DIY soap dispenser lets users time their hand-washing to the tune their favorite Spotify tracks

DIY soap dispenser lets users time their hand-washing to the tune their favorite Spotify tracks

  • The project shows people how to build their own musical soap dispenser
  • When completed it plays a track off of one’s Spotify for 20 seconds
  • The gadget is meant to replace the ‘Happy Birthday Song’ as a timer
  • It can be built with a few basic components including a Raspberry Pi and wire 

A new DIY project aims to help people break free of timing their hand-washing to the Happy Birthday song once and for all.

A new project devised by design technology company, Deeplocal, gives users a fairly simple way to turn their soap dispenser into a self-made music machine that plays ones favorite tracks from Spotify every time the plunger is pushed.

Once activated the modified dispenser plays a song off of one’s Spotify ‘tracks of the week’ for 20 seconds – the requisite amount of time it takes to efficiently sanitize one’s hands.

Scroll down for video. 

The DIY project from Deeplocal gives people instructions on how to build their own musical soap dispensers that play Spotify songs for 20 seconds – the amount of time one needs to scrub their hands for proper sanitization 

Typically, that amount of time is judge by singing the ‘Happy Birthday Song’ twice – a chore that could get maddening if one is frequently washing your hands.   

In order to build the gadget, one needs to have a soap dispenser, a Spotify account and few parts, including a Raspberry Pi W Zero, an Adafruit Speaker Bonnet, and few inches of thin wire and a bit of copper tape.

The goal of the project isn’t just to help people escape the scourge of washing one’s hands to the same song repeatedly, but is designed to give tinkerers an outlet while everyone is forced to stay indoors.

Code and instructions are currently available for free on Deeplocals GitHub as part of its ‘Cabin Fever’ series.

The projects in the series aimed to entertain an engage people in isolation during an ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

Other big tech companies have looked to mitigate the negative effects of isolation by bridging the gap with video chats and more. 

Recently, social media giant, Instagram, rolled out a ‘Co-Watching’ feature that lets users video chat as they scroll through their feeds together. They can share posts and videos as they browse the app.

The company hopes it will help make staying at home easier and prevent the spread of novel coronavirus.