Wacky clocky!
Gauri Nanda, a 25-year-old graduate research associate at the MIT Media Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US has created “Clocky” – a shag-faced, homely alarm clock that goads its bleary-eyed owners into leaving their beds, as part of her research project. It has caught the attention of many through the internet and has become one of the most talked-about Media Lab inventions in years.
The winning feature of the product is its simplicity.
When the snooze alarm is pushed, Clocky rolls off the bedside table, tumbles to the floor and, thanks to shock-absorbing materials and rubber wheels, races away from the bed. It bumps into objects, repositions itself and eventually comes to rest in a place far enough away from the bed that its owner will be forced to get up to find it when the alarm sounds a second time. A built-in microprocessor randomly programs the clock’s speed, distance and routes, so that it won’t land in the same place twice.
Maybe one day, we’ll have an alarm clock that just crawls on your chest and wets itself. We can dream, can’t we?
People who couldn’t get out of bed easily are evincing interest in this gizmo. “I’ve had some people email me who said they keep hitting the snooze button for as much as six hours,” says Nanda.
Hey, Lazybones, need one? May be you will have to wait till it is commercialised!
More info here: “Clocky, An MIT Media Lab Research Project“