The sleeve slips over a standard size pillow and placed inside a normal pillow case.
The electronics connect to a smartphone, via a microcontroller. It’s then wirelessly linked to household alarms.
Once slept on, the smart pillow use different vibration pulses to indicate between fire alarms, burglar alarms and phone calls.
Dr Theo Hughes-Riley, who supervised the research, said: “This smart design represents a significant step toward inclusive emergency alert systems, allowing deaf and deafblind individuals to sleep more safely – and with greater peace of mind and comfort.
“It has been an entirely user-led development, stemming from feedback from the Deaf community, who told us exactly what kind of real world challenges they face which might be solved with electronic textiles.”
The research team are now working to develop the prototype further and find an industrial partner, who would be interested in taking the product to market.