One of my first stop yesterday at the Salone del Mobile in Milan was at Promise Design, New Design from Israel, at the Triennale.

Tomer Sapir’s “Concept for a bedroom unit” integrates a table, a reading lamp and an alarm clock. The alarm clock provides a fresh awakening by synchronizing with the user’s sleep cycles. We’ve heard of that before: there’s a watch and a headband that do the same. I just find them rather clumsy.

Sapir’s alarm works by measuring your sleep cycle and waits for you to be in your lightest phase of sleep before going off. Only this time the alarm teams up wirelessly with a simple, light ring you slip on your finger when going to bed. You set up the alarm at the latest time you want it to go off. The ring monitors your body activity and sends the signal to the alarm to wake you up when it senses that you’re in the “light” phase of your sleep circle.

The alarm clock itself displays no number at all, two dots of light represent the minute hand and the hour hand, like a traditional analogue clock.

To make the lamp, the designer have your eye scanned. The image of the iris is then printed on the plastic shade of the lamp and a graphic designer samples the colours of the iris and uses them to paint some of the unit’s parts.