RSSThis "Noriko-San" sleep mask was developed for "drowsy train commuters" afraid of sleeping past their stop and consists of a scrolling LED display that communicates the wearer's destination to other passengers in the train. Of course, this relies on other people actually caring enough to wake you up in time, which its developer, Pyocotan, found not to be the case when other passengers felt more uncomfortable with the mask than helpful. Not to be outdone, he believes that if the mask is widespread enough, that it may eventually gain more acceptance from people. The cost of the mask was around $200 USD to develop so it would probably have to come down in price as well.
via Pink Tentacle
This is a wonderful idea. However there could be better/cheaper methods to make sure you wake up before your destination stop. Also, these proposed methods dont need caring fellow passengers and for that matter dont need anyone in the vicinity.
1. Japanese trains for known for their punctuality. Use your cell phone alarm function to wake you up.
2. If your cellphone has a GPS, you could, in principle, write an application that generates an alarm when the coordinates of the destination station are reached.
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Is it just me or is sleeping while on a train just asking to be robbed or worse. Just a bad idea in general. If you feel sleepy on the train drink a coffe or red bull before hand and wait to sleep until you get home.
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I thought I read a post somewhere of someone writing an application to do exactly that:
"2. If your cellphone has a GPS, you could, in principle, write an application that generates an alarm when the coordinates of the destination station are reached."
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Fortunately, I think that English and other lingual characters are simpler to illustrate on scrolling LEDs than Japanese. Also, I think that voice recognition software for a laptop would be a better solution for a destination arrival alert. Plus, I agree with the other comments.
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Two thoughts:
1. Why the heck do you need electricity to accomplish this? I love techno-geeky devices, but come on - just have the names of your work and home subway stops embroidered on a couple of patches with luminescent thread, and stick them to a velcro pad on the front of a hat. You'll get the same result at a tiny fraction of the cost, and consume no batteries.
2. The comment about getting mugged is spot-on. Even if you can't resist dozing off while riding, don't compound the danger by covering your eyes.
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@Angie
Being mugged or robbed on Japanese trains is unheard of, as far as I know. A friend left an umbrella on a station and came back in the evening to find it exactly at the same spot. But yes, in genaral, good chance that your nice looking display will get stolen while you sleep..
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Yeah, GPS is a nice idea. In a subway *tunnel*.
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I've been on a lot of trains in Japan, and I've never felt safer. I'm sure there is the odd case of a train mugging, but it's rare enough over there that I'd be more concerned about getting run over by the train than having some problem aboard the train.
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The cost of the mask was around $200 USD to develop so it would probably have to come down in price as well.
10 8x8 led matrix are arround $10 USD in ebay, pic16f628a is $2, 74hc164 are $0.40. I can't see where that price comes from. Making your own will cost 20USD.
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try and pull this thing out on a Boston subway.. Good Idea
...Win...
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