Boyé Lafayette De Mente
Modern conveniences have take much of the drudgery out of keeping houses and buildings clean—at least to the eye—but in addition to the ongoing problems of keeping bathrooms and kitchens free of unsightly visible blemishes, there are less visible as well as completely invisible problems that can seriously affect the health of the occupants.
Japanese scientists have created robotic devices that do much of the work once done by housewives, maids and cleaning personnel but these robots only go so far and do so much, have not yet become commonplace, and do not address more dangerous threats presented by homes and buildings.
Now, a Japanese research team at Matsushita Electric Works Ltd. has come up with technology that makes it possible for buildings to sanitize themselves, eradicating bacteria and mold, destroying toxic compounds like formaldehyde, and in fact, clean away dirt.
This new technology makes use of the reaction of photo-catalysts to the presence of light, both natural sunlight and fluorescent lighting, to degrade and destroy both visible and invisible contamination that plagues houses and public places—this includes keeping the sides of toilet bowls and wash basins clean, deodorizing toilets, sanitizing counters, tables and other surfaces, and keeping mirrors from clouding.
The secret of the home-and-building cleansing and sanitizing technology lies in the photo-catalytic materials that Matsushita scientists have created, and is said to just be the beginning of other potential applications for the technology.
One of the more interesting uses of the technology—developed by the Yokohama Waterworks Bureau—is to combine a “water curtain” with the glass of windows that have been coated with a photo-catalyst. When sunlight strikes the windows it causes the water to spread out in a thin layer over the glass, turning each window into a kind of self-contained refrigeration unit.
Another even more exciting use of the technology, developed by Nippo Corporation, is in road-paving material containing photo-catalytic materials that will suck in and destroy smog-causing nitrogen oxides contained in car exhaust. This paving material was introduced in 2008.
Another technological innovation in Japan that will take the old finger-print way of identifying people another step forward is being introduced by NEC Corporation. This new technology reads both fingerprints and finger vein patterns, with both biometric functions incorporated in one small device.
The device reads both the finger prints and finger veins in approximately one second, and therefore competes handily with the individual print and vein readers marketed by Hitachi, and palm vein readers marketed by Fujitsu—with the advantage that it is just one unit.
So far, the market for fingerprint and veinprint readers has primarily been offices and buildings that require high security measures, and ATM’s, but it is expected that the technology will spread to private homes, eliminating keys which can be lost as well as compromised, and to computers and other things.
And still in the extraordinary innovation scene in Japan, we now have socks and stockings that give you a foot massage. There are five places on the soles of our feet that are “pressure points”—that is, nerve endings that connect with various other parts of the body.
Acupuncturists and masseuses have long been aware of these pressure points and use them in the ministrations. Now all you have to do is to wear a “tsubosto” sock or stocking, and every time you take a step you massage yourself.
These socks and stockings have tiny protrusions made of a titanium-silicon alloy that connect with the therapeutic pressure points on the feet. The very small “bumps” apply gentle pressure to the nerves.
The socks are made by Tsubosto Co. in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward…and are imprinted with such images as butterflies and flowers to make the tiny protrusions less noticeable when you take your shoes off. I haven’t tried them, but I’m going to get a pair at the first opportunity.
Boyé Lafayette De Mente (b.1928) has been involved with Japan and East Asia since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, business journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on Japan, Korea and China, including the first ever on the Japanese way of doing business. See: http://www.business-cultural-language-books-on-china-japan-korea-mexico.info/
