It's a familiar routine. Having decimated the Christmas dinner, consumed an inappropriate number of chocolates and drained the alcohol cupboard, you plough a path through the morning's battle ground of torn wrapping paper to the sofa to discover which gem of a film the TV has to offer. Ten minutes later, you're asleep, and missing the finer elements of Macaulay Culkin's Home Alone 2 performance.
Which is where the invention of two teenage technology wunderkinds will come in handy. KipstR is a smartband remote control that can determine if the wearer has fallen asleep, pausing the TV to prevent them from missing out on their chosen viewing.
It's more complicated than listening out for turkey-fuelled snoring: KipstR monitors the wearer's blow flow with a pulse-oximeter, detecting minute oxygen changes that occur in our blood circulation when we fall asleep. When the smartband detects that you've started kipping, it pauses the partnered TiVo box, or allows other viewers to record the programme and watch something more worthwhile.
The invention of 15-year-old Ryan Oliver and 14-year-old Jonathan Kingsley, a working KipstR prototype has been developed in sponsored_longform with Virgin Media. While the 3D-printed controller is initially being seen as a novel TV concept, the technology could find other smarthome uses, changing heating or lighting levels once the band has determined that we've fallen asleep.
You can register to trial the KipstR technology over the Christmas period here. Otherwise, you'll just have to rewatch the films you miss on the DVD you already own like everyone else.
