Noriko-san subway sleeping mask lets other passengers know to where to wake you, looks really cool

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]

[amexesix @ Oct 19th 2008 5:06AM]

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.

[GoVegan @ Oct 19th 2008 8:29AM]

@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.

[Vagrant @ Oct 19th 2008 9:21AM]

- 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.

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Oct 19th 2008 9:51AM]

Why didn't his cameraman wake him up?

[j_g_puff @ Oct 19th 2008 10:19AM]

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.

[Dav @ Oct 20th 2008 12:04AM]

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"...

[Marvin Quach @ Dec 16th 2008 1:47PM]

@ 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)

[ML @ Oct 19th 2008 5:07AM]

I bet no one will try to wake you up and if they do it will be by slapping you for you choices.

[404 @ Oct 19th 2008 5:12AM]

"- 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?

[Boards of Canada @ Oct 19th 2008 5:33AM]

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.

[dzhiurgis @ Oct 19th 2008 5:36AM]

Additionally "there is no sex in Soviet Union" occured.

[Psionic @ Oct 20th 2008 6:53PM]

@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....

[Wwhat @ Oct 19th 2008 7:24AM]

And no unkind people in canada.

[Boards of Canada @ Oct 19th 2008 8:43AM]

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!

[Jason Collin @ Oct 19th 2008 10:16AM]

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.

[icepop4who @ Oct 19th 2008 12:57PM]

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.

[JWatson @ Oct 19th 2008 5:13AM]

I don't know what's more laughable; the likelihood that no one will wake you or the googly eyes

[giuliop @ Oct 19th 2008 5:34AM]

Damn. The eyes of Google. I should have known that.

[XenoX101 @ Oct 19th 2008 5:25AM]

Imagine trying to carry that thing, and wearing it, gah. This is definitely a worthy contender for the worst gadgets thing.

[gad get @ Oct 19th 2008 6:56AM]

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.

[Tiptup300 @ Oct 19th 2008 8:48PM]

I don't see why they don't just like have it strap around your arm and have it poke/zap you.

[Sukhminder @ Oct 19th 2008 5:28AM]

Just set an alarm on your phone for the estimated time of arrival.

[Dav @ Oct 19th 2008 5:43AM]

Dude! iPhone, GPS...
I smell a new useful app coming. ;-)

BTW, at the end it indeed said that nobody woke him.

[Mitch @ Oct 19th 2008 6:04AM]

Subway GPS.

Okay, Dav.

[tsurugi @ Oct 19th 2008 6:10AM]

GPS underground.. that'll work ;)

[Andrew @ Oct 19th 2008 9:48AM]

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.

[Ben @ Oct 19th 2008 11:14PM]

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 . . .

[Dav @ Oct 19th 2008 11:59PM]

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. ;-)

[eoy @ Oct 20th 2008 12:36AM]

Actually, it's already there. http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/2008/09/18/commuters-get-extra-sleep-with-inap/

[LondonConsultant @ Oct 19th 2008 5:28AM]

Geordi would be proud...

[Doug @ Oct 19th 2008 5:40AM]

I CONCOUR!

[giuliop @ Oct 19th 2008 5:46AM]

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?

[Rick @ Oct 19th 2008 6:33AM]

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

[[e-mail] @ Oct 19th 2008 6:18AM]

Paul Miller. Are you stupid or what? Please don't post this kind of junk. Thanks.

It's useless.

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Oct 19th 2008 10:35AM]

@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.

[ineedaname @ Oct 19th 2008 6:25AM]

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.

[Wwhat @ Oct 19th 2008 7:29AM]

Nobody would read that, this draws attention and is clearly readable.

[McFly @ Oct 20th 2008 12:07AM]

if i saw someone with a post-it note on his forehead i'd be sure read it...

[Mitch @ Oct 19th 2008 6:29AM]

aybe someone would have woken him up if his shirt didnt say "SEX" while sitting down.

[David @ Oct 19th 2008 6:36AM]

It says SFX...

[Chris Are @ Oct 19th 2008 8:30PM]

Dude I thought it said sex too!

[Imran @ Oct 19th 2008 7:16AM]

It's always funny to leave people sleeping past their stop.

[Wwhat @ Oct 19th 2008 7:28AM]

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..

[Azayzel @ Oct 19th 2008 8:43AM]

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.

[Wwhat @ Oct 19th 2008 5:49PM]

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.

[)law( @ Oct 19th 2008 7:31AM]

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(

[Wwhat @ Oct 19th 2008 5:52PM]

Yeah that's the thing most people carry in trains and subways, buckets of water and a wicked disposition.

[cy21 @ Oct 19th 2008 7:50AM]

why not just electrocute the guy when he reaches his stop?

[GON @ Oct 19th 2008 9:55AM]

Because doing so can defeat the purpose.

[Alex1200GS @ Oct 19th 2008 5:29PM]

No need to. He'll probably electrocute himself before his stop if he starts drooling.