Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'

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Chrotograph
Contact lens clock
Egg Clock
Faunal Clock
Galileo Chronometer
Half past empty
Hourly Earnings Clock
Jigsaw Clock
Joke Clock
...

product:clock: display

... analogue
... digital
... figure
... light
... rotation
... sky
... water

Chrotograph

Chronograph + Photograph

(+3)

[vote for,
against]

A series of pictures of famous landmarks wherein large portions of the picture are comprised of fiber optics. This allows the picture to display the relative time using the environment in the picture.

In the morning, the photgraph displays the sun rising. By noon, all shadows are gone. Later, you can watch the sun set and lights come on (as applicable). The device can be set to "show the time" for any time zone, but by default comes set for the time zone of the subject in the picture.

Collect a whole series and watch the sun go around the world from the comfort of your living room.

—	phoenix, Aug 31 2003

Webcams from around the world http://www.webcamsearch.com/
A lot of these webcam sites update as frequently as every 60 seconds. Be forewarned: the site is inundated by pop-ups, one of which (humorously) is the University of Phoenix. [jurist, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Webcams http://www.webcam-index.com
Live free webcam directory with over 1500 quality webcams from all over the world [troyid, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

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Annotation:

Would this not be more simple on an LCD screen, playing a video of said picture?

—	silverstormer, Aug 31 2003

if it were a portrait, the eyes and shadows would all follow you round the room.

—	po, Aug 31 2003

I like the idea but am a little less convinced of the fiber-optic method. Seems awfully fussy.

—	bristolz, Aug 31 2003

Yeah, when the idea came to me last night I had intended to be intentionally vague about the technology behind the change in the picture. Ir really doesn't matter how high or low tech it is. I wanted a room with 24 clocks, in order, each showing a scene from a different time zone.

—	phoenix, Aug 31 2003

You get my croissant then now!

—	silverstormer, Aug 31 2003

I think silverstormer is on the right track. Surely there are enough extant webcam sites available right now that you could have 24-hour surveillance of notable and not-so-notable sites all around the world. The limitation becomes having the dedicated power and the financial wherewithal to run 24 monitors simultaneously in your home living room.

—	jurist, Aug 31 2003

//pictures of famous landmarks//
It could also be done with sundials.

—	Amos Kito, Sep 01 2004

This is not at all like your previous idea, the Schrotograph.

—	bungston, Sep 01 2004

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