Ben Heck and element14 help combat the spread of germs with a custom hand sanitizer

April 9, 2011 - PRLog -- element14, a collaborative social community and electronics store for design engineers and electronics enthusiasts, and modding guru Benjamin J. Heckendorn, a.k.a. Ben Heck, help combat the spread of germs in hospital settings by modding a hand sanitizer dispenser into a motion detecting reminder system in the latest episode of “The Ben Heck Show.”  

“Automatic hand sanitizer dispensers are great tools, but how do we know if people actually use them?” asked Ben. “This was a question submitted by one of our viewers and it turned into an interesting challenge for the show. I was able to mod an everyday hand sanitizer into an active tool to be used in the arsenal to fight the spread of infection in hospitals.”

The idea for the hand sanitizer build came from show fan and physician Arun Mathews, to help prevent hospital-acquired infections. Arun joined Ben to tackle the challenge on the show, building a dispenser featuring enhanced motion sensors, blinking LEDs and an amplifier, which gives hospital staff and patrons an audible reminder to wash their hands. Ben also integrated a parallax propeller development board and SD card to log motion detected data, and a clock to log the time of hand sanitization compliance or non-compliance.

“This episode offers something for everyone, from electronics enthusiasts to germaphobes,” said Alisha Mowbray, senior vice president of marketing, element14. “With his notorious DIY gusto, Ben takes his craft one step further, showcasing how modding a useful item can have a lasting impact in real-life scenarios.”

Ben rounds out the episode with some finishing touches on his much anticipated pinball machine, including installing the screen and ensuring that all three processors – audio, video, and central processing unit – are hooked up and fully functioning.

Show fans are invited to visit element14 to register for a chance to win one of Ben’s recent builds, submit videos of their own builds, or to send Ben a challenge for a future episode.

About “The Ben Heck Show”
“The Ben Heck Show” is a bi-weekly online television series aired in English that’s dedicated to the science and art of system and hardware modding with a global audience of design engineers, students and electronic enthusiasts. Sponsored exclusively by element14, each episode spotlights Ben’s mods of popular electronic devices while educating viewers on the underlying technology powering each project.  

About element14
Launched in June 2009, element14 is the first, innovative information portal and eCommunity specifically built for electronic design engineers. It provides product data, design tools and technology information, whilst incorporating Web 2.0 functionality to facilitate communication, interaction, collaboration and information sharing between colleagues around the world. Users can consult experts, discover trends, post blogs, articles and comments in this world-wide forum.

Since its launch element14 has surpassed all of the targets set, has garnered overwhelmingly positive feedback from customers and suppliers alike, and is now attracting more than 24,000 visitors a week with new user profiles created each day.

element14 is an innovative offering from Premier Farnell plc (LSE:pfl), FTSE 250, a leader in multi-channel distribution and specialty services for electronic design engineers throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. It has a stocked range of 450,000+ products, and access to 4,000,000 more items from 3,500 top manufacturers. The company has group sales of £990.8m and over 4,100 employees globally.

For more information visit: www.element14.com.