Saturday, 20 August 2011

Measuring sleep with the Zeo

The Zeo is a device that makes it easy to measure the amount of sleep one gets and track their sleeping cycles. Although the function of this device sounds like the work of a mad scientist, requiring many unattractive electrodes to be attatched to your scalp, the Zeo manages to reduce that all down to a soft headband with a fabric sensor.

The required input that allows the device to measure one's sleep is brain activity. As the headband is worn this data is then transmitted wirelessly to a bedside monitor, which is stored in an SD card. All memory saved to the SD card can be uploaded to the Zeo site, where users can study how their sleep is affected by environmental factors such as weather, light, and the like. The website gives insight into sleeping patterns by representing outputs such as the amount of time spent in light sleep, REM sleep (dreaming) or deep sleep in bar charts. Another, more interactive, output is produced by the SmartWake feature. This involves the Zeo calculating an optimal time for when the wearer should be awoken from their sleep! 

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Cynthia Tang


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