3 ms·

I always wonder why no binary clock works with fractions. So the first minute pixel would show you in which half of the hour you are, the second in which of the

I always wonder why no binary clock works with fractions. So the first minute pixel would show you in which half of the hour you are, the second in which of the both quarters of the hour. The rest 4 would show you which of the fifteen minutes in the quarter it is. That way you can see pretty fast around what time it is.

gefh 11y ago
The top two lights in this system are 30 and 15 minutes. Still I think you could make it more intuitive still by just breaking up the 30 minute light into two smaller ones for each 15 minute increment. Maybe add another for the 45 and 60 case. You could sub divide these almost infinitely, maybe arrange them in a circle to make it easily readable. In fact, as the lit region would anyways be contiguous, all that's really needed is to show the leading edge of the region which I guess you could do with some kind of needle or rotating pointer, and you'd always know the time past the hour at a glance. Something similar could be done for the hour with a little thought, I believe. Maybe as a proportion of the day, or you could again increase readability by limiting to proportion of a half day, as I think people can instinctively tell whether it's +/- 12 hours of any given hour.
- JoshTriplett 11y ago
  Not a bad idea; with practice, that representation could provide approximate time at a glance. However, the on-off indicators shown here seem more precise, if less readable at a glance. With a bit of additional logic, a clock could translate the current time into a set of lights that could form rudimentary digit representations, providing an instantly readable time. Some rough sketches suggest that around 7 oblong lights or "segments" per digit could form readable, unambiguous decimal digits; the leftmost digit of the hour would only need two of those, making a total of 23 "segments", or more if showing seconds. Somewhat more than the binary version, but far more usable.
  - gefh 11y ago
    Outlandish and frankly ridiculous. It would never catch on.
  - 50CNT 11y ago
    Using a series of these digit representations, we could display arbitrary numbers. One envisions a device that has a number of tactile buttons that correspond to numbers or mathematical functions, and by actuating these buttons, one may have the device perform operations that are laborious for human minds, but simple when expressed in digital logic.
jhallenworld 11y ago
Bi-color LEDs should be used so that you can have a balanced ternary clock. This has the advantage that the time is correctly rounded even when digits are truncated. Also you only need 7 LEDs for a 24-hour clock.

gefh 11y ago

The top two lights in this system are 30 and 15 minutes. Still I think you could make it more intuitive still by just breaking up the 30 minute light into two smaller ones for each 15 minute increment. Maybe add another for the 45 and 60 case. You could sub divide these almost infinitely, maybe arrange them in a circle to make it easily readable. In fact, as the lit region would anyways be contiguous, all that's really needed is to show the leading edge of the region which I guess you could do with some kind of needle or rotating pointer, and you'd always know the time past the hour at a glance. Something similar could be done for the hour with a little thought, I believe. Maybe as a proportion of the day, or you could again increase readability by limiting to proportion of a half day, as I think people can instinctively tell whether it's +/- 12 hours of any given hour.

JoshTriplett 11y ago
Not a bad idea; with practice, that representation could provide approximate time at a glance. However, the on-off indicators shown here seem more precise, if less readable at a glance. With a bit of additional logic, a clock could translate the current time into a set of lights that could form rudimentary digit representations, providing an instantly readable time. Some rough sketches suggest that around 7 oblong lights or "segments" per digit could form readable, unambiguous decimal digits; the leftmost digit of the hour would only need two of those, making a total of 23 "segments", or more if showing seconds. Somewhat more than the binary version, but far more usable.
- gefh 11y ago
  Outlandish and frankly ridiculous. It would never catch on.
- 50CNT 11y ago
  Using a series of these digit representations, we could display arbitrary numbers. One envisions a device that has a number of tactile buttons that correspond to numbers or mathematical functions, and by actuating these buttons, one may have the device perform operations that are laborious for human minds, but simple when expressed in digital logic.

jhallenworld 11y ago

Bi-color LEDs should be used so that you can have a balanced ternary clock. This has the advantage that the time is correctly rounded even when digits are truncated. Also you only need 7 LEDs for a 24-hour clock.