technabob » ireland http://technabob.com/blog gadgets, gizmos, games, cool gadgets for geeks Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:39:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 led pillow clock wakes with light, not sound http://technabob.com/blog/2008/04/23/led-pillow-clock-wakes-with-light-not-sound/ http://technabob.com/blog/2008/04/23/led-pillow-clock-wakes-with-light-not-sound/#comments Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:30:29 +0000 technabob http://technabob.com/blog/?p=2101 Who among us really likes being awakened from a deep slumber by a jarring alarm buzzer? Sure, you could get yourself a clock radio or MP3 alarm clock and play some Enya or Kenny G to ease into the day, but who really wants to listen to that? This concept for a visual alarm clock could very well revolutionize the way we wake up.

LED Alarm Pillow by embryo

This simple, yet brilliant pillow alarm clock is designed to gently wake you by exposing your eyes to a glowing cloud of illumination, gradually increasing in brightness over a 40 minute period. Created by Ian Walton of embryo, in collaboration with Eoin McNally, the glo Pillow uses a cutting-edge LED fabric substrate below the pillow’s surface to work its magic.

Glo Pillow Alarm Clock by embryo

Once you’ve been roused from your sleep, just lift your head, and the pillow displays the current time using an easy-to-read dot-matrix display that lives beneath the pillow case. The design also incorporates convenient controls built into a soft flap on the side of the pillow.

Glo Pillow LED Alarm by embryo

At this point, the glo Pillow is only a concept design, but I’m hoping that embryo eventually manages to gear up production for these.

[via IDasia]

]]> http://technabob.com/blog/2008/04/23/led-pillow-clock-wakes-with-light-not-sound/feed/ 9 everyday objects get flattened http://technabob.com/blog/2007/10/12/everyday-objects-get-flattened/ http://technabob.com/blog/2007/10/12/everyday-objects-get-flattened/#comments Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:26:12 +0000 technabob http://technabob.com/blog/2007/10/12/everyday-objects-get-flattened/ Irish Artist Finn Magee created this series of works which take common electrical household items and turn them into 2-dimensional posters. The innovative part of his Flat Life series is that the objects remain fully functional in their flat states.

Finn Magee’s Flat Life

While they may just be flat posters, the pieces still plug into a wall socket. The images are then illuminated by embedded LEDs. For example, the desk lamp has a single LED to substitute for the light bulb. In the case of the alarm clock, he’s actually installed a 7-segment LED clock into the image.

Very cool stuff. I’m pretty sure these are one-of-a-kind works, but would love to see Magee produce these for the masses. I’d certainly hang a few in my house.

[via Torc.]

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