under the carpet. This padding is also very porous. Within it is a vacuum mechanism that sucks the dirt/soil/etc. down through the carpet and into the padding. The padding is treated with special enzymes that break down and dissolve the carpet soil. Thus leaving you with a clean, sanitary carpet!
-- Aurora, Jul 12 2002

Vacuum Floor http://www.halfbake...idea/Vacuum_20Floor
Already HalfBaked by [ravenswood]. [phoenix, Jul 13 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]

breaks down and dissolves into what? does it run off down a network of pipes into a drain?
-- po, Jul 12 2002


I was thinking that it just dissolved into nothing, rather like an alkaseltzer, or a bath fizzy.
-- Aurora, Jul 12 2002


Perhaps there could be small irrigation lines running beneath the carpet to shampoo it from the underside, and a slight draining sump as well.

I don't think it would be possible to eliminate shampooing or human effort, but at the very least people could get some help with deep cleaning. Controlled by a lever on the wall.
-- polartomato, Jul 12 2002


What you need is carpet on a roller, so you can wind out a fresh section after a party- kinda like those continuous cloth hand towel holders in public restrooms.. Get to the end of the roll and take it to the cleaners.. or just put it on backwards, like the Lucky Star Palace does
-- Mr Burns, Jul 12 2002


we did that with bedsheets. carpet is rather more expensive to make disposable.
-- po, Jul 12 2002


If you start out with a painted cement floor, every once in a while you could roll out some kind of semi-disposable terry-cloth covering. Or, someone could invent a carpet that you can crumple up and throw in the washer once in a while, with a sacrificial pad underneath. Yeah, what c said seems like a good idear to me.
-- polartomato, Jul 12 2002


Since you mentioned self-cleaning ovens, I thought the upper, sprayed-on layer of the carpet was going to be plastic(que) explosive, to be detonated once a week, vaporizing the dirt.
-- FarmerJohn, Jul 12 2002


FarmerJohn: Oh, what genius ! Why don't you combine it with your truly outstanding and brilliant "lightning barbequeue" idea ? Just hook up a great big lighting rod to your house, and every time there's a thunderstorm, lead the lightning down onto that dirty carpet and just fry all those pesky stains to a crisp ? So easy ... so quick .... so simple ..... but oh, soooo long to clean up afterwards .... (bitter bitter bitter bitter, I've had to junk that shirt, you b@st@rd, the stains wouldn't was out, and it was nearly new too, bitter bitter bitter.

Ahem.

Aurora, I like your idea, but how do you dry the carpet afterwards ? Is the cleaning agent solvent based, or could you put heating wires in the backing, like an electric blanket ?

Hint: when it comes to electricity, don't take any advice from FarmerJohn.
-- 8th of 7, Jul 12 2002


8 of 7 - Hrm... ok, to dry the carpet the vacuum mechanism can be reversed, and dry the carpet by blowing on it from below.

Polartomato - You're probably right, it may need a good shampooing once a year, but for the most part I see it as being able to refresh itself... perhaps it can spray air-freshener as well?
-- Aurora, Jul 12 2002


You could introduce a fragrance into the airstream during the reverse-blow-dry phase of the cleaning cycle.
-- 8th of 7, Jul 12 2002


Two layer implementation of this idea: outer layer replaceable made of rods that turn over and are cleaned by air/water in lower layer. Bottom layer: dust catching/or thin liquid layer. Air pulls through to second layer, which is washable or disposable, without affecting upper layer.
-- pashute, Jun 22 2004


Air Cooling/warming version: Air circulated from floor is cooler (floor is usually cool) and if there is a water layer, all the more so.

Simply filter the air and recycle it into the room. You get an air cooler/purifier rug.

Last but not least, tiny refrigeration units could be set along the floor to catch energy, for cooling, pumping the heat outside the room and recycling the COLD (not just cool) clean air back into the room from ducts.
For heat, reverse the direction of heat flow.
-- pashute, Jun 22 2004


I thought the carpet would be made of something very heat-resistant and heat itself to a very high temperature periodically to burn any contaminants.
-- Voice, Dec 07 2019



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