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February 16, 2004,
Vol. 74, No. 5S
Grad students invent smart pillow alarm that doesn’t wake up every one in the room There are many
products on the market that perhaps shouldn’t be there. There’s
the Flowbee, the vacuum haircut system that promises a good haircut
with minimal skill. Then there’s the Chia Pet planter, which grows
inedible sprouts on a sheep-shaped clay pot. Conversely, there
are products that are not on the market but should be. The Intelligent
Alarm Pillow (IAP) is one example. IAP was dreamed up by grad students
Yury Markovskiy (CS), Youngshik Shin (MSE), Joshua Garrett (EE), Raphael
Grange (ME) and David Tran (BioE) for their High Tech Product Design
and Manufacturing class. Unfortunately the team doesn’t have plans
to market its clever product commercially so you won’t be seeing
it advertised on any late night infomercials anytime soon. The silent alarm
pillow is perfect for people who share a room or bed but get up at different
times than their partner. Instead of an alarm, the IAP silently vibrates
dreamers from their slumber. But wait, there’s
more. The pillow’s
computer mote technology includes electronic features that make it as
convenient and indispensible as a palm pilot. It’s great for people
with erratic schedules because it can adjust to changes made on a computer
appointment book. “You could
be woken up at different times based on a schedule you update on your
computer. If your schedule changes, the computer will communicate with
the pillow so there is no need to do any reprogramming,” says Garrett.
The downside of
owning a high tech, error-proof alarm pillow is that it can’t be
blamed when you’re late for an important date. If the battery dies
in the pillow’s mote it will not acknowledge the signal sent to
it by the computer. Without acknowledgement the computer immediately
defaults into an alarm. Silent alarm clocks
that can be used under pillows are available commercially, but there’s
nothing like the wirelessly controlled, soft-foam IAP on the market,
say group members. To make their prototype
the group had to reverse engineer a commercial massage pillow. Despite enthusiastic
product feedback, team members aren’t confident about the pillow’s
market potential. They cite the usual
reasons (lack of time and money) for leaving their product on the drawing
board and add another one. As engineers they have confidence in their
technical skills but not in their business savvy or marketing expertise.
“Our biggest
problem would be figuring out how to get venture capital to mass produce
this product,” says Garrett. “As students
we have other priorities,” adds Markovskiy, “We are interested
in graduating on time.” Garrett pauses
to ponder this comment and then says, “If anyone is interested
in giving us some money to get this company started, then our priorities
may shift.” For more go to http://kingkong.me.berkeley.edu/html/Me221/tradeshow_assets/trade_2003/group_15_IAP.htm |
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