The badge of parenthood, the thing we talk about all the time, the thing we crave the most, is sleep. And most new parents think it will never happen for them again.
That must be the need Japanese engineers at Kyuushuu University in Japan were trying to meet with the Suima crib. It contains a microphone that picks up the sound of a baby’s cries, and responds by swaying side to side about 10 centimeters every 1.8 second, or about the same as a parent’s heart rate.
Officially, I am horrified by this – I mean, babies cry to let us know they need us, and our job as a parent shouldn’t be outsourced to machinery. On the other hand, after nearly a year of frequent night wakeups by my little guy who is perfect in every way except he hates to sleep? I would have considered it. The baby in the video goes right back to sleep after a few minutes of rocking by the crib, while my kid (and I’d bet, most) would respond to a parent in the middle of the night by thinking “Hey!! Party time!” Some soothing by something that’s not you could be really verrrry tempting.
