Upon ending or snoozing an alarm, an alarm clock module automatically engages media controlling devices to accomplish selected tasks. Examples of selected tasks include getting political or financial news, receiving a weather forecast or current traffic conditions, viewing or listen to entertainment, and accessing a planner or a calendar. In other words, the alarm clock module allows users to personalize what content the user would like to access or play while waking up. In use, the user has the ability to skip or adjust the order in which content is accessed or played. The alarm clock module differs from known media controlling devices which interface with virtual assistants because the primary input for the alarm clock module involves turning off or snoozing the alarm.

A tap sensitive alarm clock has a housing (20), a vibration sensor (22) mechanically coupled to the housing for receiving a shock due to a user tapping the housing, and a control circuit (24) coupled to the vibration sensor for controlling a function of the alarm clock. An audio unit (26) is coupled to an audio circuit (25) for generating sound, e.g. a loudspeaker in an alarm clock or a wake up light. To avoid interference of the sound and the vibration sensor, the alarm clock is provided with a filter (23) coupled to the vibration sensor and the control circuit. The filter has a filter curve matched to block frequencies occurring in the sound. Advantageously it is avoided that the sound frequencies trigger the function, while the sensor is sensitive to other frequencies up to the frequency range of the sound for reliably detecting the tapping.

The alarm monitoring system provides various alerts of events that are not readily discernable to those individuals that are deaf or hard of hearing. The system generates visual, vibratory, and high decibel alerts separately or in combination to alert the user to a wide variety of events in combination with a vibratory illuminating puck shaped device and allows a user to filter out alerts based upon a variety of modifiers.