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

Little flags that wave when the alarm clock goes off
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A long pennant is carried at the end of a light rod pivoted and moved vertically by a voice coil motor which is rotated about a horizontal axis by a stepper motor, both controlled by the signals from a microcontroller programmed with different movement patterns according to the type of alarm.

The path of the tip of the rod will be followed by the pennant due to aerodynamic forces much like a laser painting an outline.

For example, the outline of a feline head followed by that of a saucer would mean that it is now time to give kitty her milk.

neelandan, Jan 02 2002

Mechanically scanning LED clock http://engineering..../GuthrieBovill.html
What StarChaser says: clock traces out a pattern in the air using fast-moving LEDs. [pottedstu, Jan 04 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]

This is the specific clock I was talking about. http://shopping.dis...tId=11402&langId=-1
Rather neat. [StarChaser, Jan 05 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]

[link]






       mmmm Flaky
thumbwax, Jan 02 2002
  

       How do you program the pattern you want?
phoenix, Jan 02 2002
  

       <grin> Little waving flags and lots of blinkenlights...
StarChaser, Jan 03 2002
  

       In a semaphore pattern. "W A K E  U P,  F O O L!"
bristolz, Jan 03 2002
  

       Peter: I've got one of those clocks...there's another sort that does kind of the same thing, but has a propellor sort of dealie. It can show the time or messages or lots of stuff...
StarChaser, Jan 03 2002
  

       phoenix: I know it is January. And there is a risk of freezing. Anyway, open Windoze. Brrrr ... Open a vector drawing program and draw the shape you need. A conversion and communication program will download the x and y coordinates required by the microcontroller into a battery backed memory, possibly through a porno chewer type of link.
neelandan, Jan 05 2002
  

       Uhhh, yeah, sure! Those blinkenlights and waving flags will wake me right up! And the last cat I met was pretty insistent in getting its own way without the help of an alarm. Sorry, neelandan, fishbone.   

       Methinks t'would be much easier to have pre-recorded voice message reminders play through the speaker or install an LCD screen to display an appropriate graphic for each task or event.
Canuck, Jan 05 2002
  

       Pottedstu: That's not the one I was thinking of, although those are cool anyway...I found it, if anyone wants to see it, a link appears.   

       Canuck: The point is not to be awakened, it's to be cool. This would be really cool.
StarChaser, Jan 05 2002
  

       As StarChaser said, idea baked, automatic croissant
smokeyjohnson, Aug 16 2002
  
      
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