It’s a classic First World problem: As your plastic shampoo bottle empties, you either prop it upside down in your shower or add some water to get the last little bit of shampoo. Many people end up throwing away bottles of shampoo, hand soap, or detergent that have some product left in them.

But researchers at The Ohio State University have developed technology that may solve that problem for good. They’ve created a microscopically thin coating that, applied to the inside of polypropylene bottles, lets soapy products slide right off.

Bharat Bhushan, an Ohio State engineering professor, noted in a press release that coatings already exist to help liquid food products pour out of their containers, but soap was a much tougher challenge.

“Compared to soaps, getting ketchup out of a bottle is trivial,” he said. “Our coating repels liquids in general, but getting it to repel soap was the hard part.”

Unlike ketchup and other substances that are mostly water, soap molecules have a very low surface tension that makes them want to stick to plastic rather than to each other. To overcome this problem, Bhushan and his colleague, postdoctoral fellow Philip Brown, developed a coating that embeds microscopic Y-shaped structures in the surface of the plastic. The branches of the “Y” keep the soap from touching the inside of the bottle.

“You end up with air pockets underneath, and that’s what gives you liquid repellency,” Brown said.

By making bottles easier to clean, the new coating could significantly aid plastic recycling. But the researchers also hope to license the technology for other plastic products that people must keep clean, such as biomedical devices and catheters.

Smart with sleep

Getting a good night’s sleep can be difficult for new parents as well as their babies. If baby is sleeping soundly, chances are mom and dad will be too.

Tech startup Nanit wants to improve sleep with a baby monitoring system that uses the latest in machine learning and computer vision technologies. The system measures an infant’s sleep and collects data parents can use to improve sleep for their child and, ultimately, for themselves.

Using a state-of-the-art HD night vision camera that watches over the crib, Nanit streams video and analysis to a companion smartphone app. The system tracks metrics such as sleep onset, parent interventions, and total hours of sleep, gradually learning the baby’s normal sleep patterns. Computer algorithms then compare one night’s slumber to the norm to determine how well the baby slept and provide parents with tips for a better night’s sleep.

Nanit inventor Assaf Glazer, a computer vision scientist, came up with the idea after his son was born. He was dissatisfied with the range of baby monitors on the market.

“That’s what sparked my idea to apply my experience building intelligent cameras to my struggles at home as a parent,” Glazer told Forbes. “So we created the first baby monitor that can help parents truly connect with and understand their kids while they sleep.”

The Nanit system is available on preorder for $279 and will eventually retail for $349. A subscription to the accompanying analytics service starts at $10 per month. —M.C.