The Latest Things in Waste Cans

While I'm on the subject of trash cans (see yesterday's post) - the latest thing seems to be touchless cans, which use sensors to detect your hand or foot, and then open the lid.

From most expensive to least, we have the:
- I.master wastecan from Wesco (via PopGadget) - shown above
- Sensor can from simplehuman (via Uncrate)
- Touchless Trashcan (also available through Sharper Image)

OK, these are sort of neat - but the old-fashioned step cans with a foot pedal are already hands-free. So where's the real advantage of these new cans - which have the disadvantage of requiring batteries - beyond the neat-new-toy factor?

Update on Nov. 21, 2011: I'm no longer seeing the Touchless Trashcan on the Sharper Image web site.