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

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...
Khrushchev-esque shoe-related mechanical clock
MagnetiClock
military socket clock
Remembrance Clock
Simple Auditory Clock Using Dissonant Sine Waves
Subliminal Sound Clock
Surrealist clock
Village clock
Wall scroll clock

product:clock: display

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Simple Auditory Clock Using Dissonant Sine Waves

Tell time using very slowly modulating chords.

(+5)

[vote for,
against]

The idea being that you would have a clock where the "hands" were replaced by 3 sinewave oscillators - The pitches of the sinewave oscillators would rise and fall according to various cycles - one on a 60-second cycle, one on a 60-minute cycle, and one on a 24 hour cycle. At even hours or half hours the sine waves would align to play consonant chords - at other times they would play dissonant chords. The enharmonic pulses created by the dissonance between tones could be used as a way to count how many minutes before or after the hour. Maybe this would have some kind of practical application for the blind, besides just being a neat idea.

—	feedmewithyourkids, Jul 03 2003

SineClock http://shoko.calart...rboy/SineClock.html
Baked (for BeOS) [karunai, Oct 04 2004]

Updated version of above-linked SineClock page http://douglasrepet...ortfolio/sineclock/
The BeOS version (1997) is still available, but there's now also a Mac/Windows version (2003), an electronic hardware version as well (2004), and a physical product version (2018). Also, check out this guy's whole portfolio ("works" in the navigation bar)—he's got lots of interesting stuff [notexactly, Dec 07 2019]

The site where you buy the product mentioned in the description of the previous link http://sineclock.com/
[notexactly, Dec 07 2019]

[link]

Excellent idea, funny nic - If I may, I'd suggest the Circle of Fifths be used to denote each hour, i.e. 12 = C, 1 = G, 2 = D, 3 = A, 4 = E, 5 = B, and so forth - this would make the day flow smoother.

—	thumbwax, Jul 03 2003

Gorgeous. +

—	bristolz, Jul 03 2003

Very good. However, its sound might interfere with watching TV, listening to radio, or playing music. Perhaps some kind of control to turn it up or down is in order?

+ anyway.

—	galukalock, Jul 03 2003

You just put an dissonant sine wave cancellation clock in the room where the TV is.

—	bristolz, Jul 03 2003

An LFO on the amplitude of all 3 waves (with a quick peak and a long, shallow trough) could be set to make the clock "chime" at the hours or half hours if you didn't want it to sound constantly.

—	feedmewithyourkids, Jul 04 2003

Brilliant! Keep up the good ideas and you will soon become a [lostdog]

—	silverstormer, Jul 04 2003

Pure sine waves don't produce consonant and dissonant chords in the same way that normal tones do, because they don't have harmonic serieses.

—	pocmloc, Dec 07 2019

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