http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoNAid1LKSw

My Sleeping Monitor: Arduino Tweeter receives information from a pressure sensor that is placed between the metal grate of a bed frame and a mattress, sending tweets if a certain pressure is exceeded (if I am on my bed, sleeping), and also when the pressure returns to normal (when I am up and about). It also receives tweets to me @eric_mackie which, if the word “wake” is included in them, will play a repeating, obnoxious tone (via piezo buzzer) until I am out of my bed. The idea for the project stems from recent abnormalities in my sleep pattern. Mid-day to all-day rests paired with post-midnight binges of homework and anime-watching got me thinking that it would be interesting if my unpredictable sleep periods were being kept track of and posted publicly. As a way of communicating with me, or controlling these odd patterns, fellow tweeters can literally tell me to “wake up!” via tweets, at which point I would have to get up out of bed in order to eventually fall back asleep. In a way, I guess this mimics how my recent sleeping habits have been determined by outside forces, such as classes, friends, obligations, and other activity.