Often, they start beeping in the middle of the night, and more often than not, owners remove the batteries, go back to bed, and forget to put in new ones the next day.
But a group of St Hilda's Collegiate School pupils have come up with a smoking hot idea that could mean anyone with a cellphone would have a smoke alarm wherever they went.
During the 2013 Information Science Technology Challenge at the University of Otago yesterday, Sophia Cormack, Brooke Craik and Chelsea Whittaker (all 17) designed a smoke-detecting device they called Fire Wire which could be attached to mobile phones.
''There's been a lot of advertising on TV lately about checking the batteries in your smoke alarms,'' Sophia said.
''Most people use their mobile phones as an alarm clock these days - we have them with us all the time.
''This gives us extra security and peace of mind that if there is a fire in the night, your phone will wake you and let you know.''
Although the gadget is not yet a reality, the girls are not discounting turning their invention into a working product.
''At this stage, it's just an idea on paper, but it has a very practical, real-world audience,'' Brooke said.
The event introduced teams of year 12 and 13 pupils to emerging technologies being researched by staff in the information science department.
This year, pupils were introduced to integrated mobile computing (investigating how to harness the power and possibilities of mobile devices); data-mining (investigating how to create value out of large volumes of data); augmented reality and context (investigating how to use technology to blur the lines between what is real and what is computer-generated); and collaborative decision-making (investigating the potential of crowd-sourcing, social media and other tools for distributed problem-solving).
Teams were challenged to identify a problem that could be solved, or a business concept that could be developed, using one of these technologies.
The St Hilda's team won the overall award. Other awards presented were for best presentation (Queen's High School) and best understanding of technology (Logan Park High School). The audience choice award was won by Otago Girls' High School.
