Lumawake crowdfunds cool anti-alarm clock — but not on Kickstarter | Hacker News Reader

Lumawake crowdfunds cool anti-alarm clock — but not on Kickstarter

venturebeat.com

29 pointsccamrobertson12 comments

I think these guys need a reality check. They are at $149 and their direct competitor is the Sleep Cycle app. It is really well done, retails at $1 and, most importantly, does most of what's actually useful from their list. What's left is a physical form and a coffee pot integration. Is it really worth $148?

http://www.sleepcycle.com/

That is all fine and dandy, but you're not taking into account recent news of data leaking in iOS 6 (which has been fixed, for now, I know). 150 bucks to theoretically optimize my sleep schedule, without a wifi signal into my brain for 8 hours.

That being said, I was a sleep cycle user. I lost faith when I let the app run overnight on a table across the room and it graphed my sleep.. I checked USGS for earthquakes, but no dice.

I did the same one, but the graph I got was flat, as expected.

This stuff kills me. Promise a bunch of gee-whiz features that are only going to 'work' in the most charitable sense of the word, then bloviate about your attention to detail, passion, and craftsmanship. It's done so much nowadays it's cheap. I can very quickly think of a number of ways that this thing cannot possibly track your sleep patterns passively and accurately. At that point it's a glorified glow in the dark dock.

Honest question--why wouldn't or couldn't this work? Curious as it seems a well calibrated IR sensor could make a pretty good run at this with some good software behind it, but maybe I am missing something? If it DID work, it seems certainly more desirable than wearing something I had to charge.

What about the motions of your partner, what about the motions of shared blankets, what if said blanket is so heavy it deadens any movement, what if I have a fan on and it ruffles the sheet, what if my dog is restless? The scenarios for false readings are innumerable.

Thanks for the comment, we actually get this question quite frequently. Its natural to think we are selling snake oil, but contrary to your statement our product works very well and in-fact is equally or more accurate then most products on the market. The cheap apps that you can download do a good job but are notorious for false triggers due to the iPhone's accelerometer sensitivity. Not to mention it will pick up motion of your partner and can be easily knocked off the bed. We make no claims to have medical grade sleep device, something like the Zeo may be more accurate but frankly I just don't understand why anyone would wear something on their head while they sleep.

Above all we wanted to create a product that was fun to use and would help shed light onto your sleeping patterns.

What you say here, and what is alluded to in the video are quite different.

Open API is exciting. Gradual increase in brightness exciting if it is bright enough to really wake me up. I wonder how it compares to, say, a 15w bedside lamp.

I am not one to get excited about docks but this certainly has my curiosity piqued. Wish these guys the best if for no other reason to continue to push the envelope on these type of projects. Love the fact I would not be charged until product ships--that to me is one of the biggest non-starters for KS projects that are clearly just pre-sales.

How does this look for motion, whether I'm in deep or light sleep ? Does it have some kind of camera, or an external accelerometer ?

It uses IR sensors and an internal processor to sense sleep motions

Actigraphy?

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