Boffins have designed a super-bed that includes a full home entertainment
centre, sleep diagnostic system and temperature control.
The
Starry
Night bed was developed by designers at
Leggett
& Platt after conducting a poll to find out what we get up to in bed.
"Consumers told us that they use their beds for much more than sleep," said
Mark Quinn, group executive vice president of sales and marketing for the
bedding division at Leggett & Platt.
"The bed is a place for reading, watching movies, spending time with the
kids, listening to music and even folding laundry.
"There are cars that park themselves and devices programmed to refrigerate
and cook our food. But the bed has generally been a passive, inanimate object."
The bed uses vibration sensor and load cell technologies to measure the
degree to which a sleeper tosses and turns, and how often they get out of bed
during the night, and monitors the breathing patterns that indicate relaxation.
These movements are compared to a 30-day baseline measure of the sleeper, and
provide tips to improve sleep quality.
The bed also detects snoring with a vibration-detection system and
automatically articulates the sleeper's position by seven degrees to open the
nasal passages.
Leggett & Platt claims that this helps to alleviate mild to moderate
snoring. Once the snoring subsides, the bed returns to its original position.
Liquid-based Peltier technology allows the mattress to pre-heat or pre-cool
both sides of the bed independently from 20 to 47 degrees Celsius.
For those who enjoy listening to music or watching movies in bed, the bed
boasts a full surround-sound system with retractable speakers and a 1080p LCD
headboard projector to project a 120in image on the opposite wall.
The inbuilt computer boasts 1.5TB of solid state storage, 4GB of Ram, Wi-Fi
and a wireless keyboard. The entire system can be controlled through a
touch-screen or wireless remote via
Microsoft's
Media Centre.
"It is time that our bed becomes our sleep counsellor. When we improve our
sleep, we can improve our quality of life," said Quinn.
The Starry Night bed is expected to be available in the first half of 2009
and will cost between $20,000 and $50,000, depending on features.
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