Do Math To Turn Off Your Alarm Clock


[nickjohnson] sent in what might just be the most incredibly evil alarm clock ever. It’s a fairly simple pic project with a PIC, LCD and input buttons. When the alarm goes off, you have to solve math problems before it will shut off. If you answer correctly, you make it stop. In my case, I’d probably add a mute button that can be held down while you do the math. Source, schematics and pcb layout are provided.

35 thoughts on “Do Math To Turn Off Your Alarm Clock

  1. Sweet. I might do one…

    I’d make that mute button timed, so that you have to solve it within 10 seconds or so and if you don’t, it un-mutes permanently (or gives you a second chance and then un-mutes permanently)

  2. Another idea I have is to make it binary, for the true geek/l33t h4xx0r, it would be a combination of binary display and lcd, so that you have to make the indicated operation with the binary numbers and get it right or suffer the consequences

  3. Most of the time, I wake up in such a sleepy haze, that I think the mysterious sliding switch on my alarm clock actually has to be reprogrammed to shut it off. I guess that’s how I justify to myself that I sleep through it all the time and let it buzz for ages.

    I love the idea of this clock, but my wife would either shoot me or the clock… Since I sleep between her and the clock, my odds aren’t good.

  4. I used to accomplish the same thing by putting my alarm clock across the room, but this is way cooler! Maybe I should make one that forces me to do floating point. If I can do that in my sleep, I arguably no longer need to be awake.

  5. I will definitely agree that this idea is pretty genius. : ) I know that I’ve gotten to the point where I can disable alarm clocks just as easily as I can hit the snooze button; but, I’m in too much of a daze to realize that hitting the off button causes me to fall asleep. Great ability to analyze… huge lack of forethought. XD Forcing me to do math? I’ll be sure to be awake after that…

  6. You don’t want to do binary arithmetic. At least I don’t. It’s way too easy, but for most of us mortals, other mathematical operations in binary are not quite second nature.

    Converting a decimal number into binary seems to be an easy compromise. Easy to implement, just have a pair of seven segment displays and a row of momentary switches with corresponding LED’s. The SSD’s display a number, and when you switch on the correct LED’s, the alarm stops. You could add a pressure switch that you have to hold (to keep you from dozing off) that mutes it.

    I could do this whole thing with a decimal counter and some basic logic. No PIC needed. I consider that a perk.

  7. I’m with ben airy/dioxide, the mute button would have to be recessed into the side of the clock to stop you resting something on it. for me though, nothing beats the s.a.d. light on a timeswitch (80 watt daylight spectrum fluorescent light that kicks out about as much light as an open window). light > sound for making you actually wakeful rather than just not asleep.

    still, I love the idea- it’s like a little tiny bit of dr whatshisname’s brain training in the morning, and that’s probably a good thing.

  8. I remember this one site (the link is new dead, sadly) which sold an alarmclock somewhat like this. Instead of making you do math, it launched a little spinning helicopter thing, and wouldn’t turn off the alarm until you got out of bed, found the thing, and attached it to the clock again.

  9. man, I’ve been thinking about that! No matter what I do, it seems as if I can figure out how to turn off an alarm clock when I’m half asleep and always end up being late to everything. Gotta try this design. I’d probably need to find some way to mount it so that I can’t actually destroy it, design it to be vibration resistant, and protect the power cord.

  10. Why not make change the bed with 2 foldaway legs that “disassemble” and drop you on the floor at the right time ? I constantly run into the problem of sleeping through the alarm sound, so I guess I need a little more feedback from my alarm than just sound ?

  11. Can I buy one? This gets to the real issue that I have getting up in morning. Physical activity does not wake me up. Mental exercise, however, does the trick. This is a great idea and well executed with clean and simple design.
    When does this go in to production?

  12. Interesting idea! I thought of a similar project some time ago, because i too suffer from the “sleepy alarm turn-off syndrome” :) but in my case, you’d have to enter one random number that would appear on the display instead of doing the math. Of course the whole thing would have to be (shock/water/bullet)proof so you could not turn off the alarm by brute force :P

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