If we get to really high volumes, we can probably reduce the price. Remember, we're just a small operation working on a launch. Tooling for injection molded parts is pretty expensive. If we ever get up to many thousands of pieces, we may be able to get the cost down to that of any charging dock...which again is where most of our costs lie. The motion sensor and lens are very advanced, but they are pretty cheap due to their very widespread use in other products.
Yes, and for the people that don't seem to mind that approach, please go ahead and try it out. Personally, I can't imagine setting up the phone on my bed every night or under my pillow. We really think our charging dock with included motion sensor that is non-intrusive and requires no nightly setup is a far superior solution.
Yes, the SleepCycle App does use motion too. In fact, I had that idea before they did, but I didn't want to require the user to put the phone on the bed. That seemed really kludgy to me, so that's why I continued on my original path of embedding the motion sensor in the charging dock. I guess I missed out on like a million dollars from that decision, but you never know, maybe we'll beat that figure with this much more sensible device :).
Thanks again for the comments. I guess the other major selling point is that it's a charging dock. My girlfriend loses and breaks the charging cables so often that I almost wanted to switch phones so she couldn't use my charger any more. With this, I have at least one dedicated charger and charging location that she won't take away in a hurry when she's late for work and can't find hers.
Putting the phone on the bed is kludgy, I agree. It's also superbly cheap, though. Anyway, thanks for the explanation. I was just wondering if there might be other advantages to this approach I might have missed. I can certainly see a niche for this version and I hope you find success.
Thanks. We've found the best placement to be towards your face and head. When you turn your head, it detects that really well. So, as long as your pet doesn't sleep on your face or pillow, we think you should be able to set it up so it sees you only. You can adjust sensitivity of the motion sensor too, if needed.
One of my cats tends to sleep on the top of the bed, and picks the side in an apparently random way. This means it would block the sensor on something close to 50% of nights.
Cool product though, and this is a pretty specific issue (e.g. the other cat prefers sleeping in the legs, or under the bedsheets).
Thanks. Very interesting feedback, that's something I didn't think of. You know, a cat's body temperature runs a couple of degrees hotter than humans. I don't think our sensor is quite that narrow in its tuning range to discriminate between humans and pets, but maybe we could do that on a future version or slightly more advanced technology. Just a thought, I'm not guaranteeing that we will do it, or that it's even possible without extremely expensive thermal sensors. Hopefully, the issue you described is not common enough to be a problem for most people.
Technically easy, yes. But Global Bluetooth certification is prohibitively expensive. We chose to make it an iPhone accessory, because we think it makes a lot of sense to have a nightstand charging dock (which is where most of the cost comes from) and this wake-up feature in one device.
Thanks. Those are the kinds of features we expect to put in our App too. I have even bigger plans for the App in fact, but I don't want to give away all my secrets here, because some of them can be copied. But, I'll just say that it's going to be incredible, amazing, and world-changing! If we make our funding goal and get these things out there in large quantities, and add all the features to the App that we're thinking of, people are never going to go back to traditional alarm clocks again. In fact, we don't even thing they'll be called "alarm clocks" for much longer.
I don't think we can add the hammer or the electric-shock, but we can certainly add a virtual metal-plate in front of the snooze button, and we can even make it so you have to answer a question or type in a code to release it. We can try to do whatever our user community comes up with, it's all software, so we can add lots of cool features as time progresses.
One cool thing we can add to the app is all the features you just described about multiple alarms and snooze options or screen-lock codes or whatever. We can have a mode where it starts off kind of quiet and gets louder, or maybe you want a really nice song to start off with, but then you can have it play more and more annoying songs if you keep hitting snooze. We hope you wouldn't have to keep hitting snooze though, because the iDreamSaver is going to wake you up at the right time to begin with!
Interesting app! It seems like a lot to remember to put your phone under the covers and make sure it doesn't fall off in the middle of the night (at least for me). Additionally, I've always loved having the phone in the dock next to my bed, since it doubles as a clock for me in the middle of the night.
Do you know if the Sleepcycle app is able to differentiate between your movements and someone else's? It seems like this wouldn't be possible?
This is obviously a totally different price point, but it seems like bringing a hardware-based solution here does offer some real and very tangible benefits.
The stand-alone app seems pretty popular, but we really don't like the idea of putting the phone under your pillow or on the corner of your bed every night. The charging cords are never long enough, you may not hear your alarm, and the system may not pick up your movement properly. The iDreamSaver solves all of these problems, and it also provides you with an extra charger and a dock, so you have a place to put your phone every night before bed and you don't have to worry about charging any more.
I downloaded this app and used it for awhile. Although the concept is amazing the execution fell short. I noticed that it frequently woke me up at the wrong time of the sleep cycle. I'm sure that sleeping with my spouse also threw off the sensor since 2 people were moving in the bed. Maybe it's just me, but I believe that a option like this would "catch" the motion much better. Hope this idea makes it to funding.
That's immediately what I thought too. Being able to keep my phone on a dock instead of on my bed and getting the same functionality sounds nice. Having it not pick up my girlfriends' movement is pretty appealing too. For me personally, the price is a bit out of line, but I might just not be in your target demographic.
That said, cool product, best of luck, and I hope you guys get funding!
The IR sensor module should really be a standalone unit (as small and as discreet as possible and running off a battery) and it should hook up to the phone via Bluetooth. I don't have a nightstand and even if I did your dock/sensor base wouldn't fit in. That I would buy in a heartbeat.
(edit) Looking at your stand design - there's something distinctly un-Apple about it. Apple products have rounded feel to them, but they are squarish in their lines whereby your design is not. Try and imagine this [1] being featured on apple.com - you probably won't be able to, because it is off.
We just got the same comment on the Kickstarter page. Here's my response: Thanks for your comment. Yeah we thought of that too, and thought that it might be necessary to solve the problem of how it detects you and not your partner. But, through testing we found that the partner problem is easily solved by almost any nightstand placement. Also, regarding having an extra module, that adds a lot of complexity to the design and adds cost. Plus, I wouldn't want to have to check to make sure the remote module is charged and make sure it "pairs" with the iPhone each night before bed. Also, we really wanted a nightstand charging dock anyway. That way, your phone has a dedicated place to go home to every night and get charged. We are hoping that people will like it enough just for being a charging dock, and the IR sensor with the smart wake-up is an extra feature that we can expand upon in a number of ways. Well anyway, those were our reasons for doing it this way. But we do appreciate your feedback, because we are always trying to think of ways to make it better.
Also, regarding the aesthetics, maybe we can round the corners a bit more on the final design. Do you think that would be enough, or are you suggesting an entirely different shape? We probably don't want to change the whole shape, since our Kickstarter backers are going to want to receive what they saw when they placed their order, but we could probably make a few tweaks here and there. We haven't bought the molds yet. If the "look" of the product ends up being a big concern for everyone (or for Apple), we can easily release multiple styles once we get our funding and get into Production. Thanks again, this is something we didn't expect to hear.
I would say so. Right now it looks like a collection of odd angles. Everything's angled. Also the stand is visually split into the front part and the back part, and it feels like they can be snapped apart like a chocolate bar. I would consider something like [1], whereby the outer shape is perfectly boxy, and there is angled recess for the phone. This is not unlike the original stand, but it's a very natural design choice if one goes for a simple look.
Another options is something like [2], which is also very simple and clean looking and yet has enough interior space to house your stuff. Proportions might be off, but you get the idea.
It does -- this was very important to us as well. By adjusting the location of the dock on your nightstand, you can position the sensor so it will only see your body movements. In addition, the App provides a setup screen, which allows you to look at the raw sensor values so you can do your own testing and adjust the sensitivity if needed.
