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Netflix Creates DIY Smart Socks That Pause Your Show When You Fall Asleep (netflix.com)
HughPickens.com writes: We've all said "just one more episode before bed" to ourselves only to fall asleep halfway through while Netflix kept playing. It's frustrating to try to put the pieces back together the next day as you attempt to determine what you last saw before you dozed off — and Netflix feels your pain. Now Nathan McAlone writes at Business Insider that Netflix has built socks that read your body to understand when you fall asleep, and then automatically pause your Netflix show. The sleep detection socks use an accelerometer to tell when you've stopped moving for a while (presumably when you've fallen asleep). In the socks prototype, an LED light in the cuff of the sock begins to flash red when you've been immobile, letting you know it is about to pause your show. If you move at all, it cancels the countdown. Netflix released a detailed parts list (PDF), including where you can purchase each item needed, as well as schematics you can follow as you build out the electronics. The company even put together the basic code you'll need to use to program the electronics, though you'll need to find your TV's IR signals to make it work. The knitting process for the socks doesn't seem too difficult (if you already know how to knit, of course), and Netflix offers a handful of patterns based on the company's popular shows — including "BoJack Horseman," "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," "Bloodline," "Master of None" and "House of Cards."
Most people are not comatose and immobilized as they drift off to sleep. I guess it would help save bandwidth in the event someone died during a binge watching marathon.
Even if you consider all of this to be a huge Netflix and Adafruit commercial, you have to admit that it's a pretty nerdy project (cue "White and Nerdy").
... I'll be riiight there. Just have to put on my TV viewing socks first. Darn, I have to charge them!
Do you have yours on? What do you mean, not comfy nor pretty enough..?
What if I am very still while watching TV? And roll around a lot while sleeping?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
along with outbreak of open honest communications & commerce,, the perfect balance wmd on credit cabal self appointed psychopath mutant bloodline religious genocide franchise crown royals are spooked? ed? do you think we really need special socks to watch tv?
Finally a reason to buy a smartwatch? Except then the battery is dead all day...
SleepAsDroid has been algorithmically determining users' waking state for years using phone accelerometers. The socks are cute, but adding this feature to the existing apps would be (obviously) far more popular. And maybe save Netflix a few petabytes of transfer a month.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Men, of course, do not knit. So this is clearly almost as condescending to women as if they had said "bra" instead of "socks". Way worse than that IBM "hack your hairdryer" thing. I demand righteous outrage and protest!
Sounds like nice/useful hardware as long as it's not locked down so that it can only be used with some proprietary streaming service.
Netflix ruins me sleep cycles, I really need socks that stop me from watching after 8 PM.
Doesn't it though? At least for TV shows, it will stream like 2 or 3 episodes back to back before it spams you to say "continue watching". Pc, ps3, ps4 all do this. I really don't want netflix pausing my movie half way through.
"We've all said "just one more episode before bed" to ourselves only to fall asleep halfway through while Netflix kept playing. It's frustrating to try to put the pieces back together the next day as you attempt to determine what you last saw before you dozed off"
First World problems right there.
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
who sleeps with socks on?
First, as my comment on the article notes, this device is sewn into the socks, so they can't be cleaned. Not hygienic. These things would start to smell real bad after the first week of me using them.
2nd, you have to wear these over your pants, with shorts, or while watching in your underwear. Which I guess is to be expected if you are watching late at night, but its cold in the winter and I don't keep my heat cranked to 80, so.. not very practical. And what happens when your other foot covers the IR blaster? or you are covered up in a blanket? or any of the possible scenarios from you passing the fuck out.
3rd, only works with a TV that has netflix, or an IR controllable netflix. Not nexus player, not your computer, not chromecast, nothing except for a smart TV or dvd player. My nexus player wouldn't work. My chromecast wouldn't work. (well, it might work, if your TV can control nexus player or chromecast through the HDMI cable, which I believe is a feature the google devs added recently, but again, the two above issues are in the way before this one)
I'm all for clever, but this is not too clever.
It's called my brain, it let's me remember what parts of a show I've seen and what parts I haven't.
Wouldn't it be easier to detect when you heart rate drops below a certain threshold as determined by sleep?
Something that gets rid of ARE YOU STILL WATCHING?
Shut up, Netflix, I'll tell you when I've had enough.
I knew a guy in college who did a project with Kinect to detect when you'd fallen asleep and pause Netflix.
Fuck you, Netflix. Don't waste your time and money on connected socks. Just give me back the back catalog of older movies you used to have. I mean, Sense8 and Jessica Jones are all fine and dandy, but occasionally I'd like to look at some old DiPalma film from the 1970s or film noir from the '50s. It can't cost much to license those old movies, so why not give them back?
You are welcome on my lawn.
All my life I have been wearing dumb socks.
Some settling may occur during posting.
So hey, great job. Now try figuring out how to let users turn off auto-restart. Now that would be genius
Why not use accelerometer in the unloved piece of abandon-ware to figure-out when the man?woman (remote bearer goes to sleep ) ?
Even we can play with words like in IWatchTV.
So many possibilities.
Ok Ok. I was trying to be funny. Don't hit me now.
I still have to assume this is a joke (who would notice a blinking LED on your lower leg?) but the problem seems real enough. Hasn't this been largely addressed by Smart Pause, the technology that pauses YouTube videos when you look away? For this application you would want it set to be a bit less sensitive, but if you have a camera then it seems a simple matter of programming to pause playback if you go more than a minute or two without detecting (open) eyes.
Does it turn off your TV if you die? Just saying. That's a lot of electricity to waste.
... an easy-to-hide dead-man's switch for someone doing something nefarious.
Netflix offers a handful of patterns based on the company's popular shows — including "BoJack Horseman," "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," "Bloodline," "Master of None" and "House of Cards."
What about Orange is the New Black where Piper and Alex are making love sweet love in the shower?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I've incorporated this technology into my Cock Sock, so that it can detect & alert me when I've fallen asleep masturbating.
really
What happens if my foot falls asleep?
I just use binary search.
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