Let Me Briefly Consult My Finger…
..is what I would say if this concept design for a fingernail timepiece were to actually make it into our daily lives. From the 2154: The Future of Time Design website:
TX54 is a disposable timepiece that is worn on the user’s thumbnail. While its translucency makes it blend seamlessly with the hand, a selection of text color options and a glow feature that activates on command make it easy to read.
Now, forget the finger. Wouldn’t you prefer to simply know the time, without having to think about it? On second thought, that might be a little maddening, especially for those as obsessed with the passage of time as your truly. In any case, here it is:
Sublimex is worn on the eye like a contact lens where it periodically flashes the time so quickly that the brain isn’t conscious of how it got the information. The user seems to simply know the time, raising a host of possibilities about how the nature of clockwatching would change.
But you see, we live in a time where designers make drooling lechers of us all. They flaunt their charts, mock-ups, concept art and shiny 3-D models without concrete promise of these ideas ever making it into our homes, laps, nails, etc. But I always come back for more, grateful to them for bringing this Future For The Home we dream of just a little closer.
[Thanks, Kris!]
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:09 pm
The finger nail idea seems a bit gross to me for some reason and you’d definetly need to be pretty close to see what it says–it’d probably look like you looking at dirt or something D:
But the contact lense thing would be pretty sick–still, its all kind of weird.
Technology advances far too quickly, I wouldn’t be surprised to see these on the market in a few years.
Scares me :/
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Terror! TERROR!
(And also…how would you set them? Or…would the come set? SO MANY QUESTIONS!)
July 23rd, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Will they make a tasty thumbnail one for days when we feel a bit bitey?
Also, that subliminal one seems like it’s worryingly open to abuse from the manufacturers, doesn’t it? They’d have to have some serious regulatory body overseeing that little doozy, or every day it’d be, like, “Man, it’s 3.14 and I really fancy a Coke again…” ;O
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Oh god, I want the contacts. I want the finger nails too but I mess them up too much. Stop post cyberpunk porn! I want to do dirty things to a pair of contacts. That’s wrong, isn’t it?
July 24th, 2008 at 2:46 am
I don’t really want to know the time that bad. More so since I already carry around a clock on my iPod, Cellphone, and when I feel like it….watch.
I’d rather have news feeds that tell me the news without me having to watch TV, read a website, or listen to the radio. Maybe even something mundane like a grocery list that reminds me what I need as I pass it in the supermarket.
July 24th, 2008 at 5:14 am
i’m down with the fingernail idea, it’s fantastic.
but i’d be wary of the subliminal time contact as i have enough problems clock-watching when i’m at work and it’d probably make every minute drag on that much more. at least with the nail i could ignore the slow passage of time. nej tak.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:32 am
I actually had this idea, only instead of a fingernail or a contact it would be a plastic strip that could be surgically imbedded under the skin of the wrist. To see the time you would tap your wrist, and the numbers would glow through the skin.
I would totally go for it. As for the thumbnail, well, I bite my fingernails. I can just imagine the sickening sound of my pearly whites chomping through a hundred (or thousand) dollar piece of technology…
July 24th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Alice, Mark – don’t worry! Let the nice scientist man take care of the setting, programming, etc. You trust the good scientists, yes?
Oddityodyssey, yes. Yes it is, but we won’t judge you here.
Tequila, I imagine shopping list and news-feeding technology wouldn’t be far behind.
Benjabimon, I’m in agreement with you there. Subliminal time reminders would likely drive me mad, too.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:11 am
The fingernail stuff could be so much more useful for SPY stuff. James Bond would have loved it. Maybe it could be a fingernail with network access and he could get messages sent to it. That would be fabulous.
Also, give time to someone to figure out a way to mess with those time telling contact lenses and replace time information with a random LOLcatz.
“Excuse me, do you know what time it is?”
“I CAN HAZ CHEEZBURGER”
July 24th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Reading this article and then the comments has caused the rise of a fairly interesting question. how many people actually follow the time that intesively. it seems that people will happily rely on having a clock on their phone as opposed to having one strapped to their wrist.
July 24th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Hmmm…how intriguing!
I think that my (often broken) pocketwatch does just fine for my time telling needs…
but how about a fingernail *calculator* geek-gleeeeeee!
…or a retractable fingertip tape measure!!!! (I’m always looking for ways to one-up the other carpenters! heh)
July 24th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Amazing…and scary. I’m down with the fingernail, though when I first read it I thought it said UNDER the fingernail, and I was like “OhGODNOOODJDKFOJSDFKLD!!!”
But the contact thing is a definite no. My 10.5 hour work day already goes by like molasses…and the opportunity for foul play seems way too high. It kind of reminds me of the audio spotlight..
July 27th, 2008 at 9:43 am
I love this kind of stuff. Thumbnail timepiece for me please. I already see flashes of shit that aren’t/shouldn’t be there.
July 27th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
drool on the contact lens.. awesome design pr0n
if it’s going to tell me the time, why not mix up the time-zones..? which might prompt one to know/think about one’s time-zone scattered “social network” (ie friends) (it’s 7am in helsinki.. wonder what’s going on with Hans)
February 17th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
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