Sure we all like to sleep in comfort, but how many of you would be willing to pay $1.5 million for a one-of-a-kind bed? Anyone? Anyone at all? Well Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars is hoping that
someone will shell out big bucks for that floating slab you see pictured above, as he's apparently spent six years of his life in the noble pursuit of a sleeping surface that can be suspended entirely by magnets. Do you actually get a better night's sleep on a bed that's only attached to a solid surface with a few narrow tethers? Probably not, but it seems that anyone spending a million bucks on something like this is more concerned with impressing potential overnight guests than waking up refreshed in the morning, anyway. If you just have to get your hands on one of these, but you'd prefer to remain below the seven-figure price point, Ruijssenaars was also showing off a smaller version at the Miljonaire fair in Kortrijk that goes for a more affordable $146,000; at 1/5th the size of the regular model, it's much too small for you to sleep in, but it would sure make a great perch for your already-spoiled dog or cat.
[Via
OhGizmo]
posted Jul 3rd 2006 3:45PM
imagine going to bed wearing earings, and wakin up with half of your ear missing. ahhh
1.5 Million, are you kidding me? My man must be really high.
Would be cool if it would be really floating unattached. Sadly, there are wires on all four corners which keep the bed from drifting away.
I would be afraid to run and jump on this thing, as I might fly out my condo window.
Well I guess this means no late night or early morning rss reading or e-mail checking in bed.
What if you are fat?
hahhaa awesome...
Great way to mess up your credit cards.
It's a flawed design.
Obviously, the main reason to have a floating bed is so the cockroaches can't reach you. The wires holding it in place defeat the purpose.
Good idea. Terrible execution.
You can't run from cockroaches. They're too powerful. They fly.
I bet I could build one for under ten grand, and it would be way cooler than that.
I used a similar technology to build a magnetically-floating desk! In fact, I'm typing on it righNO CARRIER
Nah Tom, the cockroaches just fall on you from the ceiling.
Being tethered, this thing wouldn't really give you the sensation of floating. Lame.
So... metallic nipple rings are out.
Probably not, it probably has an antimagnetic coating of some kind- soft iron or something.
if you have cables that keep it from floating off, why not have the bed hand off of the cables from the ceiling instead. the cables defeat the purpose.
This is Wolverine's death bed.
...and it only costs you $1.5 mil ...and your ability to have children ...and your freedom from tumors ...and God knows what else ultra-powerful magnets might do to you. Yay!
If you paid 1.5 million for a bed, I doubt you're living in a cockroach infested appartment.... Unless, maybe, purchasing the bed has depleted your bank account.
Speaking of X-Men...
I wonder if it might be anything like that scene in X-Men 2 where Magneto pulls all the iron out of the guard's blood.
Not literally, but is it possible lying on a bed of powerful magnets would draw the iron in your blood down to the lowest elevations of your sleeping body? Could that have adverse effects?
It's probably just sci-fi and my imagination run amok, but who knows? What if it's true, and you always sleep on your left side? Then with this bed the right half of your body would end up getting less iron than it should.
Metal moving within a magnetic field generates electricity. If you have sex on the bed frequently, the bed could eventually pay for itself.
I can imagine the ad campaign.
"Take advantage of our handy 'Lay-Awake' plan."
You lay awake worrying about how you are going to pay for a million dollar bed!
I'll stick to my Westin Heavenly Bed. It's pure goodness.
Fall asleep with a disk based DAP and have the bed of the future ruin your life.
They should put these in ritzy hotels so that customers' keys get demagnetized and lock them out of the room after the first night. They'll ask for a refund, but won't be able to run their credit cards because they fell asleep plastered with their clothes on.
Cancer and infertility, anyone?
I can bet you this is coming up in the next p diddy/busta rymes video! Along with the usual bling.
if this bed flips while you are sleeping, the opposite poles will attract with a slam and crush you.
Emceay, how do you come up with this sh!t? Are you a hotelier?
think cancer. magnetic fields on the sh*t must be huge.
Well if I ever have a few miljoen euro / dollar left I would probably buy something like that! Hahah
Well Tom W. If you have a million dollars I am sure you either live in a place that does not have cockroaches or you can afford to pay an exterminator.
Also tethered and all it must feel like floating as it must fluctuate up and down slightly when you are on it.
Principal Skinner: "I dream of a state-of-the art detention centre, where children are held in place with MAGNETS!"
Seriously, if it has wires to stop it 'floating' away, why not just suspend the bed from the ceiling by wires and 'pretend' it's floating on magnets?
I'll do it a mere 25 grand - pass the pliers.
Rich: The iron in your blood is non-ferrous, that is; it's not attracted to magnets. The guard in the movie was injected with metal by Mystique the night before.
Everyone else: Magnets have absolutely no effect on your body whatsoever, high intensity magnetic fields will not give you cancer or kill sperm or whatever else.
You ruin the fun
Perhaps there will be awesome accessories. Maybe magnetic underpants. Magnetic sex toys!!!
What about people with fillings! Ouch!!
The cables are to keep it balanced.
Rolling over in bed would likely roll the bed.
What would be smart would be having sensors that change the magnetic fields to keep the bed balanced. If I were a billionaire i'd definitely buy one. This dude is a genius.
Proud to be dutch :-]
What the?? My little ktown, "Kortrijk" is mentioned in this article without no further details?? As if anyone actually knows this city? haha! It's in belgium for anyone guessing as to where in the h*ll this little town is :)
Feel free to visit and drop me a line if you do! Maybe it's a conspiracy from the evil engadget editors to hint where the next engadget reader meet is?
I don't think that the magnets would attract things like ripping out fillings because the whole thing goes off the principal that two magnets with opposite charges will attract and the same charge will repel. If the bed is suspended, then the whole shebang must be in magnetic equilibrium.
hmm.. is titanium magnetic? Like artificial hips and knees. what about the screws and plates used to fix broken bones?
are you stupid? anything that attracts to a magnet will rust, so your not gonna have them in your body
Guruboy,
If you went to public school, I weep for the state of public education. If you went to private school, tell your parents to go get their money back.
Imagine if something goes wrong and the polarisation suddenly changes. SPLAT!
Nothing more than a reverse-hammock. It's still interesting.
What happens when you have sex?
Six years spent designing this thing...don't people have better things to do?
Has anyone ever read Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut... the main character invested in a company that made magnetic furniture, but when ever you would touch it, it would shoot across the room. Oh how fun it would be... dodgeball with couches.
According to Einstein's relativity theory, this $1.5million magnet will possibly bend the light and slow down your thoughts! Laying on the bed you will perceive your friends or your visitors around you not only as genious, but fast moving too like in a Charly Chaplin's movie! Ok, you might see them a bit ..bended too! For these effects it might worth the money!
Wow, first thought that came to my mind when I saw that was, "My god... Its full of stars..."
"Ruijssenaars was also showing off a smaller version at the Miljonaire fair in Kortrijk that goes for a more affordable $146,000; at 1/5th the size of the regular model, it's much too small for you to sleep in, but it would sure make a great perch for your already-spoiled dog or cat."
...or a Back to the Future 2-like hoverboard! Sure, as mentioned in the movie it wouldn't work over water without some 'extras'. Or in this case, over pavement, grass or... well... anything other than a same polarity magnet :P
"Lower the bed please, HAL", "I'm sorry, I Can't do that dave." "I can't allow you to endanger the mission Dave"
Definitely on my list of things to buy when I become a multi billionaire. Don't know how safe it is but it looks seriously cool for bragging rights. Imagine if the chick that comes with it floated too- Haha
If i sleep on it, will i have dreams and/or hallucinations akin to dave bowmans trip when he passed through the monolith in 2001? =p
Oh oh! look out. You'll wake up one day after a magnetic sleep with Penal cancer tumors!
Magnetic field exposure related to cancer subtypes
N. Wertheimer and E. Leeper
Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, University of Colorado Medical Center, Denver 80262.
Certain subtypes of cancer (notably nervous system cancer) showed an association with two indices of exposure to 60-Hz alternating magnetic fields (AMFs): Subtype similarities were seen in those people potentially exposed to AMFs by their occupations, and in those potentially exposed by high-current power lines near their homes. The incidence-age patterns observed in exposed and nonexposed groups suggest that prolonged AMF exposure may act as a cancer promoter.
rAKA, yes, exactly. alternating magnetic fields from 60hz A/C current. Not a steady field from a fixed source. Many people use magnets as therapy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet_therapy
what if the power goes out?
It would be fun to jump on.
Quick and easy hdd Formating in 2 easy steps.
1. Get HDD
2. Walk In
I think you will all agree that Brazilian supermodels are well worth 1.5 Mil
LOL i think the maid would love it. real easy to clean under.
I wonder if it has controls to raise and lower it ?
if i bought this thing (as in, if i had so much money i didn't know what to do with it), then i wouldn't sleep on it... maybe lie there every once in a while
this thing is only to look extremely cool in front of guests
What if there's a power outage ? If this thing is based on electromagnets, will you crash to the floor ?
Get a water bed for christ sake...
Actually- I don't think magnetic fields (as in natural magnets) are not all that bad for you- they are only bad for you if they are of the electromagnic type; especially those EM fields created by AC power... I see all kinds of magnetic shoe insoles and bracelts for sale that are actually said to be beneficial to the body (yea- just like quartz crystals)
My question is what does this thing do to laptop and ipod hard drives that come too near the areas that are not 'safe for credit cards' and such?
And I would be tripping over those damn cables all the time- what the hell were they thinking with those?
How do you vaccuum under the bed while it's magnetised? And wouldn't sleeping in or around a magnetic field be kind of harmful?
"Normally said can a magnetic field erase a bank pass, but for that is the field according to the architect negligible small."
apparently disk/card wiping is not a real issue... and just so's you know, Pete Avila, fillings and implants are not magnetic... What kind of idiot would do that?
alternating magnetic fields...
But yes, I would think that magnets have effect on the body, as it definitely does contain metals. Though, surely those magnets are shielded.
Maybe he should try making a floating hoverboard, it should be cheaper and more valuable.
Magnetic fields won't affect blood. The iron in your blood is ferric (non-ferrous, which is a function of the valence number of an iron-bearing compound). Similar to the way that sodium in water is flammable or explosive, but when bound with chlorine to make salt, it behaves differently.
This is a fun little calculator:
http://www.intemag.com/designtools/Calc_filles/PullAndPushBetween2RectMagnets.asp
A pair of 36" x 36" x 6" neodymium magnets would repulse each other with a force of 630 lbs with a 2-foot separation, but the magnets would weigh about 2100 lbs (raw neodymium is 7.3 grams per cubic centimeter). Unfortuantely the math gets way too complex for a simple online calculator when comparing the repulsive forces of magnets of different sizes, which is how I imagine the bed is made.
But at least the numbers seem to be in the right range.
Oh well. I can't imagine what 9 cubic feet of the world's most expensive magnetic material would cost.
Probably a million bucks, heh heh heh...
9 cubic feet of grade 45 NdFeB magnets will cost you no more than $226,800, if you purchase them from United Nuclear: http://www.unitednuclear.com/magnets.htm
$175 for a 2"x2"x3" magnet. As they point out, a single one of these will affect CRTs in an entire room, and two of them have the potential to break bones. Probably not a good idea to try and homebrew one of these, beyond just that a magnetically levitating bed is stupid.
You think it might be a problem for my Prince Albert?
You people need to realize that this permenant earth magnet has no negative side effects on your health, unless you have ferrous material in you, such as a pace maker, or have swollowed some magnets. If you actually read up on the bed you would have seen that a bulk of the money went into designing ways of preventing the field from effecting unnecessary areas, therefore
1) I don't know about all this ferric/ferrous stuff but I do know only some metals in their pure form are magnetic and there are many metals not affected by magnets. (for example: pure magnesium, zinc, lead, and aluminum are NOT affected by magnets)
2) Electromagnetism is not very different in "EM" waves than it is in a conductive material (a person's body) when it passes near a magnet, the biggest difference is the "EM" forces in the wave vibrate at a certain frequency but are a relatively steady one way force in the case of someone moving in one direction near a strong magnet.
3) Most cancer seems to be caused by cellular irritation, so a cell might be irritated by rubbing it back and forth (physically or by "EM" wave) but a one way force (squishing with a finger or a steady force) will not likely cause irritation. The cell would be more likely to burst before it could get irritated from a steady force.
Dont knock it till you've tried it that's what I say... I've actually got one of these babies, and let me tell you it's great, only mine has these 4 little wooden legs instead of the narrow tethers.
In response to the person who said magnets don't harm the body... that's not entirely true. If the magnetic field was too strong, it would impede your brain's own sensory functions. I HIGHLY doubt that the magnetic field from this bed would ever reach the level required for that though. (For the record, the measure of the magnetic field is Gauss... and 8 Gauss is the upper limits of what the human brain can handle and still be able to function. Anything higher than that causes increasingly higher interference with the brain's own brainwaves, and after 10 Gauss the magnetic field is too strong to overcome and the brain, for lack of a better explanation, "cooks" itself.)
A magnetic bed may hold an attraction for some. But for those, say, with an implanted heart pacemaker, the first night's sleep may well be their last. . . .
What if you have an iron plate in the shoulder after surgery, or even a pacemaker?
oh damn. think about the hot sex you could have on this thing. all the humping in the world could go on and it wont wake your neighbors with and 8.0 earthquake.
OK, let's clear some things up, as there's been a lot of bullshit posted so far:
1. 'Scorpious': 8 gauss is in a similar order of magnitude to the Earth's magnetic field. I think you meant Tesla. And a magnetic field cannot harm the nervous system. 'Brain waves' are electroencephalographic readings of electrical activity on the scalp, not changing magnetic fields within the brain. The only possible way to harm a brain in a magnetic field is to move it quickly with respect to the field, inducing eddy currents. 10 tesla is not strong enough for this.
2. If you really are worried about the excess magnetic fields in the bed somehow damaging the user, I would be very surprised if the magnets within the bed (permanent, because there is no power source to the bed) were not arranged as a Halbach array (which largely cancels the magnetic fields on one side of the array and augments them on the other side).
3. It's likely that this is done using electromagnetic fields in the floor and ceiling, but it could theoretically be done using a large diamagnetic block in the floor. I doubt pyrolytic carbon would be up to levitating this weight, so this would probably need to be super-cooled superconducting material. Or, to reduce the weight of the bed, the bed itself could be made out of a diamagnetic material and the magnets (incredibly strong) placed in the floor.
4. Electromagnetism and magnetism are the same thing, fundamentally.
5. Not all magnetic materials rust (!).
6 'If this bed flips, the opposite poles will slam and crush you'. Simply untrue. If that was going to happen, it would happen immediately; it is impossible to levitate a permanent magnet in a permanent field simply by sitting the magnet on the opposite pole. Either this is diamagnetism (in which case both N and S poles are repelled from the floor) or an alternating electromagnetic field (in which case the effective pull towards the ceiling would be the same whichever way up the bed was).
What if u were victim of frequent synutations that would eventually lead to your demise through internal implosions?.......quimtastic idea
Amazing! However, is it really all that comfortable? For a million dollars, I would hope the mattress material was higher quality memory foam or even latex. Interesting.
SM
http://www.MemoryFoamNetwork.com