Hardware

Robot Dog Maintains Social Distancing

Posted on by Andy Miller

A remotely controlled robot called ‘SPOT’ that is being trialled in a Singapore park warns visitors to observe safe social distancing measures.

Sign

The 2-week trial in Singapore’s Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park is a collaboration between Singapore’s National Parks Board (NParks) and GovTech.  A sign in the park tells visitors about the presence of SPOT and how the robot will be moving autonomously through the park to help ensure safe distancing in the park and gardens.

Sensors and Cameras

SPOT, the four-legged robot made by Boston Dynamics uses sensors to prevent any collisions with objects or people, and there is a person on-hand to help if there are any unforeseen issues.

Although SPOT is fitted with cameras which can help to estimate the number of visitors to the park, it has been reported that the cameras are not being used to collect personal data or to identify individuals.

Message

As SPOT proceeds around the park, it broadcasts a pre-recorded message that reminds visitors to observe social distancing.

Singapore Laws

People in Singapore are used to complying with a wide variety of laws governing behaviour in public spaces, so it is likely that even commands delivered by a robot will be observed by most people.  For example, in Singapore, on-the-spot fines are common e.g. for littering, smoking in some public places and e-cigarettes can be confiscated, chewing gum is banned, and not flushing the (public) toilet can also result in a fine.

Used in Hospital

Robot delivery services are already a common sight in many hospitals, but the SPOT robot is also being used at Brigham And Women’s Hospital of Harvard University for remote triage of patients suspected of having COVID-19.

Drones

In other cities in other countries e.g. China, the US, Spain and Israel, drones have been used to deliver social distancing and dispersal instructions where there has been an outdoor grouping of people, and (in Jerusalem) outside apartment building windows and balconies to check whether people who have been ordered to self-isolate are doing so.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For drone and robot companies, such as Boston Dynamics, demand has increased during the pandemic because the flexibility, manoeuvrability, and safety (from cross-contamination) provided by these devices has proven to have real value.  Robots and drones, using cameras, sensors and other tools can safely and quickly carry out a wide variety of tasks, as and when required, 24/7.  Delivery robots and commercial drones have also seen as a boost in demand at a time where human movement has been restricted but where a need for monitoring of property and premises, and delivery of food and other important items is still required.

Automation is becoming an important cost and time saving and an added-value element of many businesses and organisations and the success of robots and drones and the highlighting during the pandemic of the benefits they offer can only to boost the market further and make many businesses, organisations and sectors see new opportunities for robots and drones.

A Glimpse of Work After Lockdown From New Government Guidelines

Posted on by Andy Miller

New government guidelines from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), after its consultations with bosses, unions and trade bodies have given a glimpse of early forms of post-lockdown working practices.

Draft Plans

The latest seven draft plans from the government, widely reported in the UK media this week, are thought to be the basis of announcements to be made by the Prime Minister on Thursday.  The guidelines are the bare bones of the expected way forward in ‘easing’ the lockdown.

Keep Working From Home

One of the key suggestions in the draft plans that could help protect public health at a vital time, and stop transport systems from becoming immediately overwhelmed is for workers (who can) to continue working from home for the time being.

Changes In Workplace Routines

Suggested changes in workplace routines, and ways in which safety could be improved also include:

– Improved hygiene where correct social distancing is not possible e.g. using physical screens and other protective equipment.

– Businesses with more than five employees conducting risk assessments before staff return to work and explaining how working conditions will be made safer in the light of these.

– Shielding those people considered to be the most vulnerable by banning them from work that cannot be carried out from home.

– Staggering arrival and departure times/staggering on-premises hours, and staggering break periods.

– Reconfiguring seating and tables to keep employees at a safe distance from each other and to reduce any face-to-face interactions.

– Stopping the ‘hot desking’ practice so that employees are more in control of the hygiene of their workspace and are not unnecessarily exposed to more risk.

Buzzfeed, which claims to have seen all seven of the new guidance documents gives more details on its website here: https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/governments-draft-plan-to-ease-lockdown-workpace-in-full

Phase 2

Phase 2 of the government’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, which refers to the easing of lockdown conditions can, however, only take place when the so-called 5 Tests have been met.  These are making sure the NHS can cope, having a ‘sustained and consistent’ fall in the daily death rate, the rate of infection decreasing to ‘manageable levels’, ensuring the supply of tests and PPE can meet future demand and being confident any adjustments would not risk a ‘second peak’

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

With many businesses now fighting for survival and people being in lockdown since the end of March, there is an appetite for work, trade and the economy to be jump-started again, but people are painfully aware of the risk of that triggering a really devasting second peak.  Right now, with no vaccine yet plus limited treatment options for the highly contagious virus, and with schools still closed, although the guidelines are a welcome starting point to help many businesses to prepare for some kind of return, Scotland looks likely to continue lockdown measures beyond a scheduled review this Thursday, and this could also be the case elsewhere in the UK.

The guidelines do highlight, however, how remote working is likely to continue as a safe a practical option for many but that big changes will need to be made to processes and layouts in businesses across the UK, and that some types of businesses e.g. restaurants, cafes and pubs, will find this really challenging.

Tech Tip – Charging Properly To Take Care of Your Phone Battery

Posted on by Andy Miller

You may have found that you’ve been using your gadgets for longer and charging them more during lockdown so, if you’d like to know more about keeping your gadgets’ lithium-ion batteries healthy in the long run, here are a few important tips:

– Lithium-ion batteries do not like being charged fully to 100 per cent each time. Having an energy band of around 60 per cent rather than 100 can double the life of your phone battery.

– Letting your battery get too close to zero charge should be avoided.

– Lithium-ion batteries respond well to being charged in short bursts e.g. for five per cent here or 10 per cent here and there. Bringing your phone charge from 100 per cent right down to zero and then back up again can damage the battery’s performance and cause strange and rapid losses of power.

– Extreme heat is not good for phones and other gadget batteries, and a fully charged and extremely hot phone (left in the sun) should be avoided. However, Lithium-ion batteries like to be just warm while they charge and discharge, so wireless chargers can help battery life.

Robot Food Deliveries in Milton Keynes During Lockdown

Posted on by Andy Miller

Delivery robots from U.S.-based company Starship Technologies have come into their own during the lockdown as a way of delivering food to the residents and workers of Milton Keynes.

First Commercial Deployment in the UK

The autonomous robot delivery Service operated by Starship Technologies is the first commercial deployment in the UK, and since the beginning of March, has allowed Milton Keynes residents in the delivery area to get cooked food and small orders from supermarkets without having to leave the house.

Starship Technologies

Starship Technologies was founded back in 2014 by co-founders of Skype, Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, who were joined 4 years later by Lex Bayer from Airbnb.

Test Deliveries Started in 2018

Starship first announced that it would be starting a robot food delivery service in Milton Keynes back in April 2018 where it had already partnered with Co-op in order to deliver groceries. At the time, as part of tests of the service, customers in the Milton Keynes area covered by the delivery services could pay a monthly subscription of £7.99 for an unlimited number of deliveries to an address of their choice, with the service operated via a phone app.

In January 2019 Starship Technologies launched a delivery service using the same kind of robots that are now being used in Milton Keynes UK in George Mason University campus in Virginia, USA.

The Robots

The self-driving, six-wheeled delivery robots, which have multiple cameras, ultrasound sensors, radar, and GPS, can identify pedestrians and other obstacles as they make their way along pavements to their target destination.

The robots can carry items within a 4-mile (6km) radius, move at pedestrian speed, weigh no more than 100 pounds, and have a mechanically locked cargo bay that can only be opened by the recipient with their smartphone app.

The robot’s progress on its delivery route can be monitored via the phone app so customers know when to expect their delivery.

Popular With Younger Customers

The company is reported as saying that its robot food deliveries in Milton Keynes have been particularly popular with younger customers and that the lockdown situation has added to what was already a huge surge in demand when the service was first trialled 2 years ago.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Starship Technologies have been building up this service for two years before launch, plus they have some months of commercial experience after running the service on a U.S. university campus. The coronavirus lockdown, however, has meant that more people have been prepared to try the service and have perhaps realised the benefits of speed, simplicity, and relatively low cost, as well as the reduced risk of being able to order from home.  Although it may be predominantly younger people at the moment, and the closure of other food outlets coupled with pressure on companies like Deliveroo have helped boost the demand for Starship’s service generally, robot deliveries do appear to be well placed to take advantage of an opportunity and need in the marketplace for certain quantities and could provide a useful delivery service small businesses in their areas of operation. Post lockdown, their popularity looks set to continue in population centres where road traffic congestion is a problem, and/or on UK university campuses perhaps. Automation and autonomous vehicles look set to play a part in the new ‘normal’, albeit a relatively small but novel and environmentally friendly one to start with.

Featured Article – Securely Disposing of Old Equipment

Posted on by Andy Miller

When our PCs, laptops, phones, and other devices need to be replaced, disposing of them in a way that does not pose a data security risk is especially important. Here are some tips on how to dispose of devices securely.

Backup

Before you begin the disposal process of your device the first thing to do is to make sure that you have a backup of all your important files and data.

Backing Up Your PC

To back up your PC, you could use:

– An external hard drive e.g. WD MyBook Duo, Toshiba’s Canvio, LaCie Porsche Design (good for Macbooks). Many other options are, of course, available. If you have Mac, make sure your chosen external hard drive is Mac compatible.

– A cloud-based backup service, such as Dropbox, Google Drive or Box. These have large amounts of free storage plus, for a relatively small fee you can buy more storage space if needed. For example, Box gives you 10GB of file storage for free, Google Drive gives you 15GB of storage for free, OneDrive gives you 5GB of free storage space, and Apple iCloud gives you 5GB free.

Transfer Files To A New Computer

If you have already purchased a new computer, you may wish to transfer the files from the old straight to the new, although having an updated cloud backup of your work and critical files is good practice anyway.

Sign Out Of Online Accounts

With everything backed up safely, the next step is to make sure that you know login details for (and have signed out of) any online accounts on the old computer. For example, these services/apps could include Facebook, Twitter, Google, Apple and Microsoft.

Wipe The Hard Drive

The next step is to wipe all traces of your data and activity from the hard drive. For those who are planning to wipe the hard drive of a computer that belongs to your employer/the company you work for you will need to first check what the company’s recommended policy or procedure is for doing so, and to check that your actions will be compliant with data protection laws e.g. GDPR.

Wiping the hard drive can involve a number of steps and options, including:

– Delete or overwrite files using software that meets guidelines for secure deletion e.g. File Shredder, Eraser or WipeFile. If you have an older Mac with a hard drive try Secure Empty (Trash option Finder > Secure Empty Trash) but for OS 10.11 and higher and Windows PCs with SSD drives, the drive will need to be encrypted. Although this type of software provides a relatively easy and simple solution, it may take some time to overwrite multiple times.

– Drive Encryption. For PCs, this can be found in Settings > About and Drive Encryption or Bitlocker Settings. For Macs, this can be done via System Preferences > Security & Privacy.

– Deauthorise the computer with relevant accounts. For example, some SaaS accounts (Microsoft 365) and entertainment accounts such as iTunes only allow you to use a certain number of authorised, named devices. If you are getting rid of your device you will need to de-authorise this device with those accounts, thereby enabling you to authorise another device/a new for use in its place with those accounts.

– Delete browser data. Since browsers save information about your browsing history and can store usernames, passwords, and other sensitive personal data, the next step is to delete your browser history, and to make sure that you are signed out of your browsers. For example, to clear your history in Microsoft Edge, go to the three dots (top right) open the browser menu and go to Settings > Privacy & security and select “choose what to clear”, making sure that all checkboxes are selected so everything gets removed. The same will need to be done for all other browsers e.g. Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

– Uninstall programs. Some programs contain personal data and, therefore, need to be uninstalled.

– Macs (macOS) restart, coupled with Option+Command+R. The process for of wiping the hard drive for Macs is to erase and reinstall the operating system. To do this, go to Apple menu > Restart and, just as it reboots, hold down Option+Command+R until the spinning globe appears. Then, release the keys, choose Reinstall macOS, choose Continue, and follow the instructions.

– Windows PC reset. For a Windows PC, go to Settings (app), click on Update & Security, click on Recovery, choose Get started under the Reset this PC option, and remove all personal files during the process.

– Chromebook factory reset. To wipe your Chromebook, sign in to the Chromebook with the owner account, from the taskbar, click on Settings > Advanced > Powerwash > Restart. When the Chromebook restarts, select Powerwash and click on Continue.

Destroy The Hard Drive

Before recycling a computer, some experts recommend destroying the hard drive in order to be absolutely sure that any sensitive data stored on it cannot be recovered. This can be achieved by removing the hard drive and e.g. hitting it with a hammer or drilling holes in it.

To remove the hard drive, disconnect the PC from its power source, open the casing and locate the hard drive, which generally connected to a SATA data and power cable (or to a flat, wide IDE cable in much older computers), and remove the hard drive from its housing by undoing the screws.

If the device is on the premises of your business at the time, you will need to ensure that care is taken in order to comply with health and safety regulations if trying to physically destroy the hard drive.

Laptop

As with a PC, make sure all important files are backed up, accounts are signed-out of, de-authorisation is completed, and browser data is removed. With laptops, use software to erase the data e.g. File Shredder or Eraser, and remove the hard drive, while taking care to avoid and damage to the inside of the laptop. There are many online guides and videos to help with the removal of laptop hard drives.

Tablet

After backing up your important files and data, the best method for preparing to dispose of a tablet in a way that maintains data security is to use a full factory reset. To do this, tap the app drawer and find the Settings icon, select Backup and reset (left-hand side), uncheck the Back up my data and Automatic restore checkboxes (right-hand side), select the Factory Reset option and follow the instructions. As a ‘belt and braces’ option, select the app drawer, select Settings, select Storage (left-hand side), select Miscellaneous files (right-hand side), select the checkboxes for folders and select dustbin.

Phones

Our phones contain vast amounts of personal data and potentially sensitive company data. It is, therefore, extremely important to dispose of them in a way that does not compromise the security and privacy of yourself, your business/your employer, or any stakeholders and contacts.

Back-Up

Firstly, ensure that you have backed up your phone contacts. After backing up your important data the process is:

For Android

Most up-to-date android phones have a microSD card where the phone’s data is stored. Remove the back of the phone, remove the battery, and remove the microSD card. This can be used in your replacement phone. You will also need to remove your SIM card.

If you need to wipe a microSD card, you can attach it to a laptop (with a USB cable), open ‘My Computer’, locate the microSD card, select all files stored on it and click delete.

For iPhones

An iPhone has an in-built way to return it to its factory default settings, thereby removing your personal data. To do this, go to General, Settings, Reset, and Erase All Content and Settings. This will require you to enter your username and password, and you will be given the chance to update your iCloud backup before you go ahead with the erasing as part of this process.

Data Wiping Company/Charity

Another option is to simply use a trusted third-party data wiping company or charity to professionally clean all data from your devices, hard drives, network routers, switches, and servers. Examples include WeeeCharity, PC4 Recycling, Secure IT Services and Medecon although there are many other similar services.  Your IT Support Company may also be able to provide these services or recommend a company in your area. Contact your IT Support Company for details.

Afterwards

After you have wiped your device, and depending on whether the device belongs to you or the business/organisation/your employer, your options may be:

– Recycle the device. Many recycling centres, for example, take old PCs.

– Sell the device. You could choose to sell the device privately online e.g. eBay, Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace, or to a private company that buys devices e.g. Mazuma, Music Magpie, WeBuyAnyPhone or others.

– Donate your device to a charity e.g. Computer Aid International, Turing Trust or IT For Charities.

– Donate your device to a local school, centre, or Freecycle network.

In any case, if the hard drive has been removed, you will need to inform the person, or organisation that you are selling or donating the device to.

N.B. You may wish to consult your IT support company first as they may be able to provide data wiping and IT equipment recycling services or put you in touch with a good service near you.

Important

It is surprising how much personal and sensitive data we store on our devices, so following proven procedures to make sure personal and company data is removed from devices before selling them, recycling them or donating them is a very important consideration for businesses and individuals. As person’s and businesses circumstances are different, please get in touch before disposing of any IT equipment for a detailed and appropriate course of action, specific to your requirements.

Laptops For Online Lessons at Home

Posted on by Andy Miller

Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, has announced that the UK’s Department for Education will be providing disadvantaged children across England with a supply of laptops and tablets to help them study at home during the coronavirus outbreak.

Those In The Most Vital Stages of Education

The government says that the devices are intended for children in the most vital stages of their education (15-year-olds), for those who receive support from a social worker, and for care leavers.

Mr Williamson says “By providing young people with these laptops and tablets and enabling schools to access high-quality support, we will enable all children to continue learning now and in the years to come. We hope this support will take some of the pressure off both parents and schools by providing more materials for them to use.”

Also 4G Routers

The government has also announced that it will be providing 4G routers to disadvantaged secondary school pupils and care leavers where their families do not already have mobile or broadband internet in the household.

Oak National Academy Too

The UK government has also announced that it will be backing the funding of the Oak National Academy, a new enterprise created by 40 teachers from some of the leading schools across England. The new online Academy will be providing 180 video lessons each week, across a range of subjects, for every year group from Reception through to Year 10.

Other Tech Resources and Online Lessons

At the end of March, the Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) announced that it would be spending £2 million on 9,000 Chromebook laptops to help pupils in receipt of free school meals or with an education health and care plan (EHCP) to access its programme of digital learning.

Also, the BBC has announced that it will be launching a range of educational resources online and on TV.

UK non-profit ‘Brilliant Club’, which works with 800 schools and colleges across the UK to increase the number of pupils from underrepresented backgrounds progressing to highly selective universities, has also released a series of online resources, free of charge, which are suitable for pupils aged 10-18.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Education directly benefits business and the economy so, at a time when it is unclear when children will be able to return to school, having the resources, help, funding and infrastructure to enable online, remote learning is important for the future of young people and for the UK.  It should be recognised, however, that challenges such as wealth gaps in education and exclusions like a lack of devices, the affordability of internet contracts and how a young person’s broadband status could affect their ability to keep up with learning do exist.  It is, therefore, good news that the government has recognised this and is providing some practical help at a time that is particularly important in educational terms.

Tech Tip – How To Speed Up Your Internet Connection

Posted on by Andy Miller

With most of us working from home and with a much bigger demand than normal being placed on our broadband connections, here are a few simple ways to try and speed your connection up:

– Move your home router away from other devices e.g. TVs, Bluetooth speakers, baby monitors, cordless phones, and consider placing the router on a table or raised position rather than on the floor.

– Try to stagger the number of family members using the internet at one time.

– Don’t use your microwave while online as this can interfere with your Wi-Fi signal.

– Consider using a homemade DIY ‘parabolic’ antenna e.g. shielding the back of the router in a beer can that’s had the top and bottom cut off, been flattened, and stood up in curved shape. Please note: be incredibly careful to avoid injury if attempting to make this.

– Get a signal booster.

– Set your router to reboot regularly to keep your Wi-Fi speed high.

Google’s Drone-Deliveries Boosted By Pandemic

Posted on by Andy Miller

The value of drone delivery services appears to have been realised now that the world’s population centres are in lockdown, with Alphabet’s (Google’s) drone deliveries doubling in test areas in the U.S. and Australia.

What Drone Delivery Service?

Alphabet Inc.’s Wing service offers parcel delivery by special drone aircraft.  In the U.S. the service was approved by the federal government last October but is being operated in a limited test area around Christiansburg, Virginia.  It is operating using partnerships with FedEx Corp., the Walgreens store chain (for medicine, toilet roll and similar deliveries), and with a local bakery and a coffee shop. Wing is also working as part of an approved program with Virginia Tech.

Alphabet’s Wing also has a drone delivery service in the Vuosaari district of Helsinki in Finland and in Canberra, Australia where it delivers goods from a variety of vendors including Mitchell Supermarket, Krofne Donuts and even Drummond Golf (golf balls, tees and gloves).

It is the drone deliveries in the Christiansburg, Virginia area of the U.S. and in Canberra, Australia that are reported to have doubled their deliveries in response to demand from customers who are staying at home.

Other Drone Delivery Services

Wing is, of course, not the only drone delivery service.  Amazon’s Prime Air delivery service, which made test deliveries as far back as 2016 and 2017 still exists but is described by Amazon as “a future delivery system” which has “great potential”, but does seem to have gone somewhat quiet since the much-publicised tests.

In The UK

Drone services are already in operation in the UK, offering a variety of services and performing a number of duties.  In addition to drones used in the promotions and film industries, UK agencies also use drones.  For example, back in 2017, Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service and multi-agency partners (Fire and Rescue, Constabulary, County Council and others) launched a shared drone service to provide a range of aerial surveillance options in support of emergency services and voluntary organisations.

Drones In The Pandemic and Beyond

Reports of other uses of drones in the pandemic and beyond include:

– Reports from Jerusalem that Israeli police have been using drones outside apartment buildings to check whether people who have been ordered to self-isolate are doing so.

– Spanish police and the French police using drones with speakers around public places to warn people to go home.

– The University of South Australia (UniSA) and Canada-based drone technology specialist ‘Draganfly’ teaming up to create a drone that can use sensors and computer vision to spot people with infectious respiratory diseases.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Clearly, drone delivery options are still a long way off for most of us, but the pandemic has highlighted more elements of value in them that are being applied in the test areas for local shop deliveries during the pandemic, and for use in disease control on the post-pandemic modern world that we now find ourselves entering.  Drones have also been used for medical purposes (live organ delivery) and could prove valuable again for moving medical and other help into closed-off areas where there is disease in future.

For now, and in the near future, we are still waiting for the tech giants in conjunction with business partners to expand the scale and scope of drone delivery so that it can begin to add value and provide a competitive edge for all kinds of businesses and organisations.

Tech Tip – Taking Care of Your Laptop

Posted on by Andy Miller

Here are some tips for keeping your laptop battery in good condition and the screen nice and clean:

The Battery

– Avoid using the laptop in very hot places and avoid causing the laptop to overheat, as this can drain more power from the battery.

– Avoid draining the battery completely before charging it again.

– Check the power settings and learn which battery settings to enable.

– Make sure your laptop’s hibernation feature happens before the battery is drained and during downtime.

– Check which (unnecessary) apps are running in the background and stop them from doing so.  With Windows 10, this can be helped by enabling the ‘Battery Saver’.

– With MacBooks, consider enabling Power Nap and automatic graphics switching.

The Screen

To keep the screen of your laptop clean without damaging it:

– Use a microfibre cloth (not a paper towel or tissue), and preferably one that’s suitable for lens or glasses cleaning. You could also use a soft duster.

– Shut the laptop down first (so you can see the dust), press gently when cleaning and wipe in one direction.

Viruses Killed By Robots

Posted on by Andy Miller

Robots armed with UV-C ultraviolet light beams that can effectively disinfect surfaces in a hospital room in 10-20 minutes are helping in the fight against COVID-19.

UVD Robots, Denmark

The robots, which are reported to have been shipped in considerable numbers to Wuhan in China, Asia, and parts of Europe are manufactured in Denmark’s third-largest city, Odense, by the UVD Robots company.  The manufacturers say that if used as part of a regular cleaning cycle, they could prevent and reduce the spread of infectious diseases, viruses, bacteria, as well as other types of harmful organic microorganisms.

Breaks Down DNA

These smart robots, which look a little like a printer on wheels with several light-sabres arranged vertically in a circle on top, can autonomously clean traces of viruses from a room by ‘burning’ them from surfaces using UV-Wavelength: 254NM (UV-C light) in a way that breaks down the DNA-structure of the virus.

Research and Testing

The UVD robots are the product of 6 years research, design, development, and testing by leading, reputable organisation Blue Ocean Robotics, and the Danish Healthcare Authority (supported by leading microbiologists and hygiene specialists from Odense University Hospital).

How?

The Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) method of disinfection, which has been in accepted use since the mid-20th century, involves using short-wavelength ultraviolet (UV-C) to disrupt the DNA of microorganisms so that they can no longer carry out cellular functions.

Features

The features of UVD’s cleaning robots include 360-degree disinfection coverage, a 3-hour battery charge, and software and sensor-based safety features.  The operating time per charge for the UV module is 2-2.5 hours (equal to 9-10 rooms).  It is claimed that these units can kill up to 99.99 per cent of bacteria.

HAIs

The primary purpose of the robots is to help and improve quality of care for hospitals and healthcare facilities around the world by providing an effective, low human risk, 24-hour available way to eradicate the kind of Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) which affect millions of patients (and kill several thousand) each year.

The COVID-19 outbreak which has led to many healthcare environments being overwhelmed with large numbers of patients has, therefore, made the need for this kind of cleaning/disinfecting system seem very attractive.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Now, more than ever in living memory, having a device that can simply, automatically, quickly and effectively get on with the cleaning of hospital rooms on-demand, without worrying about infection (as may be the case for human cleaners), and without putting more human resource demands on hospitals must be invaluable, and would account for the increase in orders internationally. Devices like these show how a combination of technologies can be combined to create real value and tackle a problem in an effective way that could benefit all of us.