We’ve all been there – sleep deprivation due to a bad mattress, waking up at odd hours, struggling to even get a good night’s sleep. A recent study revealed that humans, on average, sleep an hour less at night than we did 50 years ago. It’s a global problem but AI might just have the fix for it.
HEKA, a company from Delaware, has developed a mattress that uses AI technology to automatically understand and adapt to the sleeping postures and movements of the human body.
The AI mattress has been built using AI Trackbot, an autonomous furniture adaptation technology. It collects body pressure distribution data in real time to recognise the body shape and sleeping positions. The mattress then automatically adjusts the height and firmness to as per the sleeping position.
According to the figures by HEKA (as yet unpublished), out of 362 users, there has been quite a decrease in the average number of times a person tossed and turned throughout the night (from 30 to 12). The average deep sleep of a person increased by more than 50%!
Sleeping problems are a major issue globally. With our fast living lifestyles, sleep can get overlooked. Intelligent mattresses have been around in the last few years but their market penetration has been limited to the developed countries.
Thanks to the rapid advancement in AI, this mattress could bring about a global change. The initial results have been impressive and the company will expand this to hospitals and for commercial use as well.
It’s always a pleasure reading about the positive effect of AI in the world and here’s hoping the trend continues in years to come. We look forward to this being adopted outside the US soon.