You know when you’re at your desk, finish a drink, and listlessly toss it behind you onto the floor? Usually for us that’s around the four hour mark in an extended session of Civilisation. For others its midway through writing a masterpiece. To each their own.
The problem comes when you stand up and realise you now have to retrieve all of the rubbish left on the floor. Well for one Japanese inventor, that wasn’t good enough. Inspired by a TV ad, he’s invented a bin that tracks your rubbish mid-air, and can catch it for you without you looking.
The magical ‘Smart Trashbox’ works by combining motorised wheels with a Microsoft Kinect sensor. Tracking the path of the object it zips into place and stops just in time for the paper/can/whatever to land inside. It’s a genius idea. Here’s hoping that one actually makes it to market – though the resulting increase in landfill from over-excited gadget nerds tossing more and more paper at it will surely not please the Environment Agency.
