Is it Time for a Magnetic Floating Bed?

An anonymous reader writes "In one of the coolest implementations of ridiculously expensive tech to come along in a while, it seems that a Dutch architect has created a magnetically suspended bed. That is, if you happen to have a spare $1.54 million laying around you don't know what to do with and don't mind being careful about your piercings when getting the cat from under the bed."

Comments

Worth the money...

[ET_Fleshy]

considering its capabilities of advancing civilization and all.

Re:Worth the money...

[Red Flayer]

If by "advancing civilization" you mean providing a new and innovative place for procreation of the species, sure. Especially since a maglev bed makes no squeaks -- great for small apartments.

Re:Worth the money...

[drinkypoo]

The memory foam stuff is a fuck of a lot cheaper than a spring bed worth sleeping on - but mostly because you don't use it alone. My ex-bed was a 5" chunk of medium-density foam, topped with 3" of memory foam. Now I'm sleeping on a pillow-top coil mattress. It has advantages and disadvantages. The foam has great support (For me - YMMV) and is very comfortable, and hardly moves on one side when someone moves around on the other side. However, it tends to suck up water, and smells, and is hard to clean. Air moves through it very poorly. The coil bed actually breathes better, since it's not made out of foam. It releases more of the energy absorbed when you move, so it's a lot easier to screw on. However, when I cough or something, the whole bed shakes.

Kinda disappointing

[Hemi Rodner]

It's held to its place with small metal wires, so it's not totally flying. I thought it'd be a solution against bed bugs and fleas, as they wouldn't be able to get on the bed. But no.

Re:Kinda disappointing

[Walt Dismal]

Now, if these had AC magnetic fields, and you got a girlfriend with magnetic nipple piercings and a steel clit ring, she'd never want to get out of bed. Not that this would be bad, mind you. Ooops. Maybe I shouldn't have typed that at work while my boss was around... I can explain, sir! Really. I'm working, not fantasizing. I was just thinking of ways to dress up that PowerPoint presentation for you.

Re:Kinda disappointing

[corychristison]

I was just thinking of ways to dress up that PowerPoint presentation for you.

With nipple and clitoral hood piercings? ;-)

Re:Kinda disappointing

[kfg]

It's held to its place with small metal wires. . .

And because it's suspended by wires from the floor to resist the magnetic force makes it totally different than if it were suspended by the same wires from the ceiling, to resist the gravitational force.

About $1,539,900 different.

Or you could just buy a Mayan style hammock, the most comfortable sleep in the known universe.

KFG

Re:Kinda disappointing

[mrjb]

Yes. You'd expect that at this price, the designer could've come up with a way to hold the bed in place magnetically. For example by having a lining of inverse-polarity magnets around the border of the bed.

A pizza and a bottle of coke to the first slashdotter who builds a wireless floating bed under $500.

Re:Kinda disappointing

[LordSnooty]

Yes, I have one of these, it's called a... "Hammock"

boring

[morie]

I thought for a moment that the sleeping person himself would be magnetically suspended.

Re:boring

[Anonymous Coward]

Surprisingly, you can do that! http://www.hfml.ru.nl/froglev.html

Re:boring

[nacturation]

I thought for a moment that the sleeping person himself would be magnetically suspended.

Make sure your multivitamin supplement has lots of iron.

let me be the first to say

[sepharious]

No more squeaky sex!

Re:let me be the first to say

[The_Chicken_205]

Come on! This is slashdot...

Whats the likelihood of there being sex in the first place?

C'mon, it's Reuters we're talking about...

[Anonymous Coward]

...it's just a photoshop!

It still needs bedclothes

[cerberusss]

From TFA:
"with a price tag of 1.2 million euros" [...] "It is not comfortable at the moment," admits Ruijssenaars, adding "it needs cushions and bedclothes before use."

I can see this. You buy the bed, add some bedclothes and walk to the counter.
Cashier: "That'll be 1.2 mln euro's, plus 20 for the bed clothes"

Scary!

[Nuffsaid]

I would be scared about lying on such a black thing. You know, one moment you are counting sheeps, one moment later everything goes trippy and you are sucked into a transhuman dimension where nothing makes sense ad you witness all your ages up to your death bed and reincarnate as a space-floating fetus. No, thanks!

Ejection

[BrynM]

As someone who is hard to wake up (I love sleep when I finally remember to get some), one of my first thoughts was that it would make one hell of an alarm. Cut the power - fall to the ground. After 1 second (just before you can recover from falling), power it back up and get flung out of bed. Either you'd be wide awake or unconscious on the floor next to your ejection bed.

Underwhelming

[aschoeff]

Why is this news?

Okay, so some guy with a slick-sounding name took a sheet of plywood, a whole bunch or permanent magnets, some steel cabling, and put them together. When I first heard about this over a week ago, I didn't bother to RTFA and assumed there were no cables. That actually impressed me, the thought he solved the problem of movement along the field lines using just magnetism. I had thoughts of some sophisticated system of electromagnets continually detecting and adjusting the field to keep the bed aligned, or at least some sort of damping configuration to justify the absurd price!

But no, as usual, it's just another laughable device to separate scientifically-ignorant wealthy people from their money.

I hope he patents it! LOL

Re:Underwhelming

[grimJester]

But no, as usual, it's just another laughable device to separate scientifically-ignorant wealthy people from their money.

I hope he patents it! LOL

I tried patenting separating the ignorant from their money, but apparently there was some prior art.

Obligatory cold water note

[Flying pig]

I suggest, before post on this subject, you need to do some research in the following subjects:

• AC induction heating
• jewellery materials
• Girls

Probably in that order, since research into the second item might help with research into the third item.

Great Scott!

[chowdy]

The hoverboard must not be far off!

Re:The reason why

[Aladrin]

If it's so perfect, why are there so many different mattresses? And water beds. And why do the Japanese have their beds directly on the floor, while we have them on legs? And...

Nothing's perfect.

Re:Magnetic field?

[dbIII]

For those that think it is not possible to have an effect - look at induction furnaces. For those who think you are in trouble if you live some distance away and not directly under 33kV lines - think about the inverse square law and how weak the feild is going to be even when it hits ground level. It is real (long term exposure of pregnant women to faulty EMF plastic welders proved that), but you have to be close, and the mechanism is raising the core temperature of your body by induction.

As for the magnetic blanket stuff - it's mesmerism come back to haunt us long after Ben Franklin debunked it.

I hate to rain on the parade...

[caveat]

...of all the piercing jokes, but (and I'm sure a lot of you probably already know this), any halfway decent body jewelry is completely nonmagnetic: stainless steel, titanium, or niobium. I know for sure - I have a headful of all three metals and never had any problems with a 400MHz NMR; the red line on the floor with the little flying wrench icon was like 20 feet from that sucker.

The best part

[Megane]

The best part is that after blowing a mil and a half on this thing ($1.5M and he couldn't figure out how to get rid of the tether wires?), it will erase all your credit cards for you so that you can't be that stupid ever again.

Re:Preventing evil parasites from getting to bed

[mrchaotica]

I think you have a mistake there. The bed is operated by magnets, not electromagnets. So it won't increase your electricity bill.

Ah, that explains the price tag -- permanant magnets are much more expensive, aren't they?

Now, what I would have done is used an elecromagnet for the base, made it concave so that it wouldn't need wires for stability, and wired the whole thing through a dimmer switch (or similar device) so that would have adjustable height.

Not only would it be much cheaper, but with a good control device you could make it vibrate like those motel beds. For that matter, if you arranged the electromagnets in the base correctly, you could even have the bed spin like in Austin Powers. The possibilities are endless!