[03/27/20 Update: Rayvio closed up shop last year, but it appears that Ellie re-emerged as LARQ and in addition to UV bottles, they also have bottles that keep beverages hot or cold https://www.livelarq.com/]

With its almost 200,000 attendees in relatively close quarters, International CES2017 was the appropriate place to launch Ellie. RayVio CEO, Dr. Robert Walker, explains that Ellie is a solid-state, portable, ultraviolet device for removing germs from baby bottles, binkies and other items that infants would put in their respective mouths or touch with their tiny hands. With its easy-to-access chamber, Ellie is also useful for sterilizing adult objects, such as keys, cell phones, or sunglasses.

In years past, the use of ultraviolet frequencies would require mercury-filled lights that presented their own safety issues. RayVio, the parent company behind Ellie, fabricates ultraviolet Light Emitting Diodes in its Hayward, CA factory and has perfected the economics to the point that these solid-state light sources can be applied to consumer products. As with so many other applications, LEDs provide robustness, safety, low-power consumption and size benefits not possible with older technologies.

Walker explains how their oversubscribed Indigogo campaign proved the market for Ellie and has opened the doors for new applications, such as a USB-powered water bottle that provides a degree of water purification without the need for filters. This water bottle is perfectly suited for those serving people in areas without treated water, such as remote villages in Africa or a campsite in the rugged Sierras.

The sky is the limit for potential UV LED applications. Walker suggests one of the opportunities is at medical facilities, where UV LEDs could potentially sterilize entire rooms, eliminating issues like staph infections. The food industry, with its challenges of preventing E.Coli and Salmonella, presents another potential application. And, if autonomous ride-sharing takes off the way some predict and people increasingly share common spaces, perhaps vehicle manufacturers will embed UV LEDs that automatically sanitize and make it safe for the dozens of people who might share a vehicle’s interior each day.