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Wearables

Earpiece alarm keeps you from dozing off

By Rick Martin
April 13, 2010
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For those who would rather not use coffee to stay awake, Takanoha & Co. has developed an ingeniously clever earpiece alarm. Its latest model, the Nap Vieeb Plus II, is designed to sense when you fall asleep and then trigger an alarm that wakes you up again.

How does the device know when you're falling asleep? It measures the angle at which your head is positioned, and once it drops below a specified angle (which can be preset using a dial on the earpiece) it delivers either an audible alarm or a vibration to wake you up. It weighs in at only 15 grams, and is attached to the ear with a special silicon rubber loop.

Clearly the Nap Vieeb Plus II would be a great gadget for a wide range of users. I know I certainly could have used this in college having fell asleep on my keyboard more than a few times the night before a big paper was due. Having this kind of earpiece would have definitely helped.

According to The Nikkei Marketing Journal, the company's president Kozo Samizo created the Nap Vieeb Plus II having himself dozed off at the wheel resulting in an accident.

You can purchase the Nap Vieeb from the company's website for 2500 yen (about $27), but unfortunately it's in Japanese only. There is however some English contact information on its web store page that might be of use for inquiries.

Nap Vieeb via Nikkei.com

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WearablesSleepAlarmJapanEarpiece
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Rick Martin
7 comments
Leanne Franson
Does it go off if you look down? I would hope it picks up the sort of \"nodding\" motion of falling asleep and not just head angle, or it is going to be super annoying to have an alarm going off when you pick up your pencil on the floor. Great idea though!
Brent
I found something similar a few years back in a $2 store (it cost $3). The packet said it was good for studying, working, night and drunk driving.
matthew.rings
How come I\'m dreaming about an annoying beeping sound...? How come it won\'t stop...??

Is this Heaven?
matthk
I have one of those $2 versions! ($2 shop on Sydney Road, Brunswick)
I bought it for the crap packaging and the law-busting tag-line of: \"It\'s new! It\'s different!\" \"CURE SLEEPINESS RIGHT AWAY\" \"Especially suitable for long-distance drive, DRUNK DRIVING and night driving\"
Mike Hallett
I have a similar device sitting on my desk in front of me. It is well over twenty years old and called a Drive alert \"Sleeper Bleeper\". It works on exactly the principle described above, so it is not either \"new\" or \"different\". In fact it has a US patent on it: No. 4 354 119.
What goes around comes around... I guess. Let\'s hope Kozo Samizo has more luck with it than the previous inventor. May be it\'s time has come... at last.
nehopsa
A new implementation, not a new principle. I read about st like this some 20 years ago (at that time they used mercury level inside to switch contacts for a buzz). Obviously something of this sort is on the market already.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh
It works on the principle of angle of head. But some people while argueing turn their head sideways as well as up and down. Does it give alarm then also?
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
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