Eat, Sleep, Wear, Repeat – Virgin Media launches ‘KipstR’ the tech that controls TV as you sleep

Turkey with all the trimmings, one more sherry and hours with the in-laws: no wonder one in five (18%) of us were expected to fall asleep on the sofa on Christmas day.

Then came KipstR, a clever piece of kit created by two Tech savy teens Ryan Oliver, 15, and Jonathan Kingsley, 14, students at Manchester Creative Studio, which saved hours of great Christmas TV viewing from being missed.

Ryan and Jonathan teamed up with Virgin Media, as part of its  Switched on Futures initiative to create ‘KipstR’ - wearable technology to rescue sleeping Sofa Bears from the Fear Of Missing Out (F.O.M.O) by automatically setting their TiVo boxes to record whatever they’re watching if they fall asleep in front of the box.

Ryan and Jonathan were commissioned by Virgin Media to help develop the 3D printed wristband which uses a pulse-oximeter to sense if the wearer is asleep or awake and then mimics the users’ TiVo remote control to pause, record or resume a show appropriately. 

Talking about the new technology, Ryan, 15 commented: “We jumped at the chance to work with the Virgin Media team on this project, it was a brilliant challenge for us but we’ve learnt so much and are really pleased with the end result.”

Jonathan, 14, added: “We have really enjoyed working alongside the innovation team at Virgin Media. It’s given us a taster for what we would like to do when we leave school. We’re excited to see what the next project with Virgin Media will bring.”

At Virgin Media we have been exploring the possibilities of connected entertainment for some time and are very excited to unveil KipstR. With emerging new technologies, it is possible to create almost anything, such as emotionally intelligent entertainment systems that can suggest shows based on your moods, or even harnessing brainwaves to control your television.

To find out more about KipstR, Jonathan and Ryan, click here.