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N. Nagaraj

On clocks that insist on waking you up, through cajoling or just sheer blackmail.

DO you turn off the alarm clock and go back to sleep again in the morning? You are sure to have received some loving chiding from your dearest one for missing her at the airport sometime or the other.

And, if it happened only recently, you would have heard of clocky, prototyped at the MIT Media Lab. In a nutshell: Clocky goes off at the set time and when you press the snooze button, wheels away and hides somewhere before screaming again. For the uninitiated, the snooze button allows you to catch a little more sleep by delaying the alarm by about five minutes. Naturally, most people who hate getting up right after the siren goes off in the morning like to have a clock with this great feature.

Since this waking up and getting out seems to be quite a bit of a problem, we looked around the Internet to see if there were other such projects, and what do you know! We can only say this: There are quite a few people out there who want us up and running and not getting bashed by angry bosses or angrier spouses.

An Australian site, www.latestbuy.com.au, offers a challenging solution to the perplexing problem of getting out of bed: The Puzzle Alarm Clock. This alarm clock will stop screaming only after you solve a four-piece jigsaw puzzle and fit it on top of the clock. Now, this not only wakes you up but makes you think too. your mind, too.

Then there's another alarm clock that makes you physically get up - the hanging alarm clock. Designed by Hayat Benchenaa, a design student at Interaction-Ivrea in Italy, it hangs from the ceiling, just above your bed. At the set ime, the alarm will go off and every time you press the snooze button, the clock moves higher up closer to the ceiling till you are forced to get up and switch it off.

Now, all alarm clocks don't have to be noisy.

Two Chilean engineering students have developed a pillow that can be set to wake you up at a particular time. At the set time, the pillow gently inflates and deflates, thus shaking your head into waking you up.

They apparently developed it for the deaf, but if you can't stand the screaming of a clock, this is the way to go.

And then, there's a quilt that lights up slowly at a set time simulating the brightening sunlight of the morning. The designer has used electroluminescence technology to turn traditional fabrics into reactive sources of light. Check http://www.loop.ph for more details.

Well, if you are one of those who can talk anybody into doing anything, ask your spouse to get you the Quattro alarm clock if and when it is commercially produced. Designed by Didier Hilhorst and Nicholas Zambetti, students at Interaction-Ivrea in Italy - that place again! - it features a teddy bear that works in tandem with the clock. What does the bear do? Give it a squeeze when the alarm goes off in the morning, and there, you have a cosy, cuddly snooze!

Picture by Paul Noronha

nagaraj@thehindu.co.in

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