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CONNECTIVITY
LINKING
HEALTH CARE
WORKERS
Vocera Smartbadge
At critical moments
while caring for patients,
doctors and nurses must
drop what they’re doing
if they need to call a
colleague. The Vocera
Smartbadge is like an
extra pair of hands. Worn
like a necklace or pinned
to scrubs, the device
lets clinicians reach
other team members
using voice- activated
commands. “You never
have to stop what you’re
doing, reach in your
pocket and pull out
your phone, or take off
your gloves to interact
with another device,”
says Brent Lang, CEO of
Vocera. Used by more
than 100 health care
facilities, the Smartbadge
has proved especially
useful during the COVID-
19 pandemic because
it allows clinicians to
make calls without
removing personal
protective equipment.
—MANDY OAKLANDERTRANSPORTATION
A CLEANER CABIN
Dimer GermFalcon
Even before the pandemic heightened the health
risks of air travel, the GermFalcon was
preparing to create a cleaner, safer
experience for passengers.
Roughly the size of
a beverage cart, the
GermFalcon uses the same
UVC disinfection systems as
hospitals to sanitize every surface of an aircraft’s
interior before passengers board. While it has not
yet been tested against COVID-19—a disease that
spreads more frequently via the air than via infected
surfaces—the GermFalcon has been effective
against SARS and MERS, two other members of the
corona virus family. Dimer, the company that created
the appliance, recently announced the next step in
its flight path: a global partnership with Honeywell
International Inc., and, soon, an updated version of
the product. —SIMMONE SHAH
HOUSEHOLD
A MACHINE THAT SELF-CLEANS
Narwal T10
Robot vacuums have been scooting
around our living rooms and
sucking up dust for years now.
But robot mops have had a few
kinks to work out—most notably,
after a few deep cleans of your
kitchen, you’ll have to tidy up
the robot mop yourself. The
Narwal T10 ($549) takes its
hygiene into its own hands with
a self-cleaning charging station,
where it washes and dries its own
mopping pads with a refillable
water tank. By swapping out the
pads, you can also use the Narwal
as a vacuum, though you’ll have
to map the space’s layout on the
device’s companion app if you
want to keep it off the carpet.
—PATRICK LUCAS AUSTIN