AquaIris Portable Water Purifier Uses Sun to Clean Water
Monday, July 27, 2009 1:52PM - By AlexIon
Industrial designer Talia Radford is trying to tackle the issue of clean water around the globe, with her new non-electric AquaIris portable water purifier. A minimalist design, AquaIris won’t pack any sophisticated technology other than a set of lenses that modulates the sun’s rays to UVC frequency to directly hit every water molecule passing by in order to get the water purified. Although slated to be capable to purify up to 300ml of water, we can’t help but wonder what happens when there’s chlorine, arsenic or other chemicals in the water we’re trying to drink. [via Yanko]
Saturday, August 1, 2009 8:37AM
This is what bugs me about designers. I trained in industrial design, but I also have a background in science and engineering. This design demonstrates why industrial design schools need to have a science requirement.
"lenses that modulates the sun’s rays to UVC frequency to directly hit every water molecule passing by in order to get the water purified"
The designer has no idea how UVC works, and demonstrates complete ignorance of optics. Lenses can't "modulate" frequencies in sunlight; they can only focus light, and perhaps separate the light in a prism-like fashion. The designer also has demonstrated ignorance about how much exposure to UVC water needs before it is sterilized, and how much UVC is in sunlight.
If the sunlight had enough UVC to sterilize the water and break up harmful molecules, the user would get toasted. Instant deadly sunburn. Heck, if the sun light coming through our atmosphere had that much UVC, the water would be sterilized sitting in the pond or stream; no lenses necessary.