Tyrant alarm clock dials your contacts if you refuse to wake
By Darren Murph 
posted Jul 2nd 2008 11:35AM
posted Jul 2nd 2008 11:35AM
We've seen alarm clocks institute some fairly unorthodox methods of waking users up, but this is exceptionally high on the list of "oh, no they didn'ts." Alice Wang's Tyrant, which we can only assume is a concept, actually dials a random number in one's mobile contact list for every three minutes that the sleeper doesn't address the obnoxiously loud ringing. In other words, unless you pick yourself up out of bed within ten minutes of the alarm going off, you'll have three angry friends wondering why they're getting phone calls from you everyday at O-five-hundred hours. Brilliant. Pure, sadistic, barbarous brilliance.[Via Coolest-Gadgets]
I LOVE IT!
Actually, this is a really good idea for people with medical conditions that can cause you to not be able to wake up, or slip into a coma overnight.
Or you could just buy one for your lazy-assed friend that's always late, and don't tell them about the phoning feature...
I seriously need one of these. The pressure of social embarassment should wake me up better than some noise or movement.
Having been without any reason to get up for ages, I've now become immune to alarm clocks. I even tried my friend's helicopter alarm clock, but kicked it out of the air and went straight ack to sleep.
Have you tried getting a job? Sometimes that helps... having to go to work to pay the bills and all...
(sorry)
Well ya, the sustained illness, and weight loss have played against me in that regard. I'm pretty much house-bound.
But ya, a job would be great. If anyone has a job for me that requires no actual input, and a lot of lying down, let me know. Even blogging would be good.
I have a perfect job for you. Mattress tester! Yea, it's a tough job, but someone has got to do it. You spend hours and hours doing the same thing...
Hmm, could get tough at times... anyone get that subtle pun?...I'll be going now.
O0O0O0O this is a GREAT gag gift!
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/nasa-offers-500.html
I will disown any friend who buys this.
Indeed!!!
lucky for me, i have no friends!
After a second or third call, I will promptly destroy said "friend's" phone and alarm clock.
lol, this is hilarious
I'm buying one.
buy this and a gophone. Put one contact onthe phone of a person you don't like and sleep in
Or set the alarm and go on vacation.
and its program to send text message to your boss "i'm tired of my job, im gonna quit today, please find a replacement for me"
or message to your mom "hey mom, can you come down to my pad and give me a long good scolding cause im too lazy to wake up?"
or a message to your GF "hey gina my love (GF name is anna), i miss you today, how about we have a dinner tonight?"
Dude....
I love you.
I need this so bad.
Came here to say what you did. My mother is getting up there in age (65), and has severe type 1 diabetes. Several times a year, she has a bad reaction where I have to inject her with a glucose stick just to get her conscious. I have to call her every morning to make sure she gets up. This would be perfect for us, as if the didn't get up, this would call me.
I can just imagine parents giving this as a gift for college-bound kids.
"uhhh, mom? why are you calling so early?"
"Oh, I just wanted to make sure you were on time for class."
"How did you even know when m class started?!?"
"Must be mother's intuition!"
In that case, don't plug it in or better... sell it on ebay. :)
sell it on ebay??? Better hope that the person who buys it actually gets up, huh?
this is designed for caretakers/children of senior citizens living alone....
Ya know, I thought of that too; but then the "random" nature of the dialing screwed it up. If you can set it for one number (say, an emergency contact) it's fine. If it randomly calls the wrong person, your screwed even worse.
Now, just think if it piped that person back into the speakerphone. Calling in "sick" from work just got easier. No longer a need to get out of bed.
Rather than encouraging you to wake up, it would be better if it interfaced with your calendar. Then it could call up the people you were about to no-show and let them know that "something urgent came up".
This might be good for older people or those who are ill and live alone.
Not for me, though.
"SNOOZE, dammit!"
"... I can't let you do that, Ms. Wang."
thank you wery much
*gasp* it's coming for me!!!
That's what she said.
+1 to IT
One problem with this.
I would find myself deleting all the people I talked to from my contact list, and then setting the alarm to go off at random intervals through the night in the other room.
What? Its not bothering me any.
I wonder how well this work sif your contact list is empty.
Well, surely you have ICE, at least?
terrible, just terrible...people really need to just start taking responsibility for their lives and going to bed earlier if they know they have to wake up in the morning. stop using alarms altogether.
Old people, people with medical conditions that could have complications overnight, stuff like that. They don't need to take responsibility and go to bed earlier, but they would probably like their family or friends to get concerned if they don't wake up in the morning and come help them.
This concept is less practical, with the random contact thing, but the idea is sound for the application I described.
agreed, my statement was directed towards the general public (I don't consider old people [age 70+] general public), not your specialized conditions with which this would be very useful for.
Are you serious? You do realize that the general population likes sleep, right? At least in my case, when are student who has had the "luck" to be placed in groups to work on assignment with deliquents, alarm clocks are quite the God send. Working until 4am on a project and having to wake up at 6am for school.
You may be bionic and have an internal mechanism to wake you up exactly when you need it, but the rest of us need an external technological assist.
Dude, srsly, who hates on alarm clocks?
[Yeah, I'm getting the feeling I missed some poorly-executed sarcasm.]
Duh people like to sleep, that's why I'm saying they could get more of it by going to bed at a decent hour. Teachers & Professors give students plenty of time to work on projects, homework, etc., but the students choose not to do them until the last minute, they procrastinate, and that is their own fault.
Everyone has an internal timing system, you do too... try it some weekend...TELL yourself that you will wake up at 10am (provided you are going to get at least 6 hours of sleep), then look at the clock before you close your eyes...You will wake up somewhere within 15 minutes of 10. To seriously do it, you have to truly tell yourself you want to wake up at that time...It worked for me all through senior year, and it was amazing to not wake up to buzzing or talk radio...you feel so much more refreshed!
^^no sarcasm here^^ *sigh*
It's not that I don't agree with you somewhat, but having been in college (like others have said, nights where I was lucky if I got an hour of sleep) and worked on campaigns (16/20 hours a day working) you body is not going to allow you to get by with that little sleep. Period.
Danakin, you are right. I can usually wake up before a certain time if I make sure I think about it before I fall asleep. But it's not 100% reliable and it does depend on how tired you are and how late you went to bed. I can manage to get awake on time even when I went to bed late and tired but not always.
When I was a kid (elementary school) I was able to wake up at 6am sharp. Plus minus a minute!
Dude, some of us are just wired differently. Without a clock, I easily can sleep 12-13 hours. I don't know about you, but sleeping half the day plays hell with my schedule.
Seriously, if I don't set my alarm clock, I'll sleep about 12 hours. I have several friends that say the same thing. Frankly, I wish I had an internal mechanism to wake me up at a certain time. Even sunlight doesn't do the trick. I'd wake up with a sunburn if I was in direct sunlight.
And for the record, I'm not lazy, I just have a different internal clock. If I didn't have clocks, I'd probably be on a 36 hour day. When I'm not working, I find that I stay up for about 24 hours and sleep for 12 naturally. Circadian rhythms can differ from person to person naturally.
Besides, who the hell decided 8am was a good time to work anyway? I don't know about you, but I work better later in the day.
The person who made 8am the standard work time should be drug out into the street and shot.
Well, here's a good incentive to hide your caller ID...
umm 911...?
...who has 911 as a contact?
Not everyone remembers 911's phone number by heart, you know...
But Poison Control could be rather amusing...
"911 whats your emergence?"
"STFU CARL!!!"
"Excuse me sir?!?!"
"You heard me, I said STFU CARL!"
I have my University's Department of Public Safety number in my phone, and they're all deputized police, so...
Awesome idea, I love alarm clocks that really force you to get up. I liked the one that makes you put together a puzzle, sort of like the game Perfection. I also liked the one that makes you do math problems.
My only worry would be that my sleep-craving brain would just unplug the alarm, or turn it off instead of hitting snooze (as it is, I never use the snooze button).
Maybe someone should make an alarm that requires a key to turn it off. You could keep the key in the basement or something. You heard it here first.
It's all fun and games until this thing dials your professional contacts
All the more incentive.
Today's Headlines: Terrorists use alarm clock to call a cell phone to blow up a building downtown."
This wouldnt be such a bad idea if you could program who it was going to call...say for instance you're on a buisness trip, you and your co workers go out drinking all night and have an important meeting in the morning. It could call them wake them up and then they could come wake you up. Brilliant.
Does it leave voice mails?
I can't wait to buy this, set it up, then go on holiday for a week, forgetting to turn it off...
don't forget to turn it off if ou leave for a vacation
How does it get to your mobile list?
I still can't believe there's an alarm clock called "The Tyrant"
If one of my friends seriously buys this contraption, and it does call me, he will find it melted with a torch over this head the following day...
Do you really need someone waking you up at that hour because THEY forgot to wake up? Genious...really. O.o
I'd just turn it off/unplug it and go to sleep again. I currently set three alarms, one across the room, and two on my phone, and I can still turn all three off, get back in bed for "5 minutes" and sleep for hours. It is a struggle for my life every time I have to wake up before 9 a.m. and it has been since I was 5, so that's 20 consecutive years.
what we need are beds that suddenly become lumpy and uncomfortable - perhaps even tossing and turning - when it's time to wake up. it would be impossible to remain sleeping.
also, having an alarm that raises your blinds would allow natural light to come in, causing your brain to stop producing melatonin and thus you to not be sleepy anymore =D
I have 2 alarms. 1 on my phone, 1 across the room, forcing me to get up and turn it off. Problem is, there's no incentive for me not to go back to bed after turning the alarms off. Probably be the same thing in this case: I'd get up, turn it off, go back to bed and be late for work :(
Next april fool's gift for someone, just take your supposed "friend's" cell phone, program it in and do not tell them what it does
Now that's the kind of thing that might finally get me to beat the "Snooze" habit. Ah, who am I kidding... at that time of the morning, I don't care what any of my friends think of me.
No, you dont really need it, However... co-workers who get phoned will make sure you remember to pick up once they beat you at work...
This is a brilliant idea... minus the phone bill and or if you take it over-sea's with the same numbers... Expensive phone bill anyone? That should wake you up all right... The thought of that bill could keep anyone from sleeping!
And I used to think this was the most evil alarm clock ever made ...
http://www.geek.com/review-clocky-mobile-alarm-clock/
On a serious note: My daughter has a severe form of drug resistant epilepsy. I've accepted the fact that if she has a bad seizure in her sleep we could lose her. While she is just a child now, if she ever is able to live on her own, I would want that call, the morning she doesn't wake up, SUDEP.
After working in the emergency medical industry, this actually has a lot of potential. Far to often will we show up and find someone who has been dead for 8-16 hours before they were found because they live alone.
Hehe :) Many of internet addicts would need this. Great thing.
Where can I get on ;)
ALE-Xpressed
http://blog.ale.com.pk
If there was a button "buy", I swear I would get one!