When the Alarm Clock Runs and Hides

bbbbryan writes to tell us about the commercialization of the elusive alarm clock prototyped at the MIT Media Lab a couple of years back. This alarm clock actually runs, hides from you, and beeps to ensure that you'll be awake enough not to go back to sleep by the time you find it and get it shut up. Detroit News has a writeup on the device, which you can buy from the inventor's site for $50.

Comments

Some youtube of the clock in action

[adamstew]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvNGnkY_S6I

Enjoy!

Re:Some youtube of the clock in action

[Salamande]

There is. Check out the official website and read the instructions. If you set the snooze time to 0, it will run on the first alarm.

Re:Some youtube of the clock in action

[pikine]

The clock likes to crawl under the bed. It is annoying, even when you're awake, to have to duck under your bed in order to reach for the clock. Imagine the pain for a queen or king sized bed!

nice, but...

[cyborch]

Similar ideas have been in production for a while...

A flying alarm clock accomplishes the same task, plus: IT'S FLYING

Re:$50 per use will get expensive

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

I think the tennis ball alarm clockis a little more practical then a self-reconstructing robot.

It's an alarm inside a tennis ball - you throw it against the wall to turn it off. I think tho' that it would be more useful if the throw activated snooze - as described here:

An alarm clock in the form of a sports ball has an alarm clock assembly with a snooze-type audio alarm which is temporarily silenced when the ball is thrown against a wall. The alarm clock ball has a feasible and resilient core of a foamed plastic, such as styrofoam, and an overlying cover of a plastic material. The clock assembly is mounted within a recess in the styrofoam core and has display and button controls which are visible and accessible through an opening in the plastic cover. The clock assembly has a quiet electrical switch which controls the snooze alarm mechanism and which is operated by a normally closed deceleration switch located in the foam core. The deceleration switch has a spring-biased metal ball in normal contact with two conductive contacts. When the alarm clock is thrown against a wall, the metal ball is displaced due to its inertia on impact thus temporarily breaking contact and silencing the alarm.
An alarm clock in the form of a sports ball has an alarm clock assembly with a snooze-type audio alarm which is temporarily silenced when the ball is thrown against a wall. The alarm clock ball has a feasible and resilient core of a foamed plastic, such as styrofoam, and an overlying cover of a plastic material. The clock assembly is mounted within a recess in the styrofoam core and has display and button controls which are visible and accessible through an opening in the plastic cover. The clock assembly has a quiet electrical switch which controls the snooze alarm mechanism and which is operated by a normally closed deceleration switch located in the foam core. The deceleration switch has a spring-biased metal ball in normal contact with two conductive contacts. When the alarm clock is thrown against a wall, the metal ball is displaced due to its inertia on impact thus temporarily breaking contact and silencing the alarm.

Re:Flame Fest.

[X-treme-LLama]

I don't know about you, but I blow my candles OUT when I go to sleep. What the hell are you doing burning candles over-night or when you're not somewhere near the area?

If it happens to someone, it's their own damn fault.

Going to sleep with candles lit.. That's just asking to get crispy-baked in a fire..

NEVER LEAVE FIRE UNATTENDED! Fucking DUH!

Re:...a couple of years ago...

[Draconnery]

You forgot the rule that says, "It's never ok to post a story about any new product or technology on Slashdot."

If the article is forecasting a future product, it is obviously "vaporware," but anything that actually exists has been in the works for at least long enough to build it, making it "oldnews."

Whatevs.