word clock slowly reveals the time with text on [technabob]

word clock slowly reveals the time with text

posted: April 19th, 2008 stumble it!46 comments author: technabob

This has got to be one of the most amazing clock designs I’ve ever seen. At first glance, the display looks like a bunch of random matchsticks, but over time, they gradually transform into words that tell the time.

Animated Word Clock by Christiaan Postma

Conceived by Dutch industrial designer Christiaan Postma, the clock goes beyond the simple dial and number paradigms we’re all used to seeing, and really thinks outside of the box. Postma used over 150 individual clock mechanisms to power the 55-inch square timepiece.

For those of you with Flash installed (who doesn’t these days?), check out the animation below to see how it really works.

At this point, it’s not clear if Postma plans to produce the word clock, or if it’s simply a design prototype. Regardless, it’s a really unique idea, and I’d be thrilled to hang one on my wall if he ever does bring these to market.

[via Pan-Dan]

46 comments comment

1. New York City Wedding Photographer | April 20th, 2008 at 3:57 am

This is so AMAZING! I want one

Peace,
Parris Whitingham
New York City Wedding Photographer
2. Li Zhang | April 20th, 2008 at 11:47 am

This is awesome.
3. college student | April 20th, 2008 at 1:51 pm

very cool idea, but will it be able to say when its say..230?
4. aklsjedh | April 20th, 2008 at 3:01 pm

were can i buy one?
5. e | April 20th, 2008 at 5:02 pm

i see the one through twelve number appears, but where are the rest?
6. pimaster | April 20th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

WANT!
7. james | April 20th, 2008 at 6:12 pm

e: there are only 12 numbers on a clock, so it would probably work hourly, you’d have a rough idea of what time it would be.
8. John | April 20th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

2:00 = When the letters for Two are clearly visible and the lines in them straight.
2:15 ish = When Two is starting to get garbled
2:30 = When Two and Three are both half-visible.
2:45 = When Three is almost visible and Two is nearly gone
3:00 = When Three is clearly visible and the lines straight.

You could really get used to it and be able to tell what time it is, maybe down to the minute, maybe with a 1 minute margin of error.
9. Grant | April 20th, 2008 at 9:42 pm

Colliding bits would be a problem, although I guess that you could just make it a digital performance, rather then real clockwork. But it did take a very very long time to make I’m sure…….. I really really want one now! >.<
10. bob | April 20th, 2008 at 11:30 pm

lame
11. Geoserv | April 21st, 2008 at 6:59 am

STUMBLED!

Very cool.

VOTED for you at:
http://www.newsdots.com/gadgets/word-clock-slowly-reveals-the-time-with-text-on-technabob/
12. eric | April 21st, 2008 at 7:43 am

how stupid.. it’s new but it’s not very attractive and very cluttered..
13. cpetersen | April 21st, 2008 at 4:27 pm

Photoshopped
14. tricia | April 21st, 2008 at 4:49 pm

why must at least one person on every blog site say “photoshopped”. its not even like, applicable for this! it tells time! its genius!
15. Internet Commenter | April 21st, 2008 at 5:01 pm

Fake.
16. technabob | April 21st, 2008 at 6:53 pm

It’s not fake. It’s a prototype design for a real clock.
17. susi | April 22nd, 2008 at 12:36 am

I think its a Great Idea and enjoyed watching it…..Very Interesting..i would have to say…..I would be a BIG HIT….Bring it out to the market just b 4 the HOLIDAYS and OH SNAPPPPPP…..lol…….Cha Ching Cha Ching
18. Steve Yu | April 22nd, 2008 at 5:53 am

Amazing!!! It must take hard work to come out with such an amazing design.
19. overklokan | April 22nd, 2008 at 2:51 pm

amazing really … and proves that there’s and order in just about anything, it’s nothing but observer’s low level of perception that is founding the term “chaos”!
20. Ben Addlestone | April 22nd, 2008 at 7:33 pm

Must take a hell of a long time to set
21. sdfgf | April 22nd, 2008 at 9:53 pm

SRC code?
22. hoooahhh | April 22nd, 2008 at 10:01 pm

i want one, but wouldn’t pay more than $300, I’m not sure if they could mass produce it at that price point.
23. Pedo | April 23rd, 2008 at 12:46 pm

Pretty cool, not useful or anything, but cool nonetheless.
24. auz | April 23rd, 2008 at 1:17 pm

Photoshopped and Fake people are idiots…

Just because you can’t think of a cool idea to get you laid or our of your parents basement, doesn’t mean that everyone else is faking it….
25. Tfar | April 23rd, 2008 at 4:16 pm

Photoshopped? What is the matter with our community these days? All the things that are not photoshopped are the real problem.
26. technabob | April 23rd, 2008 at 5:34 pm

I think that the real question should be whether they used Photoshop Elements or Photoshop CS3.
27. Remy | April 23rd, 2008 at 7:17 pm

Yea, i really don’t like this idea at all.
28. Remy | April 23rd, 2008 at 7:21 pm

And to those people that think it’s photoshopped… ur idiots. It’s a CONCEPT! it’s not like they actually made it yet. besides, you can just slow the sample animation, resize it to the right size, and put it on an lcd screen. there, that would work.
29. Lisa | April 24th, 2008 at 3:49 am

I wouldn’t want to change it for Daylight Savings
30. john | April 25th, 2008 at 10:42 am

yep that photoshoped alright, see how the shadows are clearly on the wrong side…!?
what moron would use photoshop, it would be more like flash, if anything.

were looking at a unique idea here, a design prototype.

i like the idea, nice job.
31. Sayne | April 25th, 2008 at 5:58 pm

I don’t know if I’d call it a clock really, more of a ‘1 to 12 counter’. I understand that it’s just a display animation, because the time doesn’t really equate to anything right now, but it seems pretty useless unless you wanted to know if it was somewhere between 1 and 2 or between 2 and 3, etc. There’s no way to get any sense of the specific time.

“You could really get used to it and be able to tell what time it is…”

Yeah sure, but who wants to study a clock to figure out what time it is. The point of having a clock or watch is to *know* the time, to keep yourself on “schedule”.
32. Sayne | April 25th, 2008 at 5:58 pm

Oh and if you look at it upside-down through a mirror at just the right time, it says ‘ELVIS LIVES’.
33. Phil E. Drifter | April 26th, 2008 at 12:34 am

“very cool idea, but will it be able to say when its say..230?”

As I saw in the examples, the matches creep closer to spelling out ‘THREE’ and when three o’clock hits those matches start drifting apart and other matches start lining up to produce ‘FOUR.’

You gotta be some kind of stupid to not see that.
34. Ben Addlestone | April 26th, 2008 at 3:01 pm

I don’t believe this - how can you say a PROTOTYPE design is photoshopped? What would it be trying to prove by photoshopping something like this?

And what - photoshop? It’s an IDEA not a bloody iPhone! Jeez… i’m getting so frustrated - the next one who says that this has been “photoshopped” i will actually come round to their house and smash up their computer with my bare hands…
35. hey | April 26th, 2008 at 6:36 pm

55 inches?! my TV isnt even that big!
36. Interesting but | April 27th, 2008 at 6:42 am

Interesting, but how would you even set the time?
37. annie | April 27th, 2008 at 9:24 am

Seems like it has been exhibited as a prototype last week in Milan.
http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2008/04/christiaan_post.php
38. Faint Megaville | April 29th, 2008 at 10:18 am

Simpsons did it.
39. gregory | May 1st, 2008 at 4:42 pm

First of all, let me make it clear that I think this is a wonderful, creative idea that I would never have thought of, and I’m not trying to bash it in any way.

However, it isn’t as complex as you all are making it out to be. You must simply write out every word, then split it into lines, and have then stagger the rotation so that one word shows up after another.
40. Aleks | May 1st, 2008 at 8:45 pm

Why must someone always say fake, or photoshoped, all you people must be total dicks to have nothing better to do than say somting new you have never seen before is fake.
41. Asp.net help | May 16th, 2008 at 2:58 pm

Great idea, hope to see one in the market!
42. Morgan | May 19th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

I think all the people getting angry about the “Photoshopped”comments are the ones showing themselves up as idiots. Evidently you can’t photoshop a flash of a prototype. They’re taking the piss, come on,lighten up!
43. ollie | May 21st, 2008 at 1:02 pm

A good conversational time piece.
44. James Smith | May 21st, 2008 at 8:16 pm

“Really Unique” is that as opposed to “falsely unique”?

Seriously, by the time it actually displays the time, I would already be late. Interesting, but useless. Much like this site. LOL
45. technabob | May 22nd, 2008 at 10:26 pm

The grammar police have won this round, but I shall one day return to exact revenge!
46. mindset | July 18th, 2008 at 7:17 pm

Take your pick:

This design is [fake/photoshopped], I can tell by the [pixels/shadows]. You guys are such [losers/retards].

This is fun!