design for change proposal

original concept

an alarm clock which scans local radio traffic and weather announcements and adjusts the morning alarm accordingly, e.g. if there were hold-ups that would affect the owner, the alarm would sound an hour early


my original idea is conceptual, and assumes too much intelligence from the device, especially considering current technological capabilities. for a home electronics market, a device that worked as above would be too expensive. the following is a more pragmatic approach to realising the proposed device:

revised concept

a bedside device functioning primarily as an alarm clock, inheriting many attributes already associated with alarms: such as shape, size, interface, and large LCD/LED display. in addition, this device can communicate with a home network/computer and access information from the internet

the primary notion is still that it monitors weather and traffic conditions (in user determined localities) and adjusts an alarm accordingly; achieving this using RSS feeds downloaded to a home computer that are then transferred via bluetooth, RFID or WAN to the clock, which is pre-programmed to interpret XML code

e.g. the device would ship with computer software which when installed allows the device to subscribe to relevant bbc weather and traffic feeds, or feeds from the met office or local radio stations etc

additional proposed features:

• ability to download and play podcasts instead of an alarm or radio
• streaming radio from the internet, allowing almost any radio station to be played through the device
• and/or DAB radio capabilities
• ability to monitor temperature conditions
• device activation when a connected smoke alarm is set off, plus displaying which alarm is in question
• connection to a coffee pot enabling fresh coffee by the time a user wakes
• ability to download and display or play news and weather, perhaps on screen or projected onto a vertical surface
• connection to the World Clock enabling automatic synchronisation after power cuts and seasonal time changes
• link to a users electronic calendar announcing the day’s notes
• connection to in-car device for podcasts to be transferred for commuters
  

this device takes advantage of RSS feed technology, especially relating to the availability of the bbc’s weather and traffic information via feeds. potentially, other software such as itunes or limewire could also be linked