We designed the Reverse Alarm Clock to keep young children (2-4 years old) from waking their parents in the middle of night by displaying time in a way that children can understand; however, the main goal of the clock is to help parents feel that they are becoming better parents.
The system has 3 states: stay-in-bed when the stars and moon is showing, get-up-if-you-want when the moon gone and the star are on, and get-out-of-bed when sun is up. This abstract display of time provides an opportunity for children to learn to make good decisions.
The treasure chest music box situates the clock within the intimate bedtime ritual. Children select their going to sleep and waking up music using tokens. They also take control by triggering the moon to rise when they press a button on top of the box.
The bed pad sensor detects when the child climbs in and out of bed. If the child climbs out after the moon has set and before the sun rises, this action triggers the sun to rise and the waking up music to play, helping the child feel they are running the system.
The controller gives parents relative control of time. The device allows them to easily modify the moonset and sunrise times so that the wakeup time can be different for different days, but the rules of how the child reads the clock remain the same.
By helping children who have an undeveloped sense of duration of time to stay in bed at night, the clock provides parents with the emotional reserve to better deal with the stress of the morning rush.