Homegrown alarm clock tests your math to gauge alertness
We've seen some fairly sinister alarm clocks in our day -- ones that fly around, nearly make you go deaf and "explode" if you don't get up in time, for starters -- but this DIY creation is definitely lobbying for top honors. The Turing Alarm Clock, which has admittedly been making the rounds of late, starts making racket just as any other alarm clock when the time comes, but rather than letting you smash the snooze button, it forces you to answer math questions with varying levels of difficulty before quieting down. Evil? Sure. Effective? You betcha. Check the video after the jump.
[Via Hack-A-Day]
[Via Hack-A-Day]



















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
phanbouy @ Feb 26th 2008 4:43PM
Meh. SnūzNLūz - Wifi Donation Alarm Clock FTW
Les @ Feb 26th 2008 4:49PM
I need one
Jherez @ Feb 26th 2008 5:28PM
This would be THE perfect alarm clock, especially if it were permanently attached to something
soviet_vexxer @ Feb 26th 2008 9:18PM
holy crap engadget is slow. giz had this 5 almost 6 days ago. i swear most of engadgets posts are re-writes of everything on gizmodo.
http://gizmodo.com/359085/home+made-alarm-clock-beeps-until-you-solve-a-mathematical-problem
jmiday @ Feb 26th 2008 4:49PM
I'd be too nervous to sleep
insertAlias @ Feb 26th 2008 4:57PM
Because of a math problem in the morning?
ethana2 @ Feb 26th 2008 5:25PM
Quick! ∫(5x^3-sin(4x)+7) !
Kero @ Feb 26th 2008 5:37PM
The answer is 42
Farris @ Feb 26th 2008 6:35PM
Where's the dx? Where's the dx????
r3loaded @ Feb 26th 2008 6:36PM
Kero fails.
Answer is (5/4)x^4 + (1/4) cos(4x) + 7x + c
LiQuiD_FuSioN @ Feb 26th 2008 6:40PM
r3loaded, I'm pretty sure he was referencing "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Answer_to_Life,_the_Universe,_and_Everything
Besides that, I wouldn't even know the real answer. :s
Tim @ Feb 26th 2008 4:58PM
The last thing i need when i wake up on monday morning, still drunk, is a math test.
perhaps that is the point, but if i am going to be woken up out of my drunken slumber by a novely alarm clock, its going to be the one with wheels that runs away from you while squealing.
I mean, I am not going to be happy to be awake as it is, might as well make it fun for the roomates. I don't think there is anything funnier than watching a half-asleep, drunk, angry guy chasing a little alarm clock around a two bedroom appt while screaming something about the three wise men stearing him wrong and being late for work.
Tim @ Feb 26th 2008 5:00PM
advil ftw, btw
Ryan Trevisol @ Feb 26th 2008 5:09PM
Your self-deprecating logic is undeniably bulletproof.
mex1cola @ Feb 26th 2008 7:33PM
Ive read some funny comments on the internets, but that just about takes the cake (which is lie). Kudos.
NakedOldGuy @ Feb 26th 2008 4:59PM
OK so lets build one of our own using a PIC16 microcontroller! Best alarm clock in the "not affordable for college students who need it" category goes to this thing!
NakedOldGuy @ Feb 26th 2008 5:02PM
Ok nevermind that... theyre cheap as hell.
Duncan @ Feb 26th 2008 5:15PM
Well if your being cheap then you can order a suitable sample PIC from the microchip website which is free (www.microchip.com/samples).
Bob @ Feb 26th 2008 5:02PM
forcing me to have a calculator by my bed
Steve Calderon @ Feb 26th 2008 5:05PM
Maaaaaan... As if it wasn't enough trouble to convince girls I'm not too much of a dork to sleep with, now I want them to see me doing math problems first thing in the morning? Why not just have it spew Monty Python quotes too?
Les @ Feb 26th 2008 5:11PM
it's in the morning, you already have them. being good a math, is a plus once they are looking for commitment
ethana2 @ Feb 26th 2008 5:30PM
Just use your tablet. Link festival to fortune or something and load up the quote database with a monty python quote list. Remember to put it in the right format:
(quote)
%
(quote)
..and so on.
...guess what scripting language you should use!
*ahem* python.
Kate @ Feb 27th 2008 7:57AM
But the Python quotes could be a reward for correct answers!
Or, for a wrong answer...."Nee!"
Kate @ Feb 27th 2008 8:01AM
...or was it "Ni?" I just woke up (really).
Nubaeus @ Feb 26th 2008 5:12PM
OLD
ON hackaday like last week
Tim @ Feb 26th 2008 5:13PM
YOU were on hackaday like last week.
ethana2 @ Feb 26th 2008 5:27PM
Your mom was o--
..nevermind, wron-
...nevermind.
phanbouy @ Feb 26th 2008 5:52PM
sin f(x) = FAIL^x
computer.dude.28 @ Feb 26th 2008 7:10PM
Actually, it was Gizmodo, and it was last month.
Joseph @ Feb 26th 2008 5:28PM
I do this with my roommate all the time. Unfortunately he's learned to answer math questions without waking up. It's kinda freaky.
Tim @ Feb 26th 2008 6:10PM
Joseph, your post raises some questions...
1) Why do you ask your roommate math questions in his sleep?
2) Is he getting paid for his ability to do math in his sleep? He sounds like NASA material...
3) How fast can he solve a rubiks cube?
4) Is your roomate that cat?
Joseph @ Feb 26th 2008 6:36PM
1) Because I'd tell him to wake up, he'd say he's up, then wake up later not remembering any part of the conversation.
2) Nah. If chimps are going into space, he could probably be NASA material...
3) He's not a genius. I don't ask him anything he can't answer while he's awake. He's bad at math.
4) No. Everyone seems facinated by my choice of cat icon.
Jason @ Feb 26th 2008 5:33PM
(5/4)x^4 + (1/4)cos(4x) + 7x + C?
Jonny @ Feb 26th 2008 6:03PM
Eleventy three (yawn)
phanbouy @ Feb 26th 2008 8:39PM
best. reply. ever.
ZeroCorpse @ Feb 26th 2008 6:05PM
Some people would never be able to turn it off!
Rob @ Feb 26th 2008 6:20PM
Next up on engadget,..
"Homegrown calculator automatically answers questions that your homegrown alarm clock asks you"
Cedric @ Feb 27th 2008 5:09AM
And I bet that dog is your roommate.
m @ Feb 26th 2008 6:46PM
it looks durable, which is a good thing, since it's going to get thrown against a wall.
Reader @ Feb 26th 2008 9:30PM
Seriously:
Option 1) Solve math problem while brain isn't functioning beyond breathing and making it to the bathroom.
Option 2) Destroy alarm clock while not thinking of the consequences in your half-awake rage
I think Option 2 will win every round, but I still want one.
Ethan @ Feb 26th 2008 8:10PM
Brilliant, brilliant idea.
John Stracke @ Feb 26th 2008 9:08PM
I did something like this once. Some time back in college, when I really needed to get up early (to get to GenCon, not to get to class), I wrote a program on some nearby Macs to start beeping at 4:00 and refuse to stop until I answered a multiplication problem.
Unfortunately, I wasn't that good a programmer those days, so (a) I stayed up late getting written, and (b) I didn't test it. (Looking back, I can't really reconcile these two statements. Maybe I took a lot of time looking things up in Inside Mac?) So, at 4:00 in the morning, three Macs started clanging at me, and I jumped up and discovered that there was some sort of bug that meant I had to answer the question within 2 seconds, or some such, or it would think that I had clicked OK, with the wrong answer, and make me start over. Oh, and I had set it to pick two-digit numbers in a range I could multiply fairly quickly--I think it was [10..50]--but multiplying 47 by 35 within two seconds, with three machines clanging away, turned out to be harder than I'd thought. I had to keep giving wrong answers until it came up with an easy one.
Dave @ Feb 27th 2008 12:29AM
type in "the answer to life, the universe, and everything" on Google...
Dave @ Feb 27th 2008 12:31AM
sorry this was supposed to go up higher in the thread
Dave @ Feb 27th 2008 12:31AM
type in "the answer to life, the universe, and everything" on Google...
Ikonomi @ Feb 27th 2008 3:42AM
Seriously? I can barely READ when I first wake up... The "snooze" button turns into the "random mess of numbers and letters" button.
dantaylor08 @ Feb 29th 2008 4:34PM
really really old