Dyson, eh? The company is best known for making weird looking vacuum cleaners and high-velocity hand dryers. So what's the British firm's next invention? Well, to paraphrase the great Admiral Ackbar, it's a tap!
Yes indeed, we've gone hands-on (or should that be under?) with Dyson's Airblade Tap -- a ludicrously pricey piece of bathroom furniture. Click play on the video above to see what it looks like in reality.
This is not just any tap, dear reader. It washes your hands automatically after you've triggered an infrared sensor, then dries them using these air-blasting prongs on the side.
Beneath the surface, the tap is powered by a brand-new Dyson digital motor, which spins up to 90,000rpm in just a second. Dyson says the motor took seven years to develop, at a cost of nearly £30m.
It's money well spent though, as Dyson says this monster will get your hands dry in 12 seconds. I've given it a try, and the amount of air that's pushed through these sub-1mm slits is pretty impressive.
It saves you traipsing across the bathroom to use the hand drier, but that convenience doesn't come cheap -- this tap costs a whopping £1,000. There's also no way to change the water temperature, which means this fancy faucet probably isn't the ideal choice for your house.
Instead you'd be better off waiting for the Airblade Tap to pop up in restaurants or train stations, which will probably start happening in the next few months.
In the meantime let us know which piece of household technology you'd like to see given a high-tech reimagining by sticking a note in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.
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Comments 11
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anonymous 5 February, 2013 19:47
90,000rpm a second...it probably heats the water to 98.6F per foot.
anonymous 5 February, 2013 20:01
he means it reaches from 0- 90,000 rpm in one second from which it then spins at 100,000 rpm....
Meleagru 5 February, 2013 20:57
It boggles the mind that such a device is the pinnacle of an engineer's career. I'm sure something more worthwhile could have been created with all that money that was invested in the research. Saving a 3-second trip to the hand-drier is probably the best definition of first world problems.
anonymous 5 February, 2013 22:09
This is mental... Honestly... All that money for a useless thing... whats wrong with this world!
DanielPrice91 6 February, 2013 02:34
What's all this having a go at Dyson then. They make good motors and are trying to implement their tech into every day life.
anonymous 6 February, 2013 08:09
Slight drawback on not controlling temperature ...............doooooh
30 milion pounds and we forgot to make it work like a 30 pound tap.
Never mind its only money.
leoevs44 6 February, 2013 08:16
7 years and £30 million later for a tap that you cant even adjust the temp on and at a grand a piece, drys youre hands in 12 second, in my bathroom i wash my hands turn around and theres the towel rack, dry hands in about 4 seconds, theres already washing facilities that wash and dry, their in service stations all over the country and there even in my work place, they might not be pretty like this dyson one but their there and they work after about 10mins of drying lol, think this is a complete waste of time and money.............
LeeK 6 February, 2013 20:44
I can see this being used in fancy restaurants.
anonymous 6 February, 2013 23:15
I cant wait for the Chinese-knock offs! Bet it wont cost no £1000
anonymous 7 February, 2013 01:24
Dyson seem to have run in to the where do I go after the iPhone problem.
anonymous 8 February, 2013 21:56
Hardly money wasted. The brake through was the motor, the tap was just a example use for it.
Im sure there will be endless applications for the motor.