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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.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvNGnkY_S6I
Enjoy!
wouldn't it be cheaper to wire a capacitor to your snooze button?
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
A very valid reason for preserving the second amendment.
Rather make one out of Lego Mindstorms. At lest then when you smash it, it only de-bricks and you can build it back together again!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
before I punt that motherf**ker out the window.
"To be is to do." -Socrates
"To do is to be." -Jean-Paul Sartre
"Do-be-do-be-do." -Frank Sinatra
MMS' sentient alarm clock.
I was in a bar in Ensenada, drinking a warm beer quickly and trying to remind myself that I hadn't murdered anyone, when my alarm clock caught up with me. Little bastard.
More
"And then I visited Wikipedia
I have an alarm clock for when I really really need to get up. There's no going back to sleep afterwards because you're either in cardiac arrest or wide awake, it lacks any concept of gentle wake-up and is only slightly less annoying than the smoke detector. To avoid the former I use my regular cell phone first, so I'm only slumbering or in light sleep when it goes off.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
This might be more practical than strapping my alarmclock to my cat.
A combination of this idea could be combined with a prank a friend of mine pulled not too long ago.
He was studying computer engineering and doing stuff with embedded devices. He took a chip, a light sensor, and a small speaker and hid it in the room of one of his roommates. He programmed the device to sense when the lights went out and then it would sound off at full volume. The device would continue to sound until the lights came back on, at which time it would go silent. After the lights went out again, the timer would reset and the alarm would go off in another ten minutes...
-br
Similar ideas have been in production for a while...
A flying alarm clock accomplishes the same task, plus: IT'S FLYING
There already is a fast moving device that emits a loud annoying sound at the shopping centre (mall). They're called children.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
How long before, like the flaming mouse, one of these knocks a candle over or runs into a fireplace, and burns a house down?
...falls off the bedside locker and rolls about aimlessly more like.
/. I was expecting some real smart features such as:
This being
o Learns the layout of your bedroom
o Jumps off the locker before it goes off
o Hides in the optimum place
o Doesn't hide in the same place twice
o Has a proximity sensor - runs away as you try to pick it up.
Based on the Yew-Toob clips, I reckon this gadget would last about 5 minuted in my house. It's simply too easy to hit with a stick.
Backward%20compatibility%20is%20over-rated
In our room it would fall straight into a pile of clothing and stay there. This will be great for the sorts of people who have a hard time getting up but somehow manage to keep their bedrooms 100% tidy, but I suspect that the intersection of those two sets is small.
Xenu loves you!
A Segway for my parakeet.
What?
>>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.
Also known as kids. Though mine tend to scream rather than beep.
...seeing one of those go off in an air-port check-in.
Somehow, it reminds me of this - http://junkfunnel.com/sld/ - possibly one of the most irresponsible products on the market!
throw new NoSignatureException();
I'm pretty sure they still make automatic timed coffee makers. I say "still" because I remember a while back (probably 10 years ago, now that I think of it) there were a few incidents with timer-equipped Mr. Coffee machines that helped you get up in the morning by burning down your house. Unfortunately they may have phased out that added functionality, and now you have to settle for waking up to the smell of fresh-brewed coffee in the morning without that pleasant furniture-roast aroma. The good features always disappear.