Device of the Week: Oclean One – Brush Different

Oclean One: Brush Different

Oclean One is a smart electric toothbrush that helps its users to improve their oral health by providing a customized brushing experience. As everyone’s teeth are different, the device helps to implement brushing routine tailored to the oral care needs of each individual using the product. Customized brushing routines are generated by the AI on the brushing device through the data it collected through the users’ brushing habits. Other factors such as age, gender, tooth condition, and diet are also taken into consideration as well. At the same time, users can also customize the brushing plans provided by the device to further customize it to their personal needs. Factors such as duration and brushing intensity are some of the factors that can be adjusted. The function of providing feedback to its users is another feature that I find greatly enhance its usability. After each brush, it will provide a score to indicate how well the users brush their teeth and provide information on the areas they can improve on.

Product Visualisation

Pros and Cons of the Device

Pros

1. One of the major positive points about Oclean One is its ability to provide its costumers a customized experience in brushing their teeth. The devices allow the users to customized their brushing routine through their own brushing habits and take their personal data into consideration. This personalized experience allows the users to feel control over their product as their product are cater to their personal needs only. It allows the users to formal a personal bond with their product instead of the generic relationship they have with the one size fits all toothbrush. At the same time, having a customized experience prevents information overload for their users. The device will present relevant information the users need through the personalized process. Users will not need to sort through a massive amount of information but will have a reasonable time to consume the information that is tailored to their personal needs.

2. The ability to provide feedback is another factor that makes Oclean One a positive product. It makes the users feel that the product is “listening” to them. Their actions will cause an effect on the response provided by their devices. It allows a positive bond to be formed between the device and its users. The users will feel they are not merely using the product but interacting with one. Through this positivity, it will motive the users to use the product on a constant basis to enjoy the feedback from the device. It can motivate and improve the performance of the users to allow them to get better at brushing their teeth.

3. In the long run, it will allow the users of the product to have better oral health as they are able to learn from the personalized date provided. With these data, they are able to recognize the areas they can improve upon. For example, a user might have a certain area of the teeth that constantly not brushed in a proper manner. If such information is pass to him/her through the device, he/she will be aware of such issues and rectify the issue during the next time he/she is brushing his/her teeth. This constant cycle of learning about ones oral health state allows people to be equipped with the information to manage their teeth properly.

Cons

1. To me, one of the major drawbacks of the product is its price and the need for maintenance. The device cost about SGD84.50 (Information from Lazada.com). I am not sure if the price is worth for its ability to enhance the brushing experience of people. At the same time, the device will one day malfunctions as it is, after all, an electronic product. Therefore, the user will need to send it for repair or get it replaced for a new one. The amount of effort involved in rectifying the problem makes me skeptical about getting the product.

2. As the product involved technical aspects such as the usage of an application from a smartphone, the learning curve involved might exchange certain group of people such as people from the older generation who are less technologically savvy. A portion of the people might not have the patience to learn how to use the product in the correct manner that will benefit them. Brushing of teeth is a simple routine for all and the inclusion of technological might prove to be too much for some to manage. They might feel the effort involved is too much to be able to enjoy a better brushing experience.

3. With such a device in the market, it makes us question the necessity to include technology into daily objects that are already doing their job well. Are we including technology into daily objects for the sake of adding because we are able to or are we really adding technology so we can enhance their usability? To me, I feel the inclusion of technology into these daily objects is too much. It complicates the simple notion of brushing one’s teeth even though it provides seemingly relevant information about one’s oral health.

Suggestion for alternate use and/or modification

The product with modification can be used by vets to gain health knowledge of animals they are assessing during medical check-ups. Besides cleaning the pets’ teeth and examining the condition of their teeth, it can serve other important function that can benefit the pets’ health. Through the product, the vets can gain insights on the health condition of the specific pet. If the pet is suffering from any form of illness, the product will be able to alert the vets of such happenings. The vets can also monitor the food the pest are consuming and are able to provide recommendations to their owners to improve the diet of the pets.