Ask HN: Would you buy a disinfection robot for your office? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Would you buy a disinfection robot for your office?

Obviously people care about disinfection now, while COVID is still fresh. But do you care if your employer disinfects the office? Or is it enough for you to just go to work and have some hand sanitizer on your desk?

What do you think the post-COVID world will be like, in terms of people's behavior regarding disinfection, or even government regulations with disinfection?

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I'm personally pretty excited about far-UVC [1], thought it seems pretty hard (read: expensive) to achieve in practice. Compared to regular UVC, far-UVC is safe for human exposure.

I have a prototype lamp at my place and when it's on, you can clearly tell that the air gets better. It's like an air purifier but it can also kill viruses and bacterias on surfaces.

I doubt it'll get massive adoption due to covid but who knows, maybe by the next pandemic we'll be ready. :)

[1] https://www.ted.com/talks/david_brenner_a_new_weapon_in_the_...

I wonder if it is the ionisation of the air that you’re sensing/smelling. Could it perhaps be some ozone in low concentrations?

It's like an air purifier. But no ozone, we measured that there's no "side effects".

A robot? Would it get all tangled on the Ethernet and Power cables under my desk?

I would love if someone cleaned my desk. Like, removing the dust and such. But don't you dare accidentally destroying my $350 Keyboard with your products! Or knock over the mug full of coffee that I forgot there. Or accidentally unplug something.

Otherwise, I'll keep using Clorox once a week on my desk. Friday 5pm is cleaning time.

Anyway, I'm 100% remote right now, so...

We have a UV light robot for curing resins and ink.

I was gifted a UV sterilisation system and it has nothing on this robot.

I brought the robot home and the most popular use in our household is charging up the kids’ glow in the dark materials.

I think I’ve seen ones that blast UV into hospital rooms. That’s about the only thing I could think of as being useful without also damaging everything. Using sprayed chemicals and what not is unlikely to go over well since monitors, sensitive desk items, and what not are a thing. But UV (as long as it’s a reasonable amount) probably isn’t a big issue.

I, as an individual employee, would never buy a disinfection robot for my office. If someone did, it sounds like the sort of poor understanding of role boundaries that would end up on https://www.askamanager.org/

Yeah that's my poor phrasing. I really am just wondering, would you _want_ to have regular disinfection happening, or would you just not care? I can't tell how much disinfection is just window dressing because covid is a thing...

Ah. I do not much care.

But if you are selling disinfection robots, then HN is not a particularly good forum to be asking. You want to find where site managers and office managers hang out. They're the ones with the relevant budgets.

I will never work in an office again. At least I’ll try as much as I can. I’m currently rejecting all of the offers recruiters send to me with “Sorry. Only 100% remote works for me at the moment. Thank you!”

I'm much more interested in how the ventilation works. I'd pay for some device that measures air quality, e.g. something that shows whether covid-sized particles are floating around.

Would you still care about having sensor information post-covid though? (I guess covid will never really go away...)

yes, like you said, covid will never go away, and there is more awareness of the problem of airborne viruses in enclosed spaces like an office.

I like when my employer cleans up dust and dirt. I don’t really care about disinfectant and I might be unhappy with a robotic approach. Wouldn’t want to see this.

No.

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