PRE2024 3 Group21

Group Members

Member	Student Number	Program
Stefan Baltac	1808877	Electrical Engineering
Octavian Astefanei	1836374	Electrical Engineering
Kerim Gjergjizi	1813420	Electrical Engineering

Problem statement and goals

Traditional alarm clocks work, as everyone, knows by making a sound at a certain time during the day and having them be turned off by some kind of button (or screen movement in the case of smartphones). However, in certain times, if for example the time at which one needs to wake up is not optimal, the probability of the alarm clock being successful drops. Due to sleep inertia one can either completely miss the alarm, subconsciously turn it off (due to muscle memory) etc. This kind of fear can also be spotted in behaviors such as the ones related to setting multiple sequential alarms, which is quite common especially in student populations [1].

The main goal is to design and prototype an alarm clock such that the risk of the aforementioned scenario is minimised by improving upon the preexisting knowledge base on this topic.

Planning

Task	Responsible	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7
Research	Stefan, Octavian, Kerim	X	X	X
Interviews	Stefan, Octavian, Kerim		X	X
Concept	Octavian, Kerim				X
Development	Stefan					X
Prototyping	Stefan, Octavian						X	X

Approach

• Research if first gathered about common interactions with the alarm clock that are currently in use (smartphones) and how users interact with various features (such as snoozing), common causes of sleep inertia, and what activities require a higher state of wakefulness which could be further leveraged.
• Interviews are conducted with the target group on points from the research or created hypothesis which should be expanded upon. The interviews shall be performed anonymously where an interviewer asks a set of predefined question and the transcript/recording of the conversation is stored/disposed of later in an appropriate way.
• A concept design of the prototype is created where the list of requirements and features is define.
• The development phase follows where a technical definition of an the example prototype is created.
• Lastly the prototype is assembled and tested to measure the validity of the conclusions.

State of the Art

CLOCKY - A robot alarm clock that makes you go after it to turn off.

TERMINIGHTOR - An app that makes the user scan an NFC chip (such as any access card) in order to turn of the alarm

QRALARM - An app that makes the user scan a QR code in order to turn off the alarm.

I CAN'T WAKE UP! - An app that makes the user solve some puzzles in order to turn off the alarm.

PHILIPS WAKE UP LIGHT- A combination of alarm clock and light that aims to create a more graceful way of waking the user up.

The first have movement as the action that has been extrapolated in order to make turning off the alarm more difficult. Considering that movement is a rather basic function of the human body and it doesn't necessitate being awake it could be argued that there could be a chance of those certain tasks being done subconsciously. The robot however does have the benefit of needing the user to go after it, but depending on how far the robot goes or if the pattern is predictable. And if it can go far that may also not be a good option if there are multiple people living in the house.

The last chooses capacity in random activities as the threshold for determining if the user is awake, while some of them aren't far from the previous criticism, such as the one requiring the user to shake the device, some rely more on the metal capacity of the user in the moment. While a good idea it is perhaps not such a good option to have the use solve 6 math equations to turn off the alarm, as it may end up being rather inconvenient. It is the same logic as the best way to wake up a person being to have a raid siren make noise for 10 minutes, but that would not be exactly a desirable solution.

Interview Questions and Answers

Questions about waking up:

1. Do you have trouble waking up in the morning?
2. Have you ever experienced turning off your alarm clock in the morning and going back to sleep?
3. If yes, have you ever closed an alarm in the morning and going back to sleep without remembering it?
4. Have you ever missed classes / were late for university / work because of this?
5. Have you tried using special apps that make you solve an exercise or take some steps for the alarm to turn off?
6. If yes how well did they work for you?
7. Do you have a good sleep schedule ?

Questions about the product:

1. Would you be interested in buying a smart alarm clock that would help you wake up in the morning?
2. How much would you be willing to pay for it?
3. If the device is not connected to the internet with what types of sensors would you be comfortable? (e.g. camera, distance sensors, microphone etc.)
4. Would you want it to track your sleeping quality and wake up times?
5. Would you be comfortable with the device adapting its behavior based on how you interact with it?

Temporary ref label

[1] - Regarding behavior of snoozing, defined as setting multiple sequential alarms

[2] - Effects of snoozing, possible extension of waking up period and result as a fear of oversleeping.

[3] - Relating to motor strength and state of weakness

[4] - Multi-modal environmental effects don't really stack

[5] - Sound wake up effectiveness

References

[1] Stephen M. Mattingly, Gonzalo Martinez, Jessica Young, Meghan K. Cain, Aaron Striegel, (2022), Snoozing: an examination of a common method

of waking, Sleep Research Society

[2] Keiko Ogawa, Emi Kaizuma‑Ueyama, Mitsuo Hayashi, (2022), Effects of using a snooze alarm on sleep

inertia after morning awakening, Journal of Physiological Anthropology

[3] PAUL R. JEANNERET, WILSE B. WEBB, (1963), Strength of grip on arousal from full night's sleep, Perceptual and Motor Skills

[4] Carolina Campanella, Kunjoon Byun, Araliya Senerat, Linhao Li, Rongpeng Zhang, Sara Aristizabal, Paige Porter, Brent Bauer, (2024), The Efficacy of a Multimodal Bedroom-Based ‘Smart’ Alarm System on Mitigating the Effects of Sleep Inertia, Clocks & Sleep.

[5] Dorothy Bruck, Ian Thomas, (2007), Waking effectiveness of alarm (auditory, visual and tactile) for adults who are hard of hearing