An alarm clock which tells users the best way to get to work by monitoring the weather conditions has been developed to encourage low carbon travel.

The alarm picks up weather and travel reports through an RSS wifi feed, calculating the travel time needed to get to work, according to the weather, a University of Brighton spokesman said.

Act Alarm clock, developed by Samuel Young, a sustainable product design student at the university, has three main functions - a projector displaying data on the ceiling when the alarm is triggered, a three-day weather report, and personal incentives on burning calories and financial savings to make travel easier and less stressful.

Mr Young, who is a keen cyclist, came up with the idea as a way of encouraging people to walk or cycle to work and rather than setting the alarm for a time to wake, it is programmed for the time a person wants to get to work.

He said: "Good weather reports mean you'll have time to use sustainable transport, to walk or cycle, and cut your use of carbon fuel."