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This particular gadget had me fascinated from the moment I read about it. It’s basically a US300 Pfister Motion Sensing Faucet called the Selia Touch-Free Kitchen Faucet that not a new concept, just a retake on a concept that should have already been standard in all homes. After all, who really want to touch the Faucet in their Bathrooms after someone uses the bathroom.

What makes the Selia Touch-Free Kitchen Faucet tech worthy isn’t just the price, when compared to other similar hands-free Water Faucets which usually cost between US$400 to US$600 dollars:

So this Selia Touch-Free Kitchen Faucet is indeed a great deal at US$300. More importantly, it’s the start of a trend towards home automation and the Internet of Things where appliances are connected to the Internet as predicted in The Internet of Things – Our AI’s State of Connectedness.

Selia Touch-Free Kitchen Faucet – Home-owners REACT to a cheaper Water-Saving Faucet

Rather it’s the use of the REACT Technology in the Faucet that the talking point. The Pfister’s Selia Touch-Free Kitchen Faucet is the first to use the REACT Technology, which I suspect is most likely an IR (Infrared) sensor similar to those used in Barcode Scanners at your local supermarket.

Selia-Touch-Free-Kitchen-Faucet

Thus, it’s similar to the above-mentioned hands-free Faucets and is most likely an improvement on the backscatter detection of IR that the sensor transmits. Coupled with this is the usual feedback loop of an automatic timer that shuts off the sink off for 2 minutes after usage so that it doesn’t keep running indefinitely.

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Hopefully, unlike those in the airports and fancy GOJ (Government of Jamaica) buildings, it doesn’t shut off while you’re in the middle of washing the soap from your face, as a lot of the hand-dryers don’t work. Woe be on to you if there’s no hand-towels nearby!

But it’s the inclusion of a handle that makes it significant. This means that at any time, you can manually control the flow of Water from the Faucet. In addition to the handle, there is also a Dial under the Sink that allows you to preset the temperature of the water temperature to one that’s suitable to you.

It also has a hose with a specially designed nozzle that’s made so as to avoid the build-up of mineral deposits. Interestingly too, the Selia Touch-Free Kitchen Faucet acts as a communication port, allowing the user to manually power down the unit in preparation for cleaning.

Pfister Touch Free Faucet – Control your Environment using hand gestures

That’s a bit annoying and I was really hoping for a built in Bluetooth sensor or even a Wi-Fi that would allow you to communicate with the Selia Touch-Free Kitchen Faucet to have multiple presets for hot and cold water.

That way, you’d be able to set the Faucet to not only have a specific temperature of water but even at a certain time of the day, when you known you’ll need to drink cold water. Still, using an app to adjust the tap not only rhymes but it’s also a possible hazard to your smartphone, being as your hands may be wet when you decided to absently-mindedly adjust it yet again.

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Still, its unique technology isn’t much different from Microsoft Primesense used in the Xbox 360 but it’s a lot more basic. However, like that particular 3D Motion Capture Technology, it lends credence that we’re slowly moving towards a world where we’ll eventually be able to control your environment using hand gestures as I’d predicted in Siri and Kinect: Heralds of a coming world free of Remote Controls.

And what better place to start than the Bathroom and Kitchen Sink! After all, this kind of technology is needed in the home and not at a fancy airport, their reason being of course to reduce water loss by mischievous pranksters leaving bathroom Faucets running.

Pfister’s Selia Touch-Free Kitchen Faucet will be available come November 2014 in select Lowe’s retailers in the United States, making this a great buy the next time you’re feeling Fancy and decide to touch down and have some change to throw.

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