Sleep trackers already come in all shapes and forms -- whether they're apps on your phone or sensors strapped to your wrist. But if you really want to know more about your sleep -- not just the length of time you've been slumbering for -- a new device called Sense claims to provide the solution.
Sense is a whole sleep system that consists of a glowing orb that perches on your bedside table and a "Sleep Pill" sensor packed with a six-axis accelerometer and gyroscope that discreetly clips to your pillow. The final piece of the puzzle is an app that you download to your smartphone.
While the sensor picks up the same kind of information as a wearable fitness tracker might -- the length and depth of your sleep -- and relay that back to your phone, the orb will simultaneously take in information about the environment around you so that you are provided with more intelligent information about why you have or haven't had a good night's sleep. The orb is able to absorb information like noise, temperature, light, humidity and particles in the air. As the data accumulates night after night, you will learn more about your sleep patterns and how the environment you're sleeping in affects them.
The idea is that the system will allow people to use technology to measure sleep without it actually being something intrusive that we have to actively take to bed with us. Each morning you will receive a score for the previous night's sleep. The score doesn't just reflect how well you slept, but how ideal your sleep environment was that night. If a car alarms goes off in the night, for example, you score might take a hit.
You will also be able to play back recordings of any noises that affected your sleep so that you can see exactly what it was that disturbed you. If you sleep with a partner, you can clip a second sensor to their pillow and find out if their movement or snoring is disturbing you during the night.
Sense contains a speaker, meaning that it can play white noise or rain sounds if you find that helps you get to sleep better. The built-in smart alarm will also supposedly wake you at the perfect point in your sleep cycle. If the Sense Pill detects that you are stirring shortly before your alarm goes off, it will wake you then, rather than waiting, as you could well slip back into a deep sleep.
We're keen to see exactly how this works compared to similar features on wearables we've tested, which usually just wake you half an hour before the time your alarm is set for.
Sense is built by Hello, a San Francisco-based company headed up by 22-year-old James Proud from London. Proud is a coder and has been based in California since he was 19, when he received funding from former CEO of PayPal to work in the US.
Proud started working on Sense because he believes that too many people neglect sleep, and that "we can do better". "We spend a third of our lives asleep, it's the foundation of each day and everything depends on it. Everyone that is looking at sleep from a technology point of view is going about it from the wrong way in our minds. You shouldn't be having to wear things, press buttons or, in general, do anything that seems like it's technology. Sense is designed to fade away and not look like a typical piece of technology."
Sense is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, but with 29 days to go it has already reached $90,889 of its $100,000 target [ at the time of writing]. To get your own Sense you will have to pledge $99 (£58), which is $29 less than the official pre-order price. The product will ship in November 2014.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
