Has Our Man In London Seen The Future?

(CBS)  By CBSNews.com London producer Tucker Reals.

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I got an e-mail last week from the public relations department of a British company called Dyson. It asked: "What can you do in the toilet in 10 seconds?" Curiosity drives this profession, and it got the better of me very quickly.

Dyson being in the home care sector, I had visions of a miracle device allowing me to clean my toilet in 10 seconds, preferably without touching it, as I dialed the press liaison's number at the bottom of the e-mail. She apologized, but said she could reveal nothing.

So, walking down a small alley in London's fashionable Soho neighborhood this morning, on my way to a basement warehouse for the Dyson unveiling, I was eager — and all the more so for having been promised an opportunity to try out the mysterious new device myself.

James Dyson is familiar in this country for about a decade of television commercials promoting his popular vacuum cleaners.

He's been inventing for most of his adult life. His bagless "cyclone" system vacuums started storming the market in the early 1990s. They began making headway in the U.S. market about two years ago.

Dyson decided to produce the machines himself in 1983, after big manufacturers decided the product would cut too much into bag sales.

Prior to the vacuum, Dyson designed the "Truckboat" in 1970, a cross between a pickup truck and a whaler, and then the "Ballbarrow," a wheelbarrow that rolls on a giant plastic ball to avoid cutting a groove in your yard and to be more maneuverable. Both were successful.

More recently Dyson hit the laundry market with a washing machine that attempts to simulate the most effective method of getting your clothes clean — hand-washing. The dual drums of the Dyson machine rotate in opposite directions, "stretching" the dirt out of fabric.

Now, back to the future.

Dyson stepped onto a stage in front of about 30 eager technophiles and journalists.

"Welcome to this subterranean studio, and, oh, excuse me…" he said, before disappearing behind a door in the stage labeled with the familiar man/woman emblem of all public toilets.

One artificial flush sound later, he emerged, walked to a fishbowl next to the stage, and dipped his hands in the water. He then dried them using a typical push-button blow dryer mounted on the wall, as a digital clock ticked away 30 seconds.

"Well, they're still a bit wet," he said with a frown.

To the other side of the stage, and another fishbowl. At this point one of his assistants turned a panel in the wall and revealed Dyson's latest brainstorm, the Airblade.

Dyson stuck his hands in, pulled them back out, slowly, 10 seconds to be exact, and proclaimed them to be completely dry.

The Airblade uses two, flat, sheet-like jets of air, coming from either side of your hands and allegedly blowing at 400 mph, to squeegee your hands dry with air pressure. It's sort of like the mammoth blow-dryers at the end of a carwash.

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[judydavis2]

Looks like a rip-off of the Mitsubishi Jet Towel which has been around in Japan for years:

www.mitsubishijettowel.com.

The Jet Towel looks sleeker too--less out of a spaceship.

My 2 cents

[jncambrn]

What about the bacteria that is collecting on the area where your hands/wrists rest while waiting for you hands to dry?

[cwm-prysor]

Now finally! A device that could be implemented into the NHS for ALL Staff & Visitors to 'Airblad' their hands before entering or leaving Clinical areas. With the right solution inside this could wipe out the threat of MRSA significantly! Come on NHS Ministers!!!

[ck623-2009]

Mitsubishi has been marketing a similar device for years. Nice try Dyson, but you're too late.

[broken_heart-2009]

Hey I want to try! *lol* No seriously, W/ Dysons latest invention it will make bathrooms cleaner and safer.

[mennowoman]

This product isn't a new invention. An almost product has been in use in Singapore for several years. Japan has had the Jet Towel out for a while, too. Also, the Excelerator, a traditional hand drier with lightning fast speed, has been on the market in the US for several years. We used one this summer at a rest area in Iowa and it was great. Dried my hands in about 3 seconds with a blast of cool air. Dyson's "invention" looks a lot like a patent infringement of the one in Singapore.

[cgrantski]

I'll bet some people will lose the rings off their fingers.