Posts Tagged ‘volts’

Apparently there is a new iPhone application out there that lets me monitor my sleep cycle by simply sleeping with the iPhone at the corner of the bed. The application is called Sleep Cycle by Lexware Labs. It is currently a $0.99 app in the iTunes store as an introductory offer.

This is my sleep cycle for Feb 15

The application is simple: Set the alarm for your wake time. For me, I don’t usually set an alarm – When I want to get up, I wake up. Nonetheless, I did setup the alarm for testing sake.

I set the iPhone on the corner of the bed. They say you need to plug in the device to maintain power, but I am not ready to sleep with 115 Volts sitting by my head just yet. I had the phone charged up, so I left the cable on the computer. It did go through about 50-60% of battery life during the evening. They say you could drain your battery and the alarm won’t go off, but they do suggest that if you don’t want to keep it plugged in, you might want to set another alarm so you don’t miss your wake up time.

Where to put the iPhone while sleeping

I suppose if you also have one of those foam beds that don’t transfer motion, you will not be able to use the application – It would be cool to try, though. I should ask a friend who does have one of those beds to try out.

The program uses the accelerometer to judge when you move on your bed. The phone will then determine what part of sleep you are in. I know when I wake up in the middle of night, the first thing I will do is flip sides.

This also means you have to sleep alone – or in a King Bed with 2 spring mattresses for this to work properly.

There are some other limitations – You cannot play any other music while this program is running. If you only have an iPod, you won’t be able to use this app. It’s a limitation of iPod – when the device turns off, the accelerometer does, too. I don’t know if it will work with iPad, but I would guess the same thing goes with the accelerometer.

So I used no cable, I did get about 8 hours, although it got tougher around 8 A.M. to sleep. I just don’t sleep that much. I also left my case on, which could change the numbers. You have to put the phone face-down, in which I placed it right on the spring of the bed for best use.

It was the first night of sleep, so I will try this for the next few nights. Will see what my sleep cycle says.

2001 – One problem with technology is that you hit limitations, mostly due to materials used or how small machines can make parts like transistors. For instance, today’s multi-core x-86 processors will eventually be replaced because we won’t be able to put anymore transistors on the die – It’s called “Moores Law”. Intel and AMD work hard to get around this law – which is why x86 technology has been around since the 90’s.

One thing scientists do to circumvent is to change the structure of the transistor. Well, in 2001, Intel launched the TeraHertz – a new transistor that did just that. It used several new materials, including Zirconium Dioxide – which is used to reduce leakage issues. The new transistors brought processing to a new level; High process tasks like facial recognition could be achieved. The TeraHertz also worked on a 0.6 Volts, so it vastly reduced power.

Intel expected this technology to be implemented in 2005. However, as to this date, the TeraHertz transistor has not been implemented in processors.

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Other Historical Events in Technology

• Happy Thanksgiving. (US) Nov 26, 1789 was the first observation of the holiday. It was recommended by President George Washington.
• William Shakespear publishes King Lear
• Trade name Microsoft is registered in New Mexico
• Apple settles $10 million suit with Burst.com

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