Steripen and iPhone light

It wouldn't work, even if you could get around the waterproofing problem.

The flash on an iPhone emits light in the visible spectrum (which is why we can see it).

Trying to making UV light (shorter wavelength, more energetic) purely from a visible light source (longer wavelength, less energetic) is an exercise in futility.

> This would be a tough, challenging and lucrative invention.
Probably, for all three.

But it would get ruthlessly and totally panned here at BPL. The iPhone light does NOT generate the required UV-C radiation – and ii it did it would be banned from the marketplace (FDA?) on customer safety grounds. Burn out your eyeballs!

Cheers

"Trying to making UV light (shorter wavelength, more energetic) purely from a visible light source (longer wavelength, less energetic) is an exercise in futility."

UV A and B are not visible to the human eye yet our tortoise has a lamp that produces light in both spectrums along with visible light. Same is true for the Steripen; it emits visible light when it is submerged.

Interesting to me, per wikipedia, UV C is the germicidal spectrum of UV but most of it is absorbed in the atmosphere. I know that water can be sterilized in a clear bottle by leaving it in the sun long enough so not sure if that is due to unfiltered UV C or if UV A/B have the same affect over time.

I see no reason why this can't be done but I suspect that the lamp would be so large and cumbersome on the phone and add a feature rarely needed here in the front country of the US that there may not be much of a demand for it. Maybe in India. Maybe we're all wrong and Roger will make millions from this.

The challenge would require a different/separate emitter, plus some sort of connection and waterproofing case/shroud. By the time you add that to the iphone I'm not sure you've saved much bulk/weight from a Steripen other than using the iphones batteries as a power source… and given battery preservation I'd rather save the iphone batteries in case I need them for something more critical – like reading a kindle book ;-) (or getting a message out if I need to and have a signal).

Roger, Necessity is the Mother of invention, so good to understand the need. I.e., what problem are you trying to solve or what improvement do you hope to achieve over the status quo?

Are you noticing that 2 CR123 batteries used by a steri-pen and a modern smart phone battery are similar in capacity and voltage and hoping for dual use of the same batteries? Or are you after something more?

So they make those credit card swiper dohickies for the iPhone. I could easily see a detachable UV tube light that affixes to the bottom port for power. You still have to waterproof it. Honestly it has the same sale opportunity as the BioLite – that being, the concept (as it applies to backpacking) is stupid (but the technology is cool) and there are easier ways to get what it claims to provide, but for some reason it flies off the shelf.

Well to (grossly) oversimplify things, a Steripen is essentially an extended waterproof UV lamp, hardware/firmware/software for on/off and control, a battery, and casing. At first glance, IMO, a smartphone design could relatively easily integrate the control functions via software/firmware running on it's existing CPU and using existing control buttons/icons. And the battery should be similar enough to work. The main challenge would be some sort of well functioning way to attach (or incorporate) the UV lamp.

Since Steripens use a lot of power, I think a replaceable battery would be a plus. So I'd skip iPhones and start with a Samsung S4 or S5 or other replaceable battery model.

Using the NFC antenna (card swiper) for energy transfer is not so efficient, so I'm thinking a direct wiring connection from the UV lamp to the phone battery is a must. Due to the drain of the UV lamp, the wiring would need to be robust and watertight to keep losses down.

So it seems possible to eliminate carrying dual control, battery, and part of the casing with integration. Perhaps it's worth it for that. Given so many folks buying bottled water, etc., there just might be a market big enough to make a few $$.

I don't use a baby's bottle, but it occurred to me that someone could make a lot of money with the BPL crowd selling the App and iphone custom case with special adapter for heating baby's bottles. And some hybrid water proofing adapter for the phone.

This would be a tough, challenging and lucrative invention.

Good luck with that

(with apologies to RodgerDodger)

I don't shoot bears with lazers, but it occurred to me that someone could make a lot of money with the BPL crowd selling the App and iphone custom case will special adapter for shooting bears with lazers. And some hybrid odor proofing adapter for the phone.

Either that or an iPhone with tazer attachment to zap the sweet baby bajeesus out of snarky topless moderators:)

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!

(I ain't sorry for nothin')

That's laser Ianstein.

Hi RogerDodger

Imitation is the …

All good fun and not meant as mockery. It's raining (kinda hard) here and I am stuck inside.

Cheers