Two Teenagers Built A 3D-Printed Wristband That Can Record Live TV When You Fall Asleep

It’s hard to catch all your favorite programming around the holidays — especially when your stomach is full of spiral ham and mashed potatoes.

But that’s where the KipstR wristband comes in.

Built by two British teenagers — Jonathan Kingsley, 14, and Ryan Oliver, 15 — the KipstR is like a TiVo remote in that it can pause and record whatever you’re watching. But instead of requiring manual activation, it can sense when its wearer falls asleep to then record what you’re watching, so you can continue your viewing once you wake up.

Kingsley and Oliver, who are both students at Manchester Creative Studio, were commissioned by Virgin Media, the company behind TiVo, to develop the KipstR, The Daily Mail reports. As such, it will only be available for Virgin Media customers in the UK; there are no plans yet for a global release, but if this device takes off, hopefully it’ll make it to the US soon.

“We jumped at the chance to work with the Virgin Media team on this project,” Oliver told The Daily Mail. “It was a brilliant challenge for us but we’ve learnt so much and are really pleased with the end result.”

Virgin MediaThe KipstR prototype.

So how does it work? The KipstR prototype currently features a pulse-oximeter, which can measure your blood flow and the amount of oxygen circulating through it to know when you’re dozing off — basically, once the sensor notices any changes in your blood flow, it will start recording the program you’re currently watching.

The KipstR is powered by a lithium-polymer battery, and it comes with a push button, a sleep mode indicator, and a spark core chip to process all the data from the pulse-oximeter. The outside of the prototype was 3D printed using an Objet Connex 3D printer, which was able to turn out a resin called Polyjet that’s stronger than most rigid plastics created by 3D printers.

The two teenagers plan on giving the KipstR a trial run this Christmas, and they’re also exploring how other internet-connected devices in the home could take advantage of sleep control to help people save power, time and money.