When Jacob Vosmaer's wife pointed out his unhealthy habit of sitting motionless at his desk for hours, he built a deliberately annoying device he calls "The Beeper." This small box, mounted away from his desk, forces him to get up and move regularly—or face the consequences of random, shrill beeping that won't stop until he physically walks over to silence it.
"It's a silly device but it works," Vosmaer writes in his blog. "It appears that the 10 seconds it takes for me to get up and push the button are enough to counteract the discomfort caused by sitting still too long."
The system consists of three parts: a small hardware box containing an ESP8266 microcontroller and buzzer, custom firmware that generates randomized annoying sounds, and monitoring software on his work computer that triggers the device after 20 minutes of continuous computer use.
The genius lies in its simplicity and forced compliance. The only way to silence the random-pitched beeping is to physically stand up and press a reset button on the device. To avoid unnecessary interruptions, the software checks if Vosmaer's screen is locked (indicating he's away) or if he's in a Zoom meeting before activating. "After many Zoom calls where I had to ask people to wait while I got up and turned off the beeper, I decided it would be better to not beep while I'm in a meeting," he explains.
After eight years of use, this DIY health intervention continues to succeed where other ergonomic solutions have failed. The randomized pitches prevent him from mentally tuning out the noise, while the physical placement ensures he can't silence it without moving. Vosmaer credits his wife both for the initial inspiration and for "putting up with the horrible screeching noises from the Beeper for the past 8 years and counting."
Previously:
• Phantom Keystroker prank device
