Crave

(Credit: Panasonic)

Panasonic has created a robotic bed that can transform into a wheelchair, allowing the elderly or people with disabilities to get up without assistance.

Users can remain in the bed while it turns into a wheelchair. Half of the mattress rises and half lowers while a motorized unit beneath it automatically slides out from the bed.

While in chair mode, the robot can detect people and obstacles and help users avoid collisions, according to Panasonic.

A controller allows for driving and returning to the bed.

The mattress can also help people turn over in bed to prevent bedsores.

The bed's robotic canopy automatically rises when the unit transforms. It has a screen that acts as TV, controller for home appliances, and home security camera viewer.

The bed is one of many new mobility solutions to help the aging Japanese population stay mobile.

They include Rodem, an ergonomic electric wheelchair, Toyota's thought-controlled wheelchair, and the Hybrid Assistive Limb, a robotic power suit.

And let's not forget Riba, the giant teddy bear robotic nurse that can lift a person from a bed and deposit him or her into a wheelchair.

I think the next logical step in this Japanese arc of invention is the creation of a giant teddy bear bed that transforms into a thought-controlled wheelchair.

Panasonic will show off its prototype Robotic Bed later this month at the International Home Care & Rehabilitation Exhibition 2009 in Tokyo.

(Via Digital World Tokyo)

Shake, rattle, and roll over.

(Credit: iLuv)

Heavy sleepers rejoice. iLuv will soon be shipping an iPod clock radio that features not only dual-audio alarms but a "unique" vibrating bed shaking accessory that it claims will "wake even the deepest of sleepers."

The official name of the product is the iLuv iMM153 Desktop Dual Alarm Clock with Bed Shaker for iPod. It comes in four colors (black, blue, white, and pink) and will be shipping in July with an MSRP of $59.99. (More info here).

Personally, I'm waiting for the Desktop Dual Alarm Clock with Cattle Prod, but I guess this is a step in the right direction.

Comments? Jokes welcome.

(Credit: iLuv)

(Credit: MotoArt)

"Join the mile-high club without the hassle of going to the airport," MotoArt says of its new Mile High Bed, which, like all of the company's products, is created from aircraft inventory.

At $35,000 (and no, those pretty flowers on the bedstand aren't included), this mod piece of furniture had better lift you to new altitudes of um, comfort and style. You could, after all, get a two-seat Cessna 152 for less. And seriously, if you're that intent on joining that proverbial action-in-the-sky club, might we suggest you just snag a couple of Southwest tickets?

In any case, we have to give the quirky Torrance, Calif.-based MotoArt credit for high levels of creativity. The bed is designed and fabricated from two DC-9 rear stabilizers and a C-130 inner flap. It's 11 feet long; 7 feet, 6 inches wide; and 4 feet, 6 inches high. All surfaces are sanded and mirror polished, and it's accented by Plexiglass and illuminated with internal LED lighting. We're so picturing an Austin Powers seduction ritual right now.

MotoArt--which also brought us the B-52 Stratofortress Ejector Seat Chair--finds its inventory in hangars and barns the world over. To date, it has designed and fabricated nearly 100 styles of recycled functional art.

(Credit: Japan Trend Shop)

Do you want your air-conditioner but are too eco-minded to turn it on? The Japanese may have the perfect solution: the Air-Conditioned Bed, or Kuchofuku. This really is just a soft bed covering with two dual fans at the foot of the bed that pull and circulate air through the membrane. Japan Trend Shop sells it for $399, which is a lot pricier than the Bed Fan. But it's a whole lot kinder to your electricity bill since the low-power fans apparently guzzle just a mere 24 cents a month, based on 8-hour days. Not to mention that you'll sleep better knowing you aren't adding to global warming.

(Source: Crave Asia)

(Credit: BornRich)

The "Starry Night Bed" has more technologies than you can shake a remote at, but let's face it: It looks pretty homely, especially considering the cost of the $50,000 model.

The "Sphera" pictured here, on the other hand, is as much a work of art as it is a functional piece of multimedia furniture. The creation of designer Karim Rashid, whose work has appeared on Crave before, is an ultra-modernistic bed that includes a built-in 32-inch TV, massage system, LED canopy lights, and, of course, a champagne holder, according to BornRich.

As nice as it is, however, there's one potential deal-breaker: It must have a a waterbed.

(Credit: Righteous)

OK, so maybe $50,000 is a wee bit much for a bed, even if it does help stop snoring. Thriftier Cravers might be more inclined to go with something like a stripped-down "TV-Bed" from Gustarle, which comes with a built-in 26-inch Samsung LCD and a Sony DVD player. And it's a waterbed.

All this for the bargain price of $13,577, according to BornRich. Sure, it doesn't have all that fancy sleep technology featured in the "Starry Night Bed," but it has all the basics. After all, as everyone knows, a bed's only as good as its TV.

(Credit: Leggett & Platt)

There's only one problem with having a luxury massage chair: It's almost impossible to find a bed that lives up to it, for the long nap that should naturally follow. Thankfully, there's at least one company that's trying to answer the call for this pressing need.

The "Starry Night Bed" might well be described as a computerized sleeping device, as its features include a raft of technologies that monitor your sleeping habits and positions, right down to how much you snore. To wit, according to Luxist: "The bed has a vibration sensor and load cell technologies that measure how much you toss and turn, and how often you get out of bed at night. It also detects snoring and then slightly raises the snorer to help eliminate the problem. When the snoring stops, the bed goes back down." Talk about close to home.

And once you awaken from your beauty rest, the Starry Night turns into a veritable theater on box springs, casting a 10-foot screen from a headboard-mounted projector and providing mattress-shaking sound with four 8-inch subwoofers. There's a wireless keyboard to go with its Wi-Fi connection, of course, plus 1.5 terabytes of storage that can hold up to 2,000 hours of video. That's a good thing, because for its estimated price range--$20,000 to $50,000--you may never have any money to leave the house again.

(Credit: Hollandia)

While we will always remain faithful to the TV bar as our favorite media furnishing (with the LCD pool table a close second), we must admit that this multimedia bed will turn more than a few heads.

It's not the first TV bed we've seen, but Hollandia's "Platinum-Luxe Elite" is more than a place to lie down and watch Seinfeld reruns--it's an entire "sleep system" with a boatload of built-in electronics, according to BornRich, including a retractable 32-inch Sony Bravia HDTV in its footboard, a five-disc DVD/CD changer, iPod docking station, five-speaker surround sound, a subwoofer underneath, and a computer-controlled massage mattress that pulsates to the rhythms of the music being played. It's like the "Music Power Bed" on steroids.

All of this is wrapped in a stylish but durable Italian-designed fabric that's even pet-proof, the company says, so you can put away that special Dirt Devil cleaning machine. Although we've never been to Holland, we'd move there in a heartbeat for the furniture alone.

(Credit: Gravity Zero)

Now this is a marked improvement in design over the last MP3 bed we encountered, unfortunately from afar. Then again, that shouldn't be particularly surprising given that this model is from a company based in the aesthetically conscious Netherlands.

The "Music Power Bed" from Holland's Gravity Zero has a 150-watt sound system built into its attached headboard, but that's just the beginning. It also comes with "two sleep system motors, two massage systems with 12 massage programs, Talalay Latex mattress, matched pillows, and pneumatic hand control," according to Uber-Review.

But before you throw out that futon you've had since college, check out the prices: The bed is part of a line that ranges from $10,000 to $50,000.