Sunrise | CMU Spring 2016

 It is difficult waking up in the morning - especially when you’ve had a late night. You are looking to sleep in, but yet you have a schedule to maintain. Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up in the morning, feeling naturally refreshed and without feeling the alarm went off and interrupted your sleep? 

 Products have been developed that imitate natural light, which would turn on at a specified time in the morning, but still count on the use artificial lights to do so. 

For someone who is looking to wake up past sunrise hours, and before sunset hours, why not use actual sunlight itself to wake up naturally? 

This problem resulted in a design of a control that would automatically open blinds at a specified time, allowing natural sunlight to wake you up for your day. 

photo: http://www.shootingstarlogbook.com/2013/11/26/sunrise-airplanes/ 

photo: http://www.shootingstarlogbook.com/2013/11/26/sunrise-airplanes/ 

Goals : Wake up feeling refreshed. Mindfulness. Health.

Conceptual Model: Being able to set your own sunrise time.

Activities: Deciding and setting what time to open your your blinds.

Culture: Orange and red lights are supposedly good for sleeping hours. If you were to wake up in the middle of the night, it is naturally less obtrusive. 

Approach

  Several iterations of sketches werecreated for this “sunrise” alarm. Various forms of control were considered (as pictured below), as well as a product to simply control the blinds remotely and be able to set a timer. 

Design Decisions

Final versions of controls were determined, as shown below and physical prototypes were made to see the form these products would give, and then decide between the two models.

In looking at these two models, eventually went with the product thatproved to be more innovate and aesthetic, rather than useful and functional: the dome-shaped alarm in the form of a rising sun.

Design Principles

Starting with very clean, blank form models, followed Dieter Ram’s principle of as little design as possible. Now that the main affordance was established - a large push button at the top that lights up, indicating that the control is active, and can be pushed again to deactivate.

Things to consider:  

1) How the “sunrise” time is adjusted.  2) How to switch modes.  3) How to re-set the alarm.  4) Time/setting placement.

  • Decided to not include both the “sunrise” and clock time buttons to switch between modes of view. Using one button to switch back and forth between the two states was found to be sufficient enough. Immediate feedback after triggering a change would let the user know that mode has been effected and allows for discoverability. 
  • AM & PM times are not necessary. Clock times on the stove or microwave don’t have AM & PM times, and it is still clear what time of day it is. Also using the principle of not starting from zero - the “sunrise” setting should be able to auto-detect what the daylight hours are:
    • example: 1:00 -> 1:00 pm    
    • example:  10:00 -> 10:00 am.
  • Deactivate the “sunrise” function by pressing on the push button and diminishing the light.
  • Placement of the display and buttons were determined using the chosen form prototype - what would be the best way to view the information and set your hand on the alarm to set controls when the control is set on the bed-side table? (See video for hand placement). 
IMG_5389.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One more issue: the light was too bright to be on while sleeping and would be abrasive to the eyes if waking up in the middle of the night.

Using a variety of trial and error, and a variety of materials, the light was diffused to eventually create a soft orange light, emulating the orange sunrises on the horizon. 

Final Control States

1) Dome Button Light - ON/OFF switch for SUNRISE setting.

  • SUNRISE ON: Blinds rise once the CLOCK time matches SUNRISE time.
  • SUNRISE OFF: Blinds are left where they are.

2) Logo Light - Toggle between CLOCK mode and SUNRISE mode.

  • CLOCK mode: switches to SUNRISE mode.
  •  SUNRISE mode:  switches to CLOCK mode.

3) Large Time Display - Swipe up and down to adjust time.

  • Swipe UP: Increase time, returns back to min once max number is reached.
  • Swipe DOWN: Decrease time, returns back to max once min number is reached.

Further Consideration

Another consideration was to dim or completely black out the sunrise light after a certain amount of time - many people do like having their blinds closed because they like to sleep in pitch black. To set the clock time, there should be a sequence of steps used to adjust time, so that accidental time adjustments don't happen.