A MOVING ALARM CLOCK

ABSTRACT

This project implements a proto-type for a moving alarm clock which runs
away from the user when they try to silence the alarm. It has all the features of a
“regular” alarm clock: settable time and alarm, snooze and alarm on/off. The
alarm clock displays the time in 24-hour format on a LED seven-segment
display. The whole unit is mounted on a chassis with caterpillar-style wheels
driven by two small DC motors. A proximity sensor is mounted near the snooze
button which is activated whenever the user’s finger nears the button, causing
the clock to move away. It is intended to lure the user out of bed when the alarm
sounds. Instead of being able to hit snooze three or four times and sleeping, the
user will have to get up and chase the clock to silence it.

This design may meet all the functional requirements of a traditional alarm
clock. It keeps time to a high degree of accuracy. In terms of sensing movements
towards the snooze button and alarm on/off toggle, this design may able to
respond quickly enough such that the user could not feasibly interact with these
inputs without moving. The alarm tone was loud enough to be heard in adjacent
tones, and in our tests, we were able to wake up to it.

So the module is designed with a RTC DS 1307 interfaced to the controller

89C52 to read the time and is also interfaced with four common anode seven
segment displays, therefore it can display the time in hours and minutes. The
RTC (real time clock chip) used here requires battery back-up source, by which
the time data will not be erased because of power failures. A DC motor is also
interfaced to the controller that is connected to the wheels to move the clock
away when snoozing/switching off the alarm clock.