A transparent glass doorknob with an internal UV light to kill germs and bacteria. Light sensor detects when the doorknob has just been used and instantly triggers UV light in knob to kill germs before next user arrives. For use in public bathrooms, high traffc areas and homes.
-- wombat, Aug 17 2003

(?) But... http://www.deutsche...eim/e/edition17.php
is it art? [thumbwax, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

So instead of picking up the common germs we need to build an immunity to, we'll all be getting skin cancer, huh?
-- DrCurry, Aug 17 2003


And tanned palms.
-- FarmerJohn, Aug 17 2003


[Doc] The UV would flash after someone touches the knob, but not during. Like some other inventions: No-doorknob bathroom and Doorknob hand sanitizer, the point is to not re-contaminate a hand you just got done washing. You are saying it's healthier to resoil freshly sanitized hands in order to build up necessary resistance to common germs? Why wash in the first place? It would be fine if there only were benign 'common germs' found on doorknobs in a public area. Also, UV is less likely to lead to a strain of UV immune germs.
-- wombat, Aug 17 2003


Make it a hollow brass knob and put a little burner inside (all natural gas of course). After each use the the burner turns on for a minute and everything is simply sterilized by heat. No more skin cancer.
-- kbecker, Aug 18 2003


//After each use the the burner turns on for a minute // So instead of a few harmless germs, the next buy gets 3rd degree burns.
-- FloridaManatee, Aug 19 2003


Big advantage - you could all tell who had the recurring diarrhoea which was causing a stink in your office because their hand would be tanned. Likewise you would have a visual warning of which ladies ‘had the painters and decorators in’ (so that you could be more tolerant and respectful toward them during this vulnerable time of course).
-- dobtabulous, Aug 19 2003


Have you noticed that despite the advances of medicine, many children are getting sick at a higher rate than in the past? This is due to their parents protecting them from all the contaminants when they were infants, thereby denying them the ability to fortify their immune system when toddlers.
-- Freefall, Aug 19 2003


But then they stick their kids in day care centers to pick up other kids' germs.
-- wombat, Aug 19 2003


[FloridaManatee] Don't tell anyone, we could get a good laugh out of this.
-- kbecker, Aug 19 2003


[kbecker] for the previous anno about no more skin cancer, one would need to have skin surviving this ordeal before we could consider making it cancerous, no?
-- X2Entendre, Aug 19 2003



random, halfbakery