What is great about this product? If used properly, once you turn it off you have no excuse not to start your day. (brush your teeth or hop in the shower) Very cool.
What sucks about it? I don't have any desire to buy it. I just don't need another alarm clock yelling at me in the morning. Plus it will only be a matter of time before I learn how to ignore it, like I have done with every alarm clock before it.
What is my pain that I would like a new alarm clock to solve? I want an alarm clock that wakes me up in a natural way. I want it to pull me out of my REM cycles gradually so I am ready to get out of bed, not jarred out of bed.
If you told me that you had done research on REM cycles and that it takes x amount of time to move from one level of sleep to the next. And that your product plays music softly, then increases in volume in natural increments for the human mind. If this was the problem you were solving, accompanied with the wireless kill switch, then I would be very excited about this product and would consider shelling out my hard earned money for it.
I would even be okay if you couldn't solve this problem, so long as I knew that this is the problem that your alarm clock will eventually solve. I would expect the alarm clock's software to be updatable, so as you get closer and closer to perfecting waking up, my $135 alarm clock will get better at it as well.
I hope this feed back is useful to you. Good luck to you. It looks cool, and it is a neat idea.
Thanks for the feedback! I thought about this, and I wanted to do it.
A really effective way to measure REMs cycles is to have an accelerometer on your bed, just how the Sleep Cycle Iphone app does it. I designed a system that would involve having a small wired puck that you put on your bed, under your pillow, that links to the Ramos. The coding and interfacing with the micro-controller is straight-forward, and it would work.
The issue I had with it is that it was extra "baggage" i'm adding to the clock. I felt like to implement the puck system, it would take away from the simple straight forward, 0 installation solution that I really wanted to achieve. That wire really just like, irked me. And to make it wireless means another radio which leads to more cost to the user. And with a wireless puck you need to power it, which is again more cost to the user. I actually also made this earlier alarm clock that used a heat sensor to detect if you're still in bed. Hehe it didn't work real well though. https://s3.amazonaws.com/ramos_alarm/Paulsammut_BHS_alarm.pd...
But still, i agree, it would be really really cool if it had that feature, but it got to the point where I started trying to add all these little things, and the whole Ramos idea started shifting. I didn't like it. And the remote panel really does the job at getting you out of bed and away from it, which is key.
PS. from what I've noticed from using Ramos for a year, is that I've developed a fear to it. Like, deep down in my head i know i'm gonna have to wake up, and I usually will naturally wake up with the alarm time.
Wow, I can't believe you put sensors in the bed, that is awesome. You are completely correct though, an alarm clock should be next to the bed not in it.
But you don't need to know what cycle your customer is in to implement a gradual wake up process. You can just assume they are in the deepest sleep, start incrementing, and eventually the alarm clock will be in sync with their current state of sleep.
Agree with all of this. On top of it, passed the it not really increasing the quality of my waking up..Just increasing the chances I will. Even if it solved a problem that I really needed to solve, which it really doesn't. The price is wayyy too high, just in a whole other league. I could never justify over $100 on just an alarm clock. It doesn't have awesome speakers, or an ipod dock etc. I could buy a dozen alarm clocks for this price, and literally just put them everywhere.
i know, and it really sucks that I can't make it cheaper. Its literally me and a couple of friends starting a whole manufacturing process. I can't afford to invest 2-3 million on a large production run to get the per/part costs down to regular alarm clock levels. Along with that I have the wireles radio modules to contend with.
But, I put alllloottt of effort in the wood housing and the alarm functionality that I really feel sets this apart from just a regular alarm clock.
Thanks for your input; the fact that you've taken the time just to talk about it makes me grateful
What sucks about it? I don't have any desire to buy it. I just don't need another alarm clock yelling at me in the morning. Plus it will only be a matter of time before I learn how to ignore it, like I have done with every alarm clock before it.
What is my pain that I would like a new alarm clock to solve? I want an alarm clock that wakes me up in a natural way. I want it to pull me out of my REM cycles gradually so I am ready to get out of bed, not jarred out of bed.
If you told me that you had done research on REM cycles and that it takes x amount of time to move from one level of sleep to the next. And that your product plays music softly, then increases in volume in natural increments for the human mind. If this was the problem you were solving, accompanied with the wireless kill switch, then I would be very excited about this product and would consider shelling out my hard earned money for it.
I would even be okay if you couldn't solve this problem, so long as I knew that this is the problem that your alarm clock will eventually solve. I would expect the alarm clock's software to be updatable, so as you get closer and closer to perfecting waking up, my $135 alarm clock will get better at it as well.
I hope this feed back is useful to you. Good luck to you. It looks cool, and it is a neat idea.