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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."
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$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Finally a reason to buy a smartwatch? Except then the battery is dead all day...
SleepAsDroid has been algorithmically determining users' waking state for years using phone accelerometers. The socks are cute, but adding this feature to the existing apps would be (obviously) far more popular. And maybe save Netflix a few petabytes of transfer a month.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Your outrage is negated by the link to the Adafruit website.
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.
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.
I think you need to adjust your dosage as well as having special socks that match your special helmet and drool cup.
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.
Just because we have all these new wireless products doesn't mean someone will be sitting around collecting the packets. The idea that a thief would wait until your socks indicated you've fallen asleep, then come steal your TV or do some other nasty thing, is just preposterous. Who would even think up such a thing?
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped
... 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.
I just use binary search.
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Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!