Two British teenagers have invented a device that pauses the TV when you fall asleep

Now that no one can afford to buy a house, falling asleep in front of the TV when you’re not even drunk has become the most reliable benchmark of adulthood that we have. The ensuing slow decay of body and mind just became a little easier thanks to two British teenagers who have invented a wristband that automatically pauses and records whatever you’re watching on (live) TV when you inevitably doze off because you’re not young anymore.

The device, which can be conveniently 3-D printed with new technology that did not exist in your long-ago youth, works by means of a pulse-oximeter, a device that measures subtle changes in blood flow when a person falls asleep. It was invented by two British school kids, 15-year-old Ryan Oliver and 14-year-old Jonathan Kingsley, who were commissioned by Virgin Media to develop their idea into a gizmo known as the KipstR wristband. KipstR has been tailored to work with Virgin’s TiVo service and will be tested in the U.K. beginning this Christmas, an ideal time for full, sleepy people to drift into unconsciousness while something they’ve seen dozens of times plays on TV. Virgin hopes to have the device ready for market in the U.K. by next Christmas. Navigating discussions of films that you don’t really remember because you fell asleep halfway through, however, is still on you.

[via Reddit]