The Wasabi Smoke Alarm – Honey, wake up! I think I smell sushi

I don’t know about you guys, but my whole family could sleep through a tornado. Every morning various alarms go off in our household and a half hour later, they are still ringing, and we are all still snoring. Usually, there is at least one light sleeper in a house to save the day, but not here.

I guess we still have hope for a safe nights sleep, a fire extinguisher company in Japan has developed a smoke alarm that instead of producing an ear-piercing siren, it spews forth a chemical called ally isothiocynate, which is the compound that provides the kick to horseradish, mustard, and wasabi.

In tests on actual sleeping people, the strong smell of wasabi woke up most of the subjects in less than 2 minutes without causing any damage or irritation to the eyes, nose or mouth. No word on whether or not they craved soy sauce, or a small plate of ginger.

The device has generated some interest, primarily as an alarm system for hearing impaired guests at hotels and is being marketed to establishments where noise or loud music could drown out the sound of a traditional alarm.

At $560.00 for an alarm that covers roughly 50 square feet, I might have to take my chances till the price comes down, till then I’m hoping the smell of my house burning will roust me out of bed.

Source: www.news.cnet.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Change your bike’s gears, with your mind

Image
Lately, I have been teaching my son to ride a bicycle, and it reminds me of my days of awkward bike riding. I remember that I had a hard time with changing the gears, but what if I could do it with my mind? Parlee Cycles is apparently working on a concept bicycle made of carbon fiber that does just that. It is part of Toyota Prius Projects, and it uses a helmet equipped with neurotransmitters to read a wearer’s brainwaves. A wireless transmitter attached to the bike’s seat post gets the signal, and changes the gear. As you might of guessed, this is still a concept. In fact, the developer hasn’t quite got the brain control working and still using a smartphone for the controls. I have heard of neuro-controls being used before, but I am guessing the technology isn’t quite as good as Bluetooth. Still, I am wondering if putting a brain control on a bike’s gears is putting too much technology where it doesn’t belong. If we are going to electronically make a way for a
Read more

Wi-Fi Connected Power Strip

Image
If you are like me, you have “that desk” in your house that is sort of the hub for digital information. On the desk is a laptop or desktop computer, and all kinds of accessories. Chances are, all of these devices are plugged in to a power strip, and they are a source of great power consumption on your monthly electric bill. This power strip by Japan-based Ubiquitous is the iRemoTap, and it has a built-in Wi-Fi module. The purpose of the Wi-Fi is so it can send information to connected devices in the household. The iRemoTap can automatically send out some sort of message like an email or tweet so you know how much energy that you are consuming. In fact, you can program this thing for a preset level, so you can make energy goals and hopefully keep them. I guess you will have to know what levels your devices have, of course. I don’t really know that off the top of my head. So is this the wave of the future? All of us knowing how much power we consume and making
Read more

iMM514 ArtStation Pro

Image
I’ve seen some products from iLuv before, and the iMM514 ArtStation Pro is good for turning an iPad into a home theater. As you can see, the iPad is mounted in an articulated swiveling arm so you can position it at whatever angle you want, in landscape or portrait mode. In case you are wondering why there is such a big base, it is because it has a huge stereo speaker. In other words, this base has bass. There is also a wireless remote for volume and skipping tracks, and it looks like there are some controls on the base for when you lose the remote. As I mentioned before, iLuv has put out a lot of Apple accessories, and I will have to admit that this is one of the most unusual that I have seen. In fact, I am not even sure what kind of aesthetic that this is. The arm thing reminds me of Technic Lego pieces. I suppose the case is like a big Lego brick without and studs on it. Nice. By the way, this isn’t just for the iPad. The iMM514 ArtStation Pro is compatible
Read more