The alarm that makes you find objects to turn it off

How it works

1. 1

   You choose which items are in play when you set the alarm. The default pool is eight things nearly every home has, none of them in the bed: the bathroom sink, the toilet, the kitchen sink, a mug, a spoon, a shoe, the fridge and a book.

2. 2

   When the alarm rings and you start the mission, a reel spins and lands on the first item. Only that one is revealed; the rest of the morning's list shows as question marks until its own reel lands.

3. 3

   Walk to it and point the back camera at it. The corner brackets close in as a match builds, the screen says “Hold steady”, and a green seal pops up when it counts. Any mug or any shoe will do; it does not have to be a particular one.

4. 4

   Then the next reel spins for the next item. After the last one the alarm stops and the morning is recorded.

5. 5

   The draw is fixed for that morning. Leaving the mission and opening it again shows the same items, so there is no rerolling for an easier one, and leaving brings the alarm back within seconds.

What you can set

• How many items: 1 to 5 (3 by default), or a custom number up to 10.
• Which items are in play: 216 items in 11 groups (Fruit, Food, Kitchen, Bathroom, Clothes and bags, Around the home, Desk and tech, Tools, Fitness, Sport and play, Pets). The checklist has search, a tally per group and Select all or Select none, and what you tick moves to the top.
• The pool has to hold at least as many items as the count. With more than ten in play, a morning's draw spreads across groups: no group comes up twice until every group in play has come up once.
• Mission Clips (optional, off unless you turn it on): the hunt is filmed with the back camera and turned into a short vertical clip that stays on your iPhone.
• Try it now: a rehearsal of the mission with your exact settings. It is free and records nothing.

When an item won't scan

Recognition runs on the iPhone with Apple's Vision framework, and it can miss. A match needs several steady frames in a row, not one lucky frame, so most failures come down to a few things:

• Light. Turn the room light on. In a dim room the camera sees mostly noise, and nothing reads as anything.
• Fill the frame. Get close enough that the item takes up most of the viewfinder, with little else around it. A spoon held up on its own is easier than a spoon on a cluttered counter.
• Hold still. Once the brackets start to close, keep the phone steady for a second or two.
• Try another angle, or another one. Show the object from the side most people would recognize it by. If one mug won't read, any other mug counts.

If nothing has matched after about 45 seconds, the screen offers Math instead. The alarm keeps ringing until that is solved, so it is a way through, not a way out.

Why some everyday items are missing

The list only holds things the iPhone's built-in recognizer has a label for, each one checked against that list. Keys, a toothbrush, a towel and toilet paper are not there, because the recognizer cannot name them, and the app leaves them out rather than pretend. For one specific object or spot of your own, the Photo mission can save a place and hold you to it.

Item search vs a QR code alarm

WakeOps has no QR code or barcode mission. Item search is its answer to the same problem: something you have to get up and point the phone at. There is nothing to print or stick on a wall, and because the items are drawn from a pool each morning, the route changes instead of becoming a walk you can do half asleep.

Common questions

Missions that help

PhotoPhotograph something that proves you got out of bed.Color searchA color is drawn. Find something that color.StepsWalk a set number of steps.

Keep reading

• An alarm app for heavy sleepers
• How to get out of bed when your alarm goes off
• Photo alarm ideas: what to photograph to turn off your alarm
• Puzzle vs photo alarm: which mission fixes your mornings?