New method of displaying time

[BWF89]

It's a system that uses colors corrosponding with 12 hours of the day. Along with a moon that slowly turns into the color of the color of the hour to tell how many minutes have passed. The bigger the moon the more minutes have passed. Sounds like a cool idea, I'm not whether or not it will catch on though.

The only problem I see is they only color code 12 hours of the day. What if I lived somewhere like Alaska where 6 months of the year it's dark most of the day. How would I for instance be able to tell 1AM from 1PM if I were looking at a TWELV clock? Their assuming you would know whether it was AM or PM when your looking at the clock but not in all places.

http://www.gizmag.com/go/6312/

[JonahRowley]

Um.. that's neat I guess. What's wrong with the existing clocks? Do we really need something more abstract? :P

[maniacmusician]

hehe why not? its more interesting at least.

[Kayne]

I think that the idea is useful. About the abstract thing... like the article said, use it and you learn it automatically. It's just like learning 12 new letters in an alphabet, it's not that hard.

But I doubt that this system has a real chance ;)

[JonahRowley]

Use it and learn it automatically? But I already know how to tell time on my normal (digital and analog) clocks.

[Kayne]

Did you actually read the article? The advantages mentioned there are quite convincing IMO.

[JonahRowley]

I had skimmed it before, but I actually read it this time. As for as aesthetics go, this is pretty neat. I still fail to see how this is practical at all though. Maybe on extremely tiny displays (I guess you could display this in as little as 16x16), but even that "at a distance" thing isn't very convincing. I can see the minute and hour hands on a clock for a very long way away.

[Engnome]

The only problem I see is they only color code 12 hours of the day. What if I lived somewhere like Alaska where 6 months of the year it's dark most of the day. How would I for instance be able to tell 1AM from 1PM if I were looking at a TWELV clock? Their assuming you would know whether it was AM or PM when your looking at the clock but not in all places.

http://www.gizmag.com/go/6312/

Well a normal analog clock doesn't tell you that either. I sure they still have them in Alaska though...

Bigger problem for the color blind than the people living up north.

[Kateikyoushi]

The only problem I see is they only color code 12 hours of the day. What if I lived somewhere like Alaska where 6 months of the year it's dark most of the day. How would I for instance be able to tell 1AM from 1PM if I were looking at a TWELV clock? Their assuming you would know whether it was AM or PM when your looking at the clock but not in all places.

http://www.gizmag.com/go/6312/

Well they could use a sun logo for am and a moon for pm.
Actually I like it looks fresh and interesting with the right design would get one for my living room and ask if my friends can guess what it is.
But would rather go with a 24 our watch.

[ixus_123]

I think unix time is great or swatch beat as you don't have to factor in GMT +/- n it's just one time for the whole planet.

I used to have this on my Desktop & just had to scroll the mousewheel over it to change from unix time to swatch to normal clock. Can't rememer what desktop though - was it ever part of the Ubuntu install?

[slimdog360]

I can see it now
someone running down the street, jumping into a taxi and saying to the taxi driver, "step on it, Ive got a meeting at half past blue new moon and its already a quarter to red full moon."