WASHINGTON — In the same way cellphones have evolved into smartphones, you could soon be sleeping on a smart bed.
Samsung’s SleepSense device is a sensor that looks like a Ping-Pong paddle with a power cord. It fits under a bed’s mattress, monitors a person’s physiology and can direct other home systems to react accordingly.
USA Today’s Personal Tech columnist reports that SleepSense will work with and connect to about 200 in-home devices (and they don’t have to be Samsung products).
SleepSense keeps track of a person’s heart rate, breathing and activity levels, and that allows it to notice, for example, when someone has fallen asleep, and to respond by turning off the TV. If the house gets too warm for comfortable sleeping, the device can turn on the air conditioner.
When SleepSense detects that someone has waked up in the morning, it could be programmed to activate the coffee maker, turn on the lights or lift the blinds.
USA Today says SleepSense also can record and report nightly sleep data through a smartphone app, let others monitor that information remotely and even send out alerts if a sleeper experiences a medical problem.
So far, there’s no word on what SleepSense will cost, or any expected release date.
