Ultimate Geek Accessories – Alarm Clocks

Following on from our popular feature concerning the Ultimate Geek Time Machines, which focused, on the whole, on wrist watches, we thought we’ll trawl the net and find some particularly noteworthy and, of course, geeky alarm clocks for you to peruse.

And, if, like me, you have enormous trouble getting out of bed each morning to welcome the new day (and are reliant on a simple smack in the mouth from the Mrs, which I find always does the trick) then one of these highly unique alarm clocks may well be the answer.

From clocks that take off and fly around your room to egg laying clocks and, if desperate measures are called for, even sonic alarm grenades of the five alarm devices featured here you’re sure to find something here that will not only get you out of bed, but will get you out of bed in style.

The aXBo Sleep Phase Alarm Clock

The aXBo Sleep Phase Alarm Clock is certainly one of the least intrusive alarm clocks featured in this post as it is designed to wake up gently from your sleep at the most opportune moment as defined by our own body’s rhythms.

Using a sensor fitted into a wristband that is worn by the user, the aXBo actively monitors the user’s natural sleep patterns via a unique wake-up algorithm from a point 30 minutes prior to the time the alarm has been set to operate. During this period it monitors your sleep pattern and then determines when is the best time to wake you with the least impact.

Interestingly for an alarm clock, the aXBo also offers a mode that will assist you in falling to sleep by playing one of three melodies and, as a result of the wristband sensor it will cease the melody once it has determined that you are sound asleep.

The aXBo Sleep Phase Alarm Clock costs from £199 (for the single user version – though a dual user version is available) and can be further researched or purchased directly from the official site linked here.

The Blowfly Alarm Clock

Designed by Ena Macana, and awarded the Bronze Price at the 2005 Taiwan International Design Completion, the Blowfly is, as far as I understand it, only a concept and is not presently in production – which is a shame as I think that this is one of the coolest ideas for an alarm clock I have ever come across.

The Blowfly has been designed to eliminate that routine many of us suffer from when our morning alarm sounds – and that is to repeatedly press the snooze button (and then get up late) or to turn off the alarm completely and then fall back to sleep (and then get up really late). That said, I don’t doubt that this rather ingenious alarm clock could, in the short to mid term, prove to be rather infuriating though it’ll certainly get you up.

If you have ever been in bed with a mosquito in the room you will know how it is almost impossible to sleep with that shrill buzzing in your ears. The Blowfly works in a similar fashion. When the allotted time of waking comes around the ball on top of the unit will activate and its mini rotor will see it propelled off its base and around the room, bouncing off walls and the ceiling as it makes a buzzing sound until it is caught and returned to its base station.

As Ena so rightly says on his site “the one who catches a blowfly or a mosquito flying is the only one who is really awake”.

You can view Ena’s site, featuring a number of his concepts, via this link. (Source).

The Puzzle Alarm Clock

Whilst, in my humble opinion, this alarm clock is no where near as cool as the Blowfly, this is still a fairly neat concept and it is also commercially available.

Like the Blowfly, this clock is sure to get you out of bed and to avoid those repeated depressions of a snooze button as, having reached the set alarm time, this clock will fire the jigsaw pieces featured on the top of the clock into the air and therefore across your room.

You mission, should you choose to accept it – and with an alarm piecing the room I really don’t think you’ll have any choice in the matter – is to spring out of bed to this rude awakening and find the dispersed pieces to the puzzle as the alarm will not cease until they have been located and placed back into the clock.

Certainly a unique idea, but I must confess that a couple of mornings waking up to this and I think that the clock itself would become a wholly more elaborate puzzle with the aid of a particularly firm impact from the nearest thing closest to me (which is the wife, and trust me, the clock wouldn’t stand a chance).

The Puzzle Alarm Clock costs $52 and can be purchased via this site.

The Sonic Grenade Alarm

Okay, so this isn’t an alarm clock but it is an alarm and it will certainly get you out of bed in an instant should it be thrown into your bedroom by someone who, frankly if they did it to me, would end up eating this device.

With a quick pull of the pin, this alarm can be tossed into some poor, unsuspecting sleeping persons room though I would wholly recommend that, as with a real grenade, one makes sure that one puts as much distance between oneself and the grenade once it has been thrown as the result is bound to be explosive.

Still, this is an interesting device and hence it being featured in this round up.

You can purchase this distinctly antisocial device via this site – priced at $17.98 / €14.79.

The KuKu Alarm Clock

I cannot think of anything worse that waking up to the sound of some sort of a demented chicken (waking up to a demented cat, as I do each morning, is enough as it is) but this is precisely what this clock offers.

And, as if that were not enough to get you out of bed then it has another little trick up its not so feathery sleeve.

For, as well as making its chirping noises, the KuKu Alarm clock will also lay little mini eggs – though lay is a polite term as it rather pops them out from the top so that they bounce from your bedside table and onto the floor where they need to found in order for the alarm to cease.

The KuKu will eject (a better word, I think, in this particular context) a total of five eggs in all, and every one of them has to be located which, if underneath our bed is anything like ours is bound to prove especially frustrating.

The KuKu costs $49.95 AUS and can be obtained from this site.

You may also find these posts of interest.

Ultimate Geek Accessories – Time Machines

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