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Time (in color)

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There are pen lights and night lights that use the new super-bright light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Each light is a combination of color LEDs, and a digital dimming circuit produces rainbow hues. My idea is to group four of these multicolor lights, in a sort of digital clock, one light for each "digit’, but no actual numerals. A separate LED indicates am/pm if desired. This may be for a watch, wall clock, an entire wall...
How to tell time using colors:
Use the electronic resistor code. Black, Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Gray, and White, correspond to 0 through 9 in sequence. In this case black is "light’s out". To display 12:30, the lights would be brown, red, orange, black.
Amos Kito, Dec 03 2002

LED rainbow hue illuminated displays for crystal figurines http://www.crystal-...m/index.cfm?Cat=334
One of these may be used as one "digit". [Amos Kito, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

LED Clock Applet http://techhouse.br...u/~deigen/th/clock/
This clock is similar to my idea. You can tell the time "to the nearest ten minutes". [Amos Kito, Oct 05 2004]

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       I like the idea, but it seems like it'd be a jumble of color that'd be tough to read.   

       I'd rather have one that swept through the hues. Put red at 6:00 AM, yellow at noon, blue at 6:00 PM and purple at midnight, and let all other times be the proper place along the gradient. Gives a nice sense of time as smoothly flowing, rather than arbitrarily divided and subdivided. Maybe have a more specific digital readout that can be turned on/off for those people who have appointments to keep, though.
bookworm, Dec 03 2002
  

       Bookworm’s idea would work much better for universal recognition. But if the colors were displayed individually, the on looker would find it difficult to interpret without a reference point (color scale) or prior knowledge of the color "code".
edzspace, Dec 03 2002
  

       //have one that swept through the hues//
Sure, why not? Just flip a switch, and all lights operate in unison. There may be a slight learning curve.
  

       //grey light//
And brown is tricky. After a little experimentation, it looks like "pink" and "cyan" can replace grey & brown. If I deviate from the resistor color-code, I can re-sequence the hues, as well. Maybe at certain times, you'll get the good ol' red white & blue. Or blue-white-red... vive la France!
Amos Kito, Dec 03 2002
  
      
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