The same folks who brought you the Pleo robot dinosaur have decided to put their expertise with automatons into designing a pillow that provides a good night’s sleep, no matter what position your body ends up in.
While you can buy pillows that cater to people who either sleep on their side or their back, Innvo Labs’ new prototype works for both thanks to a set of inflatable air chambers on the inside. Sleepers toss and turn on a pressure-sensitive thin mat placed under their shoulders, and as they change position in the middle of the night the intelliPillow automatically adjusts to cradle their head in the most comfortable way.
The continual inflating and deflating of the air chambers is done slowly so as not to jar the sleeper awake, while the 37dB pump — which sits a couple of feet away from the bed — is quiet enough to not disturb even the lightest of dozers. Unfortunately, the intelliPillow won’t be available until 2013 at the earliest, and will cost around $US250-$US300. It’s hard to put a price tag on a good night’s sleep, but I’m pretty sure it’s a little cheaper than that. [Popular Science]
Photo: Popsci/Susannah F. Locke.