dont think this is quite what this forum is for but seems like where i might get the best help

ive always thought id wake up easier with change in light levels as well as gradually introducing increasing sound levels but haven't ever found any alarm program online that seems to do that

i want to make some format of video file to be replayed on my computer that consists of 11 hours of black screen and white noise followed by 1 hour of a gradually increasing brightness and color shift (blue>green>red>white) that somewhat mimics darkness dawn and daylight. id also like to be able to specify a very low resolution so it can be a small filesize relative to the length


any suggestions on what to use?

Computers really are the wrong things for alarms imo:

- Use substantially more power than a normal alarm clock even when idling
- Can shut down automatically if idle too long
- Screen can shut down after idling too long (which will stop colours increasing)
- They generate a fair amount of background noise (I can't sleep with PC on)

As a test though I guess you could do it.

With regards to an 11 hour video, of which 95% of it is just black, instead of this I'd just knock out a very quick program in anything you want (VB even) which shows black, then 20 mins before designated time it starts to play a video.

I always thought the best way to wake up would be a wrist band that gently vibrates. No noise, light, and should gradually wake you up.

I think devices like this already exist - I'd google for "light alarm clock" etc.

get an Ipad or android tablet. There are a bunch of ipad and android apps that do this. There are also ones that watch your sleep cycles and wake you when you finish one so you'll get the most out of your sleep.

500+ dollar alarm clock!

here's a $49 android tablet

http://www.frys.com/product/7376964?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

there are over a dozen under $99 at fry's

You probably can make whatever you want in movie maker or sony vegas that will play whatever picture you have with adjusting the brightness of the clip and sound.

Then google "cron jobs" or some other method of setting up windows schedules to launch the media clip at specific times that you would want to launch the clip you made.

The computer you use would have to be on all night for this to work. I'm not sure if it can be in standby/sleep but maybe it can. I'm not an expert on cron jobs or windows schedules.

This is pretty boring on a computer. Hook an arduino or raspberry pi up to a high powered RGB LED with a diffusor over it.

Or get one of those wifi enabled multi colored LED bulbs and the wifi bridge and code something against it directly w/ the API
http://www.limitlessled.com/