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personal clock

dedicated to farmerjohn
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This clock basically displays the rightish time on your computerscreen. The idea is for how the program behind it tells time.

Your computer is linked to all the stuff in your house. It Times exactly:

When you go to the toilet.

When you make coffee.

When you turn the lights on/off.

When you turn tv/hifi-set/computer on/off.

When you use electric toothbrush/shaver.

When you leave/enter the house.

When doorbell/telephone rings.

Etc.

Thus it plots the movements through time of all family members. It searches for patterns, it draws conclusions. It sets the results against normal time for about a month and then it calculates averages. If you brush your teeth every morning between say, 6:30 and 6:45 it is clear that if it detects the activation of the toothbrush it must be 6:37-something. This is not very accurate. But it then correlates this data with the data it gets from the coffee machine and the toilet and shower and front door etc. throughout the days.

One morning the computer is baffled. The toothbrush is not activated at the right time. "What could be wrong? The toilet is used, yes but only briefly. The front door stays closed... Ah the phone rings, but wait! no one answers. What the hell is going on?" the computer says to nobody in particular. "hey, it must be sunday!"

zeno, Feb 21 2005

Village Clock Village_20clock
A similar idea, but from the other direction [Ling, Feb 24 2005]

[link]






       My clock face is tickled pink.
FarmerJohn, Feb 21 2005
  

       A computer that learns your schedule and can figure out when something's amiss could be useful.
Chrontius, Feb 21 2005
  

       I don't know. Mine would be waking my errant ass up four days out of seven.   

       Of course, if I could choose the voice it used.....
normzone, Feb 21 2005
  

       It could help the Thought Police (if they existed) with their enquiries (if Oceana and Big Brother existed in the first place)
froglet, Feb 21 2005
  

       Waddayamean 'if?'
Nice and doable.
gnomethang, Feb 21 2005
  

       I envy your life with so many routines. I use my Treo the other way round, it warns me to do such things as you mention otherwise I might forget because I am having fun doing other things.
rrr, Feb 23 2005
  

       But what if someone, say a spy, or the CIA, got a hold of your information. Wouldn't they then know when to infiltrate your home, knowing full well it was time for your dailly constitution?
blissmiss, Feb 24 2005
  

       Hang On! I think that I read about a similar idea being put into practice. It was in London's Metro' freebie paper a couple of days ago. Ther is a house (somewhere!) that can profile the household use in order to design better spaces. Everyone who enters the house is electronically tagged to ascertain their movements for an ergonomical review. Related idea but somewhat relevant - I'll try to find a link.
gnomethang, Feb 24 2005
  
      
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