You're walking down the street in the evening, either homeless or in a city that you don't live in. You've seen several cylinders along the sidewalk, about a meter wide and two and a half meters long, some on their own and some in clusters of up to four. Some are plain colors and some are decorated with art. Most are horizontal but you've also passed some that have been standing vertically. You've never seen these before, but weren't paying too much attention to them. You come upon another one, which happens to be upright, and decide to see what it is. Well, the sign says it's a one-room capsule hotel! Perfect! You touch the door handle. If you look homeless to the camera on the door, it opens. If you don't, a voice asks you to pay and lights around the payment acceptors flash. Once you've paid, you may open the door and go inside.
Inside, the voice tells you to put your things in a compartment in the back of the cylinder. You do so. It then tells you to undress and put your clothes in another compartment. If you need the support of a bra to sleep comfortably, you may keep that on.* Once you have done so, a shower activates. You can control the temperature, and soap is provided. When you're done showering, you're dried by hot air. Then the walls, which are covered with cloth, begin to inflate toward you and envelop your whole body on the back, and from the neck down on the front. You're not scared by this—the voice told you it would happen. Once you're sufficiently supported, the whole cylinder tilts backward until you're lying down, at which point you it eases off the pressure a bit, while keeping contact with your body from above like a blanket. Feeling quite comfortable—there's a control panel for temperature, bed softness, and downward pressure—you soon fall asleep.
When you wake up, you feel very refreshed. You remember that before you went to sleep, you set an alarm on the control panel, but for a range of times rather than for a specific time; the alarm woke you up at the optimal point in your sleep cycle within that time range. Once you have confirmed that you are awake, the cylinder slowly tilts upright, and then the walls deflate. The compartment in the back wall in which you put your clothes now opens—they're clean and dry! (They aren't folded, though.) You put them on, and get your belongings out of the other compartment. You now notice that that compartment is equipped to maintain its orientation as the cylinder tilts, so your things don't tumble.
Feeling much cleaner, less tired, and happier, you leave, not noticing that behind you the cylinder has locked its door and begun its self-cleaning program. Soon it will be ready for the next guest.
*Apparently you're supposed to wash bras by wearing them in the shower anyway?
n/a [2019-03-11]-- notexactly, Mar 12 2019 "the alarm woke you up at the optimal point in your sleep cycle within that time range" Sounds like a noticeable improvement to current alarm clocks.-- beanangel, Mar 12 2019 Where does it get its water supply? Does it simply recycle the same greywater over again?-- RayfordSteele, Mar 12 2019 // Sounds like a noticeable improvement to current alarm clocks. //
And it's been available in the form of phone apps for several years now, so it's a known and proven technology.
// Where does it get its water supply? //
From the water mains, like street toilets do. Come to think of it, this thing should have an integrated toilet, probably a squat toilet in the floor.-- notexactly, Mar 13 2019 Should be mobile so you can wake up in a different location from where you went to sleep-- pocmloc, Mar 13 2019 Nice, the whole world is becoming home.-- wjt, Mar 13 2019 I stepped outside to relieve myself because last time I learned my lesson about what the shower can and cant do. Now cylinder won't let me back in. All I have on is my bra, and not the one with money in it. I could start over with an empty cylinder but someone will steal my clothes out of the other one before this one lets me out.-- bungston, Mar 13 2019 Also - wasn't this idea in Neuromancer?-- bungston, Mar 13 2019 //*Apparently you're supposed to wash bras by wearing them in the shower anyway?//
Hmmm... having seen bras in the laundry I'm going to go with "not the usual practice", as much sense as that makes.-- FlyingToaster, Mar 13 2019 random, halfbakery