Meet the Ruggie, a Snooze-Proof Alarm Clock in the Form of a Rug
This new device will literally force you out of bed.
At first, explosion noises or air raid sirens rock you out of bed. But soon enough, you get used to them. And even the hooks in “Hotline Bling” eventually get old, nothing more than an audio trigger to hit snooze. One company raising insane amounts of money on Kickstarter seems to have monetized the act of putting your alarm clock across the room with something its creators call the Ruggie.
The alarm-clock-in-a-rug requires that you stand-up and apply full body weight for three seconds before it begins to “cheer you on immediately after your alarm stops with customizable sounds.”
Launched on January 3, the Ruggie has already surpassed its initial fund-raising goal on Kickstarter, with a pledged goal of $36,113. Creator Winson Tam managed to accrue an unbelievable $220,064 since posting the project a little over a month ago.
The company does some quick math when it claims that if “Ruggie can help you wake up even 5 minutes earlier, assuming you live to 80 years old, you would have gained 100 days to your life.” Since you’ve essentially been killing yourself to wake up — meaning your current morning routine involves explosives, exorcism, or a 6 a.m. scavenger hunt for your phone — then, technically speaking, the Ruggie fancies itself to be something of a lifesaver.
Though there’s an apparent market for products like the Ruggie, it certainly isn’t the first of its kind. Popular alarm clock applications like Unsnooze will also force you out of bed with the terrifying threat of theft, deducting $1 from your bank account every time you choose to snooze. Users, or victims, depending on your perspective, are roused by a potentially costly ultimatum: Go back to sleep or go broke trying.
In addition to what’s already on the alarm clock market, the massive response to Kickstarter campaigns like the Ruggie is proving that the abusive business of waking up is also, shockingly lucrative.
What might be most impressive about the Ruggie is that potential customers already have plans for customization, thanks to the format of Kickstarter. Ruggie creators aren’t only soliciting but responding to demands from customers who have already invested. In addition to requests for more color options, the unwittingly collaborative comments on the Ruggie’s Kickstarter page suggest everything from a vibrating feature to Bluetooth compatibility.
