Clocky

Robotic alarm clock designed by graduate student at MIT rolls away and hides

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - Before you hit the snooze button a second time on this alarm clock, you'll have to hunt it down.

The shag carpet-covered robotic alarm clock on wheels, called Clocky, rolls away and hides.
The clock is the invention of Gauri Nanda, a graduate student - and occasional oversleeper - who works in the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"I've been known to hit the snooze bar for a couple hours, wake up two hours later and be completely shocked," said Nanda, 25, who created Clocky for an industrial design course last year.

She made a prototype out of foam, a pair of wheels and a circuit board connected to small motors. "It is programmed to tell the motors to move randomly, to generate random speeds and directions so that the clock ends up in a new place every day," she said.
Nanda's adviser, Michael Bove, said hundreds of people interested in buying or selling the clocks have called and e-mailed.

But the gadget is not yet available for sale.

Nanda is thinking of starting her own business to manufacture and market the clock.
MIT owns the intellectual property rights to Clocky and other student inventions, but Bove said Nanda would receive a share of any revenue generated.
Nanda said she wanted Clocky to remind its owners of a troublesome pet.

"The idea really was to use technology in a more playful way," she said.
"It's sort of like a hide-seek game."