The Sleep Cycle alarm clock is already a best-selling iOS app used to track people's sleep.
Now, the Northcube developers behind the app have figured out a way to make it better, announcing on Thursday the launch of Sleep Cycle 5.0, which functions on a state-of-the-art-sound analysis that eliminates the need for devices placed in your bed to track your sleep.
The Sleep Cycle 5.0 alarm clock uses smartphones' microphones and what the company calls a "new highly-intelligent algorithm" to analyze sound and track your sleep in real-time, identifying movement from its users in bed. The sound analysis technology used eliminates the need for your phone or any other device to be placed in your bed, as it can function just fine on a nearby nightstand or even on the floor.
The sound analysis is so keen that Sleep Cycle 5.0 has been optimized for users sharing beds with a partner, enabling two activated devices to automatically communicate via Wi-Fi and determine which user the sound is coming from.
The technology also gives Sleep Cycle an edge over some of its competitors that use a smartphone's accelerometer to track movement in bed and must be kept in the bed while the person sleeps.
"We wanted to find a way to make sleep tracking available for everyone and waking up easy even easier, without compromising on quality," Maciek Drejak, founder of Sleep Cycle alarm clock and CEO of Northcube, said in a company press release statement.
He added: "Sleep Cycle is still the same app, with all the features that our users love. The only difference is now it's available as freemium and users can choose to place the phone on their nightstand or on the floor instead of in their bed, while remaining confident Sleep Cycle will accurately track their sleep and wake them up at the optimal time in the morning."
The new app features a Trends tab, offering everything from a sleep trends overview to an in-depth sleep history, and world sleep statistics to compare your quality of sleep cycles to that of different countries' averages around the world.
