For those of you not familiar with the concept of the ‘Dead Man’s Handle’, it is a safety device used on trains. The driver has to maintain a grip or pressure on the handle otherwise the brakes are automatically applied to the vehicle. Thus preventing the train from running out of control if the driver suddenly drops dead.

My idea is for something similar in concept but applied to TV technology.

What it comes down to is this. I’m too damn idle now even to reach for the pause button on the remote whenever I get up and trundle off to the kitchen for a snackette or a beverage so I’d like someone to manufacture a sofa cushion containing a device that remains inactive as long as you are sitting on it but which, when you get up, auto-magically pauses the DVD player and then resumes play again when you sit back down.

I’d like it now please whilst I can still be bothered to buy things.
-- DrBob, Jun 04 2004

Swithering http://www.urbandic...php?term=Swithering
For [po]. It appears to mean "having trouble deciding". [angel, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

even lazier solution would be it tracks your eyes and as you doze of pauses the film as well.
-- engineer1, Jun 04 2004


how did you summon up the energy to write all that?
-- po, Jun 04 2004


I was swithering but the last paragraph swings it for me. Croissant.
-- calum, Jun 04 2004


am I right in thinking *swithering* is a legal term?
-- po, Jun 04 2004


Um, I don't think it is. It might, I suppose, be one of yer rubbishy English law terms but it seems unlikely.
-- calum, Jun 04 2004


Example of swithering. The classic Scottish dilemma. Shall we fight the English or fight amongst ourselves some more?

engineer1, nah! I was going for something achievable with the use of simple mechanics. Once you start trying to write a software package that can track the position of your eyes and then distinguish between eyes open and paying attention, eyes open but nobody's home, eyes shut but still listening and eyes shut and the snoring is shaking the walls then I think that you are entering a world of pain.
-- DrBob, Jun 04 2004


This wouldn't work.
Getting of the sofa to fetch a drink or some snacks is redundant since the invention of wives/girlfriends.
Incorporating some kind of chemical toilet into the sofa is the way forward for lazy sorts!

That said, (+) for attempting to encourage laziness and for that catchy title!
-- MikeOliver, Jun 04 2004


May be interesting to use some of the technologies that are able to sense driver attention, i.e. notice when your eyes are off the road.+
-- theircompetitor, Jun 04 2004


<re-reads idea, imagines seated corpse of DrBob, illuminated by the cool, still glow of the test card, a tiny clown doll reflected in the dark of his lifeless pupils>

*shudder*
-- calum, Jun 04 2004



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