We've accomplished many an hour of restful, mugger-prone napping on the subway, but there's always the danger of missing your stop -- a problem we're usually too drowsy to consider at 2am in the morning. Not clever hacker Pyocotan, however. This resourceful fellow has built the Noriko-san sleeping mask for fashion-forward commuters, which broadcasts your destination to fellow passengers on a garish LED display, while you're busy getting some shut-eye underneath the mask -- in the hope that they'll be kind enough to wake you up at the right stop after they've rid you of your iPod and wallet. With a cost of $200 in parts, and considerable impracticality to boot, this device isn't quite ready for the commercial sphere, but that's of little concern to Pyocotan -- he's just busy being awesome. Video is after the break.
[Via
Make]
posted Oct 19th 2008 4:55AM
Hah, bet nobody woke him up when he needed to get off. Probably why they didn't show footage of someone trying to wake him up.
@amexesix
Yes that is what the message said at the end of the Video "Result, no one woke me/him up".
BTW there is no way I would have woke up the idiot, unless I wanted his seat.
- Waking/touching someone on a train...umm..i don't know about that one
- This would be great for drunk salary man, or people hitting the trains at 5AM on Saturday/Sunday morning, when they start again. (Of course everyone else is probably drunk as well.)
- I guess you could just hang a sign on yourself saying what stop you wanted to get off at, but still...nobody is going to fuss with you.
I'm lucky if I catch the right train that ends at my stop, but sometimes I don't want to wait for it. Unfortunately that leads to missing my stop and going on for another hour until a conductor wakes me up.
Anyways, if you're willing to wear that, you might as well just get an apartment in Akiba, where you work/play anyways.
Why didn't his cameraman wake him up?
I saw something very similar to this on a British Kids TV programme back in, ooh, 98 maybe?
The programme was called 'It'll Never Work' and it was brilliant. It's probably the reason why I've got a technical career now. Every week they would look at awesome technology and do craaazzyy experiments. Anyway, they had this feature called 'Chindogu', which is apparantly a real thing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chind%C5%8Dgu). It would feature inventions which were totally real but in some way fundamentially flawed or stupid. Examples of such (from that Wikipedia page) are 'duster slippers' for cats (so they help clean the house as they walk) and a tissue-dispensing hat for hayfever sufferers.
One of the Chindogu inventions was almost the same thing as Pyocotan here has come up with. It was a yellow hard had with a suction cup on the back and a piece of card on the front. You wrote the name of the station you were going to on the card, then used the suction cup to attach the hat to the window behind you, thereby preventing your lulling head from dropping onto the shoulder of the person next to you.
Might've worked better if he actually added a "Please wake me up" to the end of his message, instead of a plain "I'm getting off at Meijiro"...
@ j_g_puff
http://www.syberpunk.com/cgi-bin/index.pl?page=series1
In that page, I found a device that already has been made and is less odd than anything else - looks like a bluetooth connector if you ask me!
(yes, I realize that this thread is now a few months old)
I bet no one will try to wake you up and if they do it will be by slapping you for you choices.
"- in the hope that they'll be kind enough to wake you up at the right stop after they've rid you of your iPod and wallet"
and, presumably, the $200 face mask you're wearing.
Or are muggers too fashion conscious for that these days?
there is no thieves in japan trains. You can leave you laptop and 200$ on the coach and somebody will bring it back to you by the end of the day.
Additionally "there is no sex in Soviet Union" occured.
@Boards Of Canada
It'll probably just end up left there, men are too busy raping Japanese schoolgirls to notice and the other passengers are too busy watching it....
And no unkind people in canada.
But guys... its almost true... of course tokyo a bit different but here in osaka my wife lost her wallet and 1 hour later somebody ring at the door. We often leaves our stuff on tables in coffee for go toilet and nobody touch it... including laptop. No one think about stealing cause nobody in real need or greedy... Of course japanese have other defaults but honesty is really the norms here. Its natural. Cleanliness too... its so damn clean here... trains, subway, streets... amazing! not a cigaret botch!
Dude, there are cigarette butts everywhere in Tokyo.
But, other than that, it is fairly clean.
And I can personally testify I saw a dude dead asleep with his Macbook perilously balancing on his lap in the middle of the day. No one made any attempts to steal it. I kept my eye on it just in case it fell all the way off maybe I could catch it and save its life!
My thoughts about sleeping on the train after 5 years of riding Tokyo trains and having never slept on them....umm, do not sleep on the trains! I don't care how safe it is here, who wants to be asleep and totally vulnerable in public?
And if you are that tired, why not just go home and sleep? Why stay out so late? Hell, maybe more people are sleeping on the train in the middle of the afternoon than at night. I can't fathom it myself.
i sleep all the time on the subway in NYC. luckily (or unluckily) i ride the 7 train from start to end, so I've never missed my stop. It's fairly safe on the subway, unless you're going deep into bronx or brooklyn. Even then, it's safe if you be careful.
I don't know what's more laughable; the likelihood that no one will wake you or the googly eyes
Damn. The eyes of Google. I should have known that.
Imagine trying to carry that thing, and wearing it, gah. This is definitely a worthy contender for the worst gadgets thing.
It certainly would be, if it were actual production merchandise. This is a ridiculous yet impressive feat of nerd-itude (and courage, frankly). It's not a crapgadget.
I don't see why they don't just like have it strap around your arm and have it poke/zap you.
Just set an alarm on your phone for the estimated time of arrival.
Dude! iPhone, GPS...
I smell a new useful app coming. ;-)
BTW, at the end it indeed said that nobody woke him.
Subway GPS.
Okay, Dav.
GPS underground.. that'll work ;)
While GPS might not work underground they DO have cellphone service there... and you can calculate your position using just that!
Especially if you know all the towers/switches in the area you are trying to map.
Google earth/maps for mobile does location using cellphone towers. It works anywhere with cell coverage - the data is there - how accessible it is, who knows? This could be an app for any "smart" phone >> Inverse Geo-fencing . . .
Alright, in subways it may be slightly more inaccurate, but the line they demonstrated it on in the video was the normal above-ground Yamanote line anyway. Thanks for playing. ;-)
Actually, it's already there. http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/2008/09/18/commuters-get-extra-sleep-with-inap/
Geordi would be proud...
I CONCOUR!
Pros:
- Nice, attractive eyes
- You can never see anything
- Probability of being woken up next to nil
- Probability of falling asleep next to nil
- Circuit board is exposed for quick mods - possibly made by others while you are wearing it
Cons:
- Too cheap
P.S. What it that thing the penguin is showing in the ad, in the first frame?
That would be Suica, the Japan Railways smartcard that can be used to pay for all sorts of stuff.
Cutest mascot EVER! In the poster ads the Suica penguin gets up to all sorts of antics. Misses trains, fumbles with change... the fun never stops.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suica
Paul Miller. Are you stupid or what? Please don't post this kind of junk. Thanks.
It's useless.
@nydanny
a) it's hilarious
2) it's a gadget
iii) it's obviously interesting to a few folks, given the number of posts.
Lighten up, dude.
Of course this can also be accomplished by putting a 1 cent post it note on your forehead that has your stop written on it.
Nobody would read that, this draws attention and is clearly readable.
if i saw someone with a post-it note on his forehead i'd be sure read it...
aybe someone would have woken him up if his shirt didnt say "SEX" while sitting down.
It says SFX...
Dude I thought it said sex too!
It's always funny to leave people sleeping past their stop.
About the grabbing of wallet/ipod; I assume being a gadget guy that he also hacked up a pocket alarm for his pockets, and I bet ipods aren't that big compared to other brands in japan anyway..
Actually, iPods are the most common portable media device here in Tokyo. Sure, there are a few other contenders but most people tend to choose the iPod over the others.
Secondly, as mentioned earlier and not in jest, you could leave your wallet, camera, cell-phone, laptop, you name it on the train and it would be turned in to the lost and found. Japanese people aren't big on stealing from others, now if a foreigner was on the train... that's another story.
I was just guessing about the ipods based on the wide range of electronics available in japan and based on figures I've seen some time ago on worldwide ipod sales in general, which were not enough to warrant an assumption most people pick ipods, so thanks for that correction.
And about the stealing: I guess it's social pressure, the one doing the stealing would feel everybody's eyes on him and there would be a million witnesses in a busy japanese train, who also all have mobile phones and when they feel strong about it would use them to call the cops.
Although there are also regional personal feelings about stuff like that of course, I know americans for instance find certain things 'normal' that nobody in europe would pull, and visa-versa, even without people present to witness it, but such things are not things you can say are 100% foolproof.
just add a alarm to this thing or some wifi and a motor so that it vibrates to wake you up and you would be ok. It would suck tho to be the only guy awake in one car, you would be expected to wake everyone. I could however see the old hand in a bucket of water trick go very far )insert evil laugh here(
Yeah that's the thing most people carry in trains and subways, buckets of water and a wicked disposition.
why not just electrocute the guy when he reaches his stop?
Because doing so can defeat the purpose.
No need to. He'll probably electrocute himself before his stop if he starts drooling.
i see the main use for this as setting the screen to say the last stop of the line and putting it on some sleping guys head
that is if you could afford to lose them, regularly...
This is a typical case in which you'll look less stupid by going low tech: Just hang a sign around your neck saying:" I AM A JERK - Please wake me up before (.....)"
You'll save your $$$ too
Why not hook up a GPS too it with a processor that will alert you when you are within 300 meters of your destination?
Oops, one too many ooo's in the "too" above.
Meh. I doubt Japan has the same crime rate as the cities the author is implying in this article....
Well something like that might be useful for blind people.
I think blind people would have more respect for how they look than to wear something like that.
Something just occured to me, I don't know if GPS works that far underground.
Is there something else like the train rf system that they could pick up to indicate their location?
LOL. this is incredible.
"a problem we're usually too drowsy to consider at 2am in the morning."
Too bad the trains all stop running before 1.
"2am in the morning"
What about those trains running at 2am in the afternoon?
ah ha ha ha!-- what I need is something like this that I can wear at work so that when my boss comes around he'll read-- "Don't wake me up until quitting time, ya bastard, I'm dreaming about work!"
(I love it. Anybody want lay odds as to whether this poor guy has a girlfriend or not??)
http://badgerhairshavingbrush.com
Okay, gps wouldn't get that deep underground but there could be perfectly a workaround from the tube company.
Or maybe there could be a bluetooth or wi-fi information service which could interface with it telling it's position. Better anyway than count on other commuters, heuaheuahe.
its just a really old chindogu, been done better before
Haha, I'd just go with the strategy kids use at the honour's college lounge - tape a note to your face with the time/stop you want to be woken at. Seems to work for them.
200 in parts? That's a lot more than it needs to be. You could simplify that, use a different LED and a basic PIC processor and have it be a LOT cheaper than that. That's a little stupid IMHO.
I was going to wake you up when you got to your stop, but you just looked to PEACEFUL sleeping there...
It leaves us with the question of if everyone on the subway is sleeping who will wake you up?
I think postir note on your face is way more cost effective, and no one is actually gonna wake you up, unless it's to laugh at you.
I remember seeing something on tv a while back about slareymen actually using signs around there neck with their station on it and
at least during the show it was being honored.
I agree with the general honesty of the average train rider, of course they have MORE than the average butt pinchers,porn readers (Manga) on the trains
Around the world, around the wooorld..
around the world, around the woooorld
Folks,
I have similar thoughts like some of you and my takes...
* Why bother to spend $200 to get the attention from the good samaritan while hanging a big cardboard sign may achieve the same? I know, it's just the fun to invent new, cool, gadgets but I would make it "cooler" with animation besides just dot-matrix one-line text.
* I don't know if he particularly picked Yamanote line for his experiment or not. It's a circular route and perhaps even if he missed the Mejiro station without the filming crew, he'd eventually get there or someone would wake him up in the next round. But by then, he'd missed the connecting train if getting too late.
* How many of you would wake yourself up if fall asleep on the train/bus? I rarely take the transit these days, but back then I always tend to have some kind of adrenaline rush / just wake up myself suddenly when my stop is upcoming.
It's an artistic expression, and a way to get famous on the internet, it's not meant to be all that practical.
EPIC FAIL, how lame, this looks ridiculous and I'm sure no one would approach someone wearing such a silly looking "sleep Goggle" I wouldn't...maybe with a taser, that ought to wake him up.....J/K but seriously.....dumb!
This would be great, until everyone gets one, and no one is paying attention to anyone else's glasses because they're all sleeping.
poor otaku............ should have stayed home any way...
that's what i thought when i first looked at it... looks so cool!..
scroll message ".........please wipe my drool......"
We are the Borg!
I can figure a better and less dorky idea than that. Cell phones with GPS can run a small program that compares it's current location to it's destination. When it comes in certain radius of the destination, an alarm goes off. This does not even have to be done with a GPS, you can use cell tower triangulation. In fact it's been done already on many Nokia phones without a GPS. There goes that brilliant idea.
Mean as hell, but back in the day, I would catch people sleeping against the window of the train and SLAM the window with my hand as the train was pulling out. Scare the shit out of them... fun times in NYC.
It's actually a "chindogu" -- the modern Japanese art of wacky, but not necessarily practical ideas. A version of this has been around at least a decade, since appearing in 1995's "101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions"
You can see the lo-tech concept: http://www.chindogu.com/chindogu/chin7.html