Ironically, Lee Loree loses sleep over his invention, the Sleeptracker. Loree, 35, gave up a career as a stockbroker in Atlanta about eight years ago to work on the device — a wristwatch and software system designed to record a person’s sleep pattern.
The idea came from someone else’s dream. Loree remembers staying up late one night with a penlight reading an analyst’s report for his job when his wife started a lucid, friendly chat. When Loree later woke her just a few minutes later, her tone had changed.
“The other time I woke her up, she was miserable,” Loree said. “It just flashed in my brain that if I can figure out a way to get people up when they naturally want to get up, getting up in the morning can be much easier.
“That has got magic written all over it,” said Loree, whose one-man company is called Innovative Sleep Solutions.
Loree set off to create a device that would wake you when you’re least cranky. He had no experience designing software, so he contracted with developers to build the software, as well as industrial designers to help create his idea in a watch.
For the latest version of the watch, Loree said he wanted to work in a vibrating motor in order to help people wake up. But the motors used far too much power. Putting a rechargeable battery in the Sleeptracker was nearly out of the question, since it would have jacked the cost of the device from $179 to around $400, he said.
Image via Gearlog
etavitom on April 28th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Thanks a very cool idea. I love hearing about innovation that will benefit our lives….
Thomas on April 28th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I don’t know if that is such a good idea. It seems we are growing too dependent on mechanical devices.
Pretty soon we will have a cradle to rock adults to sleep :-)
Melanie D. on April 29th, 2008 at 9:05 am
“Loree set off to create a device that would wake you when you’re least cranky.”
So you mean this watch can detect brain wave activities that would determine different sleep stages? Hmmm. Intriguing. But i’m still not convinced of its accuracy.