Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"I'm a fairly visual thinker. In doing science, I think in terms of pictures of things happening, and then do the mathematics."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Mattress Sleep Sensor | ||
| Sleep problems? Make sure you get your body out of bed each day. |
Do you keep hitting the snooze alarm? Here's a fool-proof way to make sure you get out of the sack. Even if you have found the perfect bed.
| Ten minutes earlier he had been snoring in his apartment at the Cowles Modular Community, with the alarm buzzing in his ears. The third time it went off, it would refuse to shut up until his 190 pounds were lifted from the sensor in the mattress. |
| From Dream Park,
by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes). Published by Ace Books in 1981 Additional resources -
|
Like many of Niven's fictional ideas, this one seems doable. A mechanical linkage like this has a variety of benefits. You can't throw it across the room, or cause it to snooze; you can only obey it.
It also has other applications in hospitals; I recently heard a news item about a hospital bed that could sense if a patient had gotten out of bed (an alarm would sound for the nurse). It could also be used to get data on sleep disorders (frequent rising in the night).
Comment/Join this discussion ( 3 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Dream Park
More Ideas
and Technology by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes)
Tech news articles related to Dream Park
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes)
Mattress Sleep Sensor-related
news articles:
- Mattress Alarm Perfect For Sleepy Students
| ROAM Robotics Skiing Exoskeleton |
| IRL Glasses Block Screens, Limit Vision To Real Life |
| The Hammock Caravan And Italo Calvino's Octavia |
| Americans! Stay Indoors To Save Energy |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'The world ... is drenched in unfamiliar information all the way to the horizon.'
'He saw one hiss by him as he rounded the corner, trailing a short whip antenna...'
'It may be organic damage. It may be permanent. Time'll tell, and only after you are off Substance D for a long while.'
It's the polite thing to do, and has been the polite thing to do for about four generations.
