The Surfer's Dream Pillow

For most people, being abruptly shaken awake by a vibrating pillow at the crack of dawn is not an ideal start to the day. But for hardcore surfers, it might be a dream come true. As any dedicated wave rider knows, the best waves are usually found between 5 and 7 in the morning—a pretty gnarly wakeup call for the typical laid-back beach bum. Or, even worse, said beach bum might find upon arriving that the surf isn’t even good that day and resignedly head back to bed. Australian inventor Elmar Trefz hopes to take the pain out of this tiresome ritual with the Wave Pillow—a smart cushion that can help surfers catch those sweet a.m. waves with ease.

The Wave Pillow maintains a wireless connection with your computer throughout the night, communicating with special surf-monitoring software. After you pick your favorite surf spot, the software will monitor the conditions at that location and, at a designated time in the morning, send a signal to the pillow. If the waves are high, the pillow’s 240-volt motor will vibrate strongly, jolting you out of bed; if they're low, the vibrations are a little softer. The pillow can even communicate the frequency of the waves: long, regular intervals between vibrations mean good waves, while fast, irregular intervals signal fewer waves.

And mercifully, if the surf is too low, the pillow doesn’t activate at all--ensuring that dreams of perfect ground swells and radical curls continue uninterrupted. —Nicole Price Fasig

Link via CribCandy

Related:
Saving Surfing

Comments

[Elgar Elbert]

I hope this isn't being presented as something new.

Deaf people and others with hearing difficulties have used "shakers", that is small vibrators under their pillows to wake them up for over 50 years.

There are many types of specialized alarm clocks for both the hard of hearing and those with vision problems. Many of these use shakers and they can be bought from all houses that specialize in devices for those with hearing and sight difficulties.

[portable air beds]

Well I certainly haven't heard of this before. I wouldn't say many deaf use "shakers" as you called them. Most just use an alarm clock hooked up to a light next to their bed so that it flashes when the alarm clock goes off.

[Photo pillows]

I really liked the idea behind that pillow!