Rise and shine -- and find that clock

Like most other 25-year-old graduate students, Gauri Nanda sometimes burns the midnight oil -- and pays for it in the morning.

''I like my sleep," said Nanda, a research associate at the MIT Media Laboratory in Cambridge. ''I've been known to hit the snooze button for two hours, or even accidentally turn off the alarm."

So when she was asked to create a useful product for an industrial design course last fall, Nanda came up with ''Clocky," a runaway alarm clock that goads its bleary-eyed owners into leaving their beds. To turn Clocky off, you have to find it.

After technology weblogs were linked to photos and a description of Clocky from the Media Lab website two weeks ago, the shag-faced, homely clock became an object of curiosity on the Internet.

Since then, interest has exploded, and Clocky -- not the most advanced MIT research project -- has become one of the most-talked about Media Lab inventions in years.

Nanda, in the midst of writing her master's degree thesis on electronics-embedded clothing, is preparing to demonstrate Clocky on ''Good Morning America" next week.

One of Clocky's most winsome features is its simplicity.

When the snooze alarm is pushed, Clocky rolls off the bedside table, tumbles to the floor and, thanks to shock-absorbing materials and rubber wheels, races away from the bed. It bumps into objects, repositions itself, and eventually comes to rest in a place far enough away from the bed that its owner will be forced to get up to find it when the alarm sounds a second time. A built-in microprocessor randomly programs the clock's speed, distance, and routes, so that it won't land in the same spot twice.

''The idea is one that really resonates with people," said Nanda's adviser, V. Michael Bove Jr., who heads consumer electronics research at the Media Lab. ''It's an example of technology applied to a product that lets you have more of a relationship with it. It's predictable, but not too predictable. It hides in a different place all the time. And you don't have to be a computer scientist to use it."

That's not to say MIT's researchers, prone to working late and sleeping in, wouldn't be a prime market for Clocky. In an interview Tuesday morning, Nanda was one of the few researchers at a work station in the futuristic Media Lab, where pinwheels spun, orbs glowed, and bottles sang, undisturbed by the human hubbub.

Nanda said she dashed off an early prototype for Clocky in three days last November, sheathing her creation in the kind of shag carpet she remembered her parents using to wrap their stereo speakers when she was growing up in Rochester, Mich. ''In the 1970s, they used to cover everything with shag," she said, laughing. Clocky's fuzzy look, Nanda said, ''is supposed to remind you of a troubled pet that you love anyway."

The project was one of dozens described on the Media Lab's website, and it was posted for months over the winter without drawing much attention. Then, in mid-March, trend-spotting weblogs like Gizmodo, Engadget, and BoingBoing began linking to the Clocky picture and description, and Nanda found herself receiving hundreds of e-mail messages from people around the world who wanted to buy it, sell it, or invest in it.

Mostly, she heard from people who couldn't get out of bed.

''I've had some people e-mail me who said they keep hitting the snooze button for four hours, or for six hours," she said.

This week, Nanda has been working on a new Clocky prototype for her ''Good Morning America" demo. To protect its electronic components, she's been adding shock-absorbent materials like foam and sponges, in addition to the shag. Inside, with an alarm, are a couple of circuit boards hooked up to batteries and a motor attached to its wheels. Nanda is alternating between programming and soldering parts. ''It's very satisfying to make something all by yourself," she said.

The daughter of immigrant entrepreneurs from India who have run several businesses in the Detroit area, Nanda said her goal is to work on industrial design projects that solve people's problems without adding complexity. Her thesis-in-progress is on ''wearable computing" -- embedding wireless sensors in handbags and clothing to tell wearers whether they need umbrellas or have forgotten their cellphones.

''Gauri's definitely a star," Bove said. ''Fortunately, she's able to deal with all the attention. Clocky is not her master's thesis. In fact, all of this excitement is preventing her from finishing her master's thesis."

While she juggles her thesis and her invention, Media Lab officials have formed an intellectual-property committee to study ways to protect Clocky's technology, should Nanda decide to turn the device into a commercial product and a business. There is little doubt she has the entrepreneurial bug.

''Christmas may be a little too soon to get Clocky in the stores," she said. ''I'd project maybe in a year."

Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.