Nicholas Wallen’s tick-talk clock takes an interesting look at what constitutes a clock. Built using an Arduino, some stepper motors, and two homemade wheel displays, it constructs a two-phrase message that might have something to do with the current time. If it feels like it. From his website:
tick-talk is a clock that tells time. Given, it isn’t an extraordinarily useful clock. Instead, it’s how a person might tell time if s/he were asked to sit on a shelf or hang on a wall and say the time every few seconds. tick-talk gets lazy and will sometimes try to change the subject. Occasionally, tick-talk draws a blank.
4 thoughts on “Tick-talk clock amuses, might tell time”
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What constitutes a clock is an interesting question but the purpose of a clock is that it tells you the time. This doesn’t seem to always do that.
Sundials don’t always either, though, and I think they are still considered clocks. I suppose the difference is whether the obstruction is deliberate or an unavoidable factor of the thing being measured. I wonder, has anyone made a clock that only works nine to five?