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Company Creates a Self-Making Bed

MarkWhittington writes "A Spanish company has created a bed that will make itself. Ordinarily I am excited about just about any technological advance, but this one leaves me wondering what it's good for. It might be that as a rather slovenly housekeeper, I do not see the purpose of making a bed. The idea of being able to bounce a coin off of a sheet that has been stretched tight seems to have been an invention of moms and drill sergeants to torment people. Why make up a bed in the morning when it's just going to be unmade that evening (or sooner if one likes an afternoon nap?) When I was a lad, dreaming of the wonders that awaited in the 21st century, among the flying cars, colonies on the moon and jet packs, self-making beds somehow escaped by imagination, even as my sainted mom forced me to make mine before heading out to school."

31 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. Because by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    A made bed looks better, giving the bedroom a more relaxing feel. It's also more comfortable to climb into and provides a consistent experience which many people need to help maintain sleep health.

    Also because wife says so.

    1. Re:Because by gameboyhippo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Also because wife says so.

      This! ^^^

      Sometimes the best answer is because my wife likes it that way. ^_^

    2. Re:Because by GungaDan · · Score: 5, Funny

      But this device would be utterly useless to my wife, unless there is an optional accessory that carefully places the (no fewer than) 7 pillows that for some reason belong on our 2-person bed.

      --
      Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
    3. Re:Because by cpu6502 · · Score: 2

      If APPEARANCE is the only reason, then it can wait until the guests drop by, and THEN I will make it. Not before.

      --
      My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
    4. Re:Because by bughunter · · Score: 2

      If you've ever had a dog, you've learned why it's important to make your bed.

      Dog owners: When your dog comes indoors all muddy and dirty, with shit on his paws, where's the first place he heads for as soon as he can sneak away?

      Yep. Your bed. If the bed's not made, then you either have to clean the mud and shit out of it, or else sleep in mud and shit. And you can say "My dog's not allowed on the bed," but that makes the bed even more enticing to the dog.

      Same principle applies to cats who cough up hairballs and kids with grimy hands and feet.

      The purpose of making the bed is to ensure that the parts you make intimate contact with for 6 to 8 hours will remain relatively clean when you're not in it.

      --
      I can see the fnords!
    5. Re:Because by Tridus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      According to this, NOT making your bed is better then making it when it comes to dust mites. Obviously washing the sheets and such regularly is a good idea, but you don't have to make the bed to do that.

      I don't know about you, but I don't tend to have too many house parties in my bedroom. There's a living room and a kitchen for that.

      I also don't see any gain in discipline or self-respect. I do see a few minutes of my life that I won't get back being spent on something that in my house serves no purpose whatsoever. So I don't do it.

      --
      -- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
    6. Re:Because by Eivind+Eklund · · Score: 2

      If APPEARANCE is the only reason, then it can wait until the guests drop by, and THEN I will make it. Not before.

      I like having things look tidy at home. It makes it easier to find things when I need to, and overall is more mentally relaxing.

      --
      Doubting the existence of evolution is like doubting the existence of China: It just shows that you're uninformed.
    7. Re:Because by yurtinus · · Score: 4, Funny

      Listen, if there's no chance of the party extending into the bedroom, I don't wanna go.

      --
      +1 Disagree
    8. Re:Because by peragrin · · Score: 2

      you forgot 7 pillows that have no use other than to make the bed look pretty.

      if you use one of those pillows you will get yelled at worse than not making the bed.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    9. Re:Because by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

      I guess I have it lucky. We only have 5 pillows.

  2. What was the point of that? by mcmonkey · · Score: 4, Informative

    Subby is the author of TFA. TFA has the same text as the summary.

    What's the point of that? I guess my own fault for RTFA.

    Why not link to the company web page or press release or anything other than the same text posted here?

    1. Re:What was the point of that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Why not link to the company web page or press release or anything other than the same text posted here?

      Because then he wouldn't have gotten all those precious slashdot hits on his yahoo contributor article.

  3. Making a bed... by __aaakhl8499 · · Score: 5, Funny

    When I get out of bed, the first thing I do is make sure it is properly made...

    Likewise, when I take off my shoes, the first thing I do is lace them up...

  4. What I'm waiting for by Iniamyen · · Score: 2

    Screw the self-making bed, where's my AutoWash (tm) ?

  5. More like a "bed that straightens out a sheet" by A.+B3ttik · · Score: 2

    While it's cool and I'm always excited about new advances in technology and robotics, this seems really limited. By the looks of it, you cannot move the pillows around during the night or have anything other than the sheet. All this really does is straighten out a single sheet onto the bed... not very useful or robust.

    Still, I suppose every technology must have a first step, even the automated bed-making technology.

    1. Re:More like a "bed that straightens out a sheet" by icebike · · Score: 2

      Yeah, I saw it as version 1.0 as well. Oh, just wondering, Does Spain ever get cold enough for quilts?

      I would imagine this mechanism would last about a month on your average teen-ager's bed before it is hopelessly tangled and derailed by blue jeans left laying on the bed, power cords to devices, guitars, and porn magazines hidden in the track-way covers.

      What's needed is something to tip the teenager out onto the floor, along with any cloths and paraphernalia, and food wrapper, hoist the bed vertical, shake it out, fold the entire bed up into the wall so said teenager can't simply fall back in.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  6. All hail technology! by ToiletBomber · · Score: 2

    Making us lazier and lazier every single day!

  7. Here's why you make your bed ... by MacTO · · Score: 4, Funny

    Question:

    Why make up a bed in the morning when it's just going to be unmade that evening (or sooner if one likes an afternoon nap?)

    Answer:
    To demonstrate to your future girlfriend that you aren't a slob.

    1. Re:Here's why you make your bed ... by Nidi62 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Answer: To demonstrate to your future girlfriend that you aren't a slob.

      Just get your wife to make the bed, then tell your girlfriend that you did it.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    2. Re:Here's why you make your bed ... by vlm · · Score: 2

      Answer:
      To demonstrate to your future girlfriend that you aren't a slob.

      Also makes the wife happy, so you get two happy women for the price of one housekeeping job. Otherwise known as a redundant array of inexpensive womens. Ditto lowering the toilet lid, although there's always the sink for that.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    3. Re:Here's why you make your bed ... by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Funny

      Gentlemen: A toast to wives and girlfriends - may they never meet.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    4. Re:Here's why you make your bed ... by CubicleZombie · · Score: 2

      To demonstrate to your future girlfriend that you aren't a slob.

      In the overwhelming majority of male/female relationships I've observed, the man is actually much more tidy than the woman. So I get really tired of this stereotype that I can't keep my house clean.

      Be sure make a surprise visit to your girlfriend's place. It will be a mess. That mess is what you will deal with every day of your life once you live together.

      --
      :wq
    5. Re:Here's why you make your bed ... by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 3, Funny

      wives and girlfriends - may they never meet.

      Hmmm.. now... on the other hand...

      Yeah, that's probably literally correct.

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    6. Re:Here's why you make your bed ... by Tridus · · Score: 2

      Learn to cook instead. If you can make her dinner and show off a clean kitchen, she's not going to give a damn that you didn't bother making the bed.

      --
      -- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
    7. Re:Here's why you make your bed ... by Taevin · · Score: 2

      It's not even about the work involved in making the bed. It's about having a brain that's not fundamentally broken. Caring about shit like bed making is a sign that your priorities are entirely screwed up.

      Yes! I too have discovered that training and discipline is only for feeble brains. Similarly I have nothing in my apartment except my computer, a cheap mattress, a blanket that I never fold, and some storage bins for clothes that I only wash when I get complaints. Of course I also never workout or do anything but order in because that would take time away from the only thing that matters: code! Seriously, can you believe the stuff people think is important?

  8. Why bother? by deadlyninja · · Score: 3, Informative
  9. likes to sleep in ? by KernelMuncher · · Score: 2

    What happens if you sleep in late ? Does the auto bed maker tuck you in like a mummy ? Could this be a future excuse of why we didn't come into work - "the automatic bed maker trapped me there all day".

  10. Completely Uninteresting by Kaz+Kylheku · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The rail-guided mechanism which makes this bed work is utterly uninteresting, and probably won't handle custom bed coverings or multiple layers, like duvet with cover. The bed cover is permanently attached at the foot corners of the bed, and pulled into place by a mechanism moving on parallel rails toward the head of the bed.

    The pillows are elevated by some mechanical lift, which allows the cover to slide under, and so the pillows cannot be moved arbitrarily.

    This bullshit is less impressive than the machinery in bowling lanes for arranging the bowling pins.

  11. Making the bed always frustrated me. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Making the bed has always frustrated me, but not in the way most of you are bugged by this concept.

    You see, I grew up in rural South India and we usually slept on a mat (of reeds) unrolled on cement floors with a pillow and a sheet. In the morning we would roll our mats with the pillow inside and stack these rolls one on top of another in one corner of the room which doubled as living area during the day. All was well till I started reading the Perry Mason novels by Erle Stanley Gardener, which were very popular. In more than one novel the clue that unraveled the whole mystery was, "But the housekeeper said the bed was not made". I had no idea how one would make a bed. I had seen pictures of cots and mattresses and I knew most Americans slept on elevated platforms. I imagined most of them would buy it somewhere. How does one "make" it? Very frustrating.

    In another novel the key was, "But the food was delivered by the dumb waiter!". I could understand if it was a blind waiter he would not have seen the dead body in the middle of the floor. But the waiter was just dumb, he could still see right? Then how delivering the dinner by dumb waiter made the difference? By the time I actually saw a dumb waiter, I had forgotten the story. All I remembered was, "why the dumb waiter did not see the dead body?".

    Similarly in our first year in Chemistry, the book said some thing called an orbital was shaped like a doughnut. (yes, the Brit spelling). No one in our entire class had seen a doughnut. Then one student found an American book, that called it a donut but had a picture of it. Almost every one shouted, "donut is a torus!". We knew the mathematical name of that shape!

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  12. Making your bed is bad for you by rrohbeck · · Score: 2

    In a properly made bed, the humidity from sleeping in it is preserved for much longer. That gives nice cozy conditions to everything from mold and mites to bed bugs.

  13. The great thing about a well-made bed is... by JustNiz · · Score: 3, Funny

    you don't lose all the nuts and bolts from the engine you're rebuilding on it.