Who would have thought that 3D printing would
provide the solution to the number one problem
that haunts every Christmas? Who doesn't
recognize this situation: falling asleep in front of
the TV with a stomach full of mince pies, turkey
and wine just as the football or a good movie is
on.
But this year might be the last time that happens,
as two British teenagers have just finished work on
a 3D printed solution: a wristband that senses
when its wearer falls asleep. When that inevitably
occurs at Christmas (or whenever it happens
throughout the rest of the year) their KipstR
wristband then mimics a TiVo remote by pausing
and recording whatever is currently being watched.
Your less inebriated family members can then
change the channel without interfering with the
recording, while you can automatically resume
watching once you wake up again.
The two boys, the fifteen-year-old Ryan Oliver and
fourteen-year-old Jonathan Kingsley are both
students at industry specialists Manchester
Creative Studio, and were commissioned by Virgin
Media to develop the KipstR wristband. The device
therefore works alongside the Virgin Media's TiVo
service, which can also be used to pause and
resume live TV. The wristband (which hasn't been
released yet) will therefore only be available for
Virgin Media-users in Britain and will be trialled
this Christmas by a select number of customers.
Hopefully it will be available next Christmas.
So how does it work? Well, the current prototype
KipstR features a pulse-oximeter, a non-invasive
device capable of measuring when someone dozes
off. For when people fall asleep, the blood flow
(and the amount of oxygen that circulates through
it), slightly changes, and the oximeter (which is
essentially a sensor for your pulse) picks up on
that alteration. Theoretically, it future iterations
could also be capable of picking up on emotional
reactions from viewers, which also affects blood
flow.
Its thus a very intriguing little device, all the more
so because of the young age of its developers.
Both guys had been dabbling with software and
engineering since their early childhoods, and
jumped at the chance to work with Virgin Media on
this project. Neil Illingworth, the head of Advanced
Technology and Innovation at Virgin Media told
reporters they had been looking for promising
young people who could be inspired to pursue an
engineering career. 'We discovered a couple of
long lads called Ryan and Jonathan, who are
fourteen and fifteen and fantastic innovators.'
And the schoolboys from Manchester were very
pleased to work with them. 'For us, when we sort
of got the e-mail saying 'we want you two
specifically to work on this project with us, we had
a sense of disbelief. Why pick us out of the
thousands of other people you could have gotten
involved in the project? But we were to put our
skills on the table and start to work with Virgin. […]
It was a brilliant challenge for us but we've learnt
so much and are really pleased with the end result.
[…] It's given us a taster for what we would like to
do when we leave school and we're excited to see
what the next project will bring.'
As Jonathan told reporters, the whole project was
an exciting challenge. 'Once we got the initial
information on how Virgin Media wanted the KipstR
product to be created, we looked into different
ways to detect when someone was going to sleep.
From there we built a basic circuit using a pulse
oximeter that allowed them to communicate with
the virgin media TiVo box to allow it to pause and
play recording. […]I don't think this is anything
someone has ever done before. I reckon this could
change the way people use and view television.'
In a nutshell, the boys developed a set-up
featuring a spark core chip, pulse-oximeter, sleep
mode indicator and a small LiPo battery to power
it all. The chip functions as the motherboard of the
whole setup, and processes all the data the
sensors gather. All of this has then been encased
in a housing made from Polyjet resin, printed on
an Objet Connex 3D printer. This will obviously be
far more durable than many PLA or ABS bands.
The Virgin team are reportedly very pleased with
the results. Illingworth went on to state that 'Neil
Illingworth, head of advanced technology and
innovation at Virgin Media, said: "We have been
exploring the possibilities of connected
entertainment for some time and are very excited
to unveil KipstR. With emerging new technologies,
it is possible to create almost anything, such as
emotionally intelligent entertainment systems that
can suggest shows based on your moods, or even
harnessing brainwaves to control your television.'
Now if only we could get our hands on an open-
source version that can be made on our own
desktop printers. That would be a great Christmas
present…






sauce:
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20141218-3d-printed-wristband-that-pauses-and-records-live-tv-when-you-fall-asleep.html

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