SMARTdri

( Chris Borrelli/Chicago Tribune )

Manufacturer: World Dryer
Where: Waffle House, Papa Gino's, Subway.

What they said: "We're the godfather of the traditional hand dryer," said Dave Fisher, a manger in World's research and development office, referring to the classic swivel-nozzle dryers no one much likes. "But we want to improve the hand-dryer experience. And it's absolutely an evolving thing. The knock is that it's really loud." He grimaced, because it's true. "In a perfect world, we'd have a hand dryer in the 60s (decibel-wise)."

We say: Classy update of the vintage hand dryer (imagine the nozzle tilted permanently down). Only louder.