Robotic polar bear pillow helps stop snoring

Jukusui-Kun is a polar bear-shaped robotic pillow designed to measure and respond to blood oxygen levels and sound levels, in order to help people who snore.

The science of sleep has inspired many of the innovations featured on Springwise, with a recent example being the Somnus Sleep Shirt featured earlier this year. Now we’ve discovered Jukusui-Kun in Japan, a polar bear-shaped robotic pillow designed to measure and respond to blood oxygen levels and sound levels, in order to help people who snore. Jukusui-Kun — meaning “deep sleep” — is thought to be the world’s first anti-snoring robot, consisting of a pillow and a hand sensor, both in the shape of polar bears. It was developed by Dr.Kabe and a team of researchers at Tokyo’s Waseda University and demonstrated at last month’s International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo. Snoring is thought to be a sign of sleep apnea, a condition linked with blood oxygen saturation, causing the sleeper to stop breathing momentarily. According to a Gizmag report, the smaller polar bear sensor attaches to the sleeper’s hand to monitor oxygen levels in the blood, while a microphone in the pillow records noise levels. Both “bears” are wirelessly connected to a terminal, which analyzes the data they gather. When oxygen levels decrease and noise levels increase simultaneously, the large polar bear pillow is triggered to move it’s paw gently across the sleeper’s face, causing them to turn over without waking up. There are currently no plans to produce Jukusui-Kun commercially. The video below shows Jukusui-Kun in more detail: Sleep apnea reportedly affects two million people in Japan alone. Could robotic pillows be the solution? Spotted by: Raymond Neo