I've been a bit obsessive about sleep for a while now. And something I've always found difficult is accounting for the time it takes to fall asleep when setting alarms. I know there are some products/phone applications out there at the moment that monitor your movements to work out when you fall asleep. However, inspired by Salvador Dali's "Slumber with a key" method of napping, I want to take a (possibly) slightly simpler/more consistent approach.
Dali would sleep with a heavy key in his hand that he would position over a metal plate, when he fell asleep his hand would relax and the key would fall onto the plate making a loud noise to wake him up again.
I think that's quite an interesting technique, and I wanted to try it myself, however I've found that it's not easy to find something large and loud enough for it to work reliably. I like the concept though, and it got me thinking about other methods of achieving the same effect. My first thought is some kind of grip sensor, something you can hold in your hand as you fall asleep, that would broadcast two events over bluetooth "gripped" and "released".
I've never built anything like this before, however I do have some experience with the software side of things, so I'm wondering if anyone here has any thoughts after reading what I'm trying to do. And could point me in the directions of some resources I can use for getting started with the hardware.
You have a lot of options. For the gripper you could use a pressure sensor, flex sensor, or make your own with two pieces of metal in contact and something pulling them apart. Do a button tutorial first though like Terry said.
Or you could also use a $10 motion sensor.
For the waking up part, a buzzer, or flashing LED lights, or use a relay to turn a lamp on.
Thank you both very much! Sounds like I have some options, I'm going to look into microswitches and get myself a better idea of the different sensors available (seems like there are a lot) and that's good advice Terry, start simple!
They're talking about a toy EEG (never expected it available as toy b.t.w.).
As far as I know falling asleep isn't really an exact moment like dropping the key, but a gradual process.
If the EEG toy works you could build what you want, monitor yourself all night in all stages of sleep without... disturbing yourself.
As epileptic with small seizures in my sleep I'm very interested but still need to read a lot about the technical and medical side before using/interpreting a "toy".
Needing several electrodes to see what's happening where... the toy is probably too simple for me, but as a detection device for sleep it may work perfectly.