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(Tech) Can't Get Up? Wake Up And Find The Clocky
U.K. Guardian ^ | March 26, 2005 | Ian Sample

Posted on 03/26/2005 9:45:06 AM PST by srm913

Can't get up? Wake up and find the Clocky Ian Sample, science correspondent It looks annoying, like a furry swiss roll on wheels. Even its name is irritating: Clocky. But that's nothing compared with what it does. Clocky is surely the most infuriating wake-up call ever devised.

Dreamt up by a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it works like this: You hit the snooze button because you are desperate for a few more minutes' sleep. Clocky then rolls off the bedside table and wheels around the bedroom floor bumping into things, before settling on a place to hide.

"When the alarm clock sounds again, the sleeper must get out of bed and search for it," said Gauri Nanda, a research associate at MIT.

"This ensures that the person is fully awake before turning it off."

Ms Nanda hit upon the idea after struggling to rise in the mornings. "I've been known to hit the snooze bar for up to two hours or even accidentally turn it off. I've known people who put the alarm clock in the living room, but then forget to set it before going to sleep.

"Having the alarm clock hide from me was just the most obvious way I could think of to get out of bed."

Ms Nanda gave her clock a furry covering in the hope it would look endearing and stop people throwing it out of the window in anger.

A built-in microprocessor ensures that Clocky rolls off in a new direction and makes a series of different turns, so that its hiding place changes each morning. Because it uses simple technology, MIT says the clock, which has yet to go into production, would cost less than £15.

Ms Nanda has plans to make a second generation of more intelligent Clockies. If two people sharing a room needed to get up at different times, two Clockies could sound different alarms and even gang up on a serial oversleeper by sounding their alarms simultaneously.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; Technical
KEYWORDS: clocky
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To: talleyman

LOL!

Hard on the dry-wall, though!


21 posted on 03/26/2005 12:05:31 PM PST by tiamat (Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.)
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To: NicknamedBob

LOL!

It's a wonder you get any sleep at all, NnBob!


22 posted on 03/26/2005 12:06:30 PM PST by tiamat (Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.)
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To: tiamat

I don't even want to think about what cats would do with it, but it can't be good.


23 posted on 03/26/2005 12:10:27 PM PST by Lady Jag (Honor and dignity)
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To: tiamat

Not me. I would end up stumbling around half asleep, clock hunting with a loaded shotgun.


24 posted on 03/26/2005 12:26:00 PM PST by OSHA (Beware! For they have discovered DEATH in the Constitution and have enshrined it into law.)
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To: tiamat; NicknamedBob; talleyman
Elvis Presley:

It always works for me. A-huh!

(Attempts to shoot "Clocky" with silver pistol. Misses, and winds up shooting a hole through TiVo.)

25 posted on 03/26/2005 12:29:22 PM PST by Do not dub me shapka broham (Protagoras was the leading SOPHIST of his day. Think about it.)
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To: tiamat
"It's a wonder you get any sleep at all, NnBob!"

Some days I don't get much. Last night I went to bed at two, and got up at six. I think I could use a nap.

But I don't worry about it. -- No sense losing sleep over insomnia.

26 posted on 03/26/2005 12:33:25 PM PST by NicknamedBob (They did NOT win. --They chose Death, and they will have it. -- We choose Life, and we will have it.)
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To: OSHA

Again, hard on the dry-wall! LOL!


27 posted on 03/26/2005 12:49:18 PM PST by tiamat (Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.)
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To: NicknamedBob

Tend to have problems that way myself.

No fun!


28 posted on 03/26/2005 12:51:29 PM PST by tiamat (Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.)
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To: Do not dub me shapka broham

LOL!


29 posted on 03/26/2005 12:52:00 PM PST by tiamat (Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.)
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To: tiamat

30 posted on 03/26/2005 1:00:43 PM PST by OSHA (Beware! For they have discovered DEATH in the Constitution and have enshrined it into law.)
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To: OSHA

ROFLMAO!

That's good!

:-)


31 posted on 03/26/2005 1:02:02 PM PST by tiamat (Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.)
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To: tiamat; srm913; PhilDragoo; Liz; onyx; Happy2BMe; potlatch; devolve; MEG33; Grampa Dave; ...


From the article:

Can't get up? Wake up and find the Clocky Ian Sample, science correspondent It looks annoying, like a furry swiss roll on wheels. Even its name is irritating: Clocky. But that's nothing compared with what it does. Clocky is surely the most infuriating wake-up call ever devised.

Dreamt up by a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it works like this: You hit the snooze button because you are desperate for a few more minutes' sleep. Clocky then rolls off the bedside table and wheels around the bedroom floor bumping into things, before settling on a place to hide.

"When the alarm clock sounds again, the sleeper must get out of bed and search for it," said Gauri Nanda, a research associate at MIT.

"This ensures that the person is fully awake before turning it off."


haha! I wonder how many of these DON'T survive after the FIRST time it goes off?

I can imagine folks flinging this into the wall the first morning. haha!


32 posted on 03/26/2005 2:44:54 PM PST by MeekOneGOP (There is only one GOOD 'RAT: one that has been voted OUT of POWER !! Straight ticket GOP!)
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To: martin_fierro

Until it's Smith & Wesson proof, it won't be at the Slim house.


33 posted on 03/26/2005 3:16:02 PM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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To: MeekOneGOP

34 posted on 03/26/2005 3:17:03 PM PST by Smartass (BUSH & CHENEY to 2008 Si vis pacem, para bellum - Por el dedo de Dios se escribió)
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To: Smartass
hahaaaaa! :^D

35 posted on 03/26/2005 3:18:26 PM PST by MeekOneGOP (There is only one GOOD 'RAT: one that has been voted OUT of POWER !! Straight ticket GOP!)
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To: srm913

...beepbeepbeepWHACK!

...thud!thunk!thunk!thunk!thunk!...

BANG!


36 posted on 03/26/2005 3:24:16 PM PST by RichInOC (...sometimes, stupidity is its own punishment...but not as often as it should be.)
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To: srm913
"When the alarm clock sounds again, the sleeper must get out of bed and search for it," said Gauri Nanda, a research associate at MIT.

"It" meaning "a gun". ;)

Ms Nanda gave her clock a furry covering in the hope it would look endearing and stop people throwing it out of the window in anger.

LOL. Yeah, that'll stop 'em.

Clockies could ... even gang up on a serial oversleeper by sounding their alarms simultaneously.

I just have to laugh at this.

Clocky #1: That's the fifth time this week he's overslept.
Clocky #2: I know... let's teach him a lesson.
Clocky #3: You mean... gang up on him?
Clocky #2. Yeah.
Clocky #1: Normally I don't approve of this sort of thing, but I suppose we have no choice. All right, everyone, get into formation! Be ready to use evasive maneuvers! He's not gonna like this.
Clockies 1,2,3: BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!
Clocky #3: Run for your lives! He's coming after us!
Clocky #1: Oh no!! He got 2! Not the baseball bat! NO!!
Clocky #3: Oh, the inhumanity of it all!!!

No, I don't have anything better to do than write Clocky script scenarios. ;)

37 posted on 03/26/2005 5:20:59 PM PST by 4mycountry ("No, Samus, prioritize! Getting off of an exploding ship is more important than fighting a dragon!")
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To: 4mycountry

You should draw a cartoon for this.


38 posted on 03/26/2005 5:35:32 PM PST by srm913
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To: srm913

Hmmm... I actually do draw comics. Maybe I will. ^_^


39 posted on 03/26/2005 5:53:51 PM PST by 4mycountry ("No, Samus, prioritize! Getting off of an exploding ship is more important than fighting a dragon!")
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To: 4mycountry

Good!
Be sure to scan it and post it on this thread later! ;^)


40 posted on 03/26/2005 5:55:23 PM PST by srm913
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