Alarm clocks may be effective at startling you out of slumber, but unlike the smell of coffee brewing or bacon sizzling, they do little to lure you out of bed.
That's why Japanese company Nanka created an alarm clock to wake you up with the sound of mom's cooking (video below).
Before you get too excited, no, the clock doesn't emulate the aroma of fresh pancakes or scrambled eggs. But it does emit the sound of chopping and the sensation of steam, according to Munchies.
The Jikkalarm looks nothing like a clock; it's a wooden cutting board topped with a knife and a faux bowl of miso soup. It also doesn't ring. Instead, the knife begins to chop against the board, and a mister blows steam over the soup and in the direction of the sleeper. That way, it feels just like steam from hot broth is wafting at your face.
Say you're used to mom's expert chopping: quick and steady. Set the alarm on "mom mode," and the knife will chop just like she does. If irregular knife motions sound more like home, there's also a "newlywed mode" to mimic novice chopping sounds.
According to the video below, you can operate the clock from the convenience of your phone.
The sensations of a fresh Japanese breakfast to tempt us out of bed each morning? Sign us up. There's just one problem: the knife is real, real knives are sharp and having a blade so close to your head and hands when you're groggy could be slightly dangerous.
Or as Munchies puts it, "alarming."
Jikkalarm is for now just a prototype, so it could go through some changes for improved safety before possibly becoming available for purchase. And maybe, we hope, Nanka will figure out how to make the steam smell like miso soup.
匂いと包丁の暖かい音で起きられる世界初の目覚まし時計JIkkalarmの使用例動画を公開します。 pic.twitter.com/SKYBqh2PEr
— nanka (@nankasince2016) May 7, 2016