The Email Clock

Tom Igoe has just been talking about his Email Clock here at the Collaborative Artefacts Interactive Furniture workshop.

Tom had a lot of anxiety about his email inbox and couldn't stop checking his email compulsively while working. So he embodied his anxiety in a clock that compulsively checks his email for him, and worry over the amount continually coming in, so he wouldn't have to.

This clock would run at a normal pace when there is no email waiting, but every new kilobyte of email would drive it hyperactively forward.

A java application living on an application server checks his email accounts, noting when new data arrived. With each new message, the application would send the number of bytes to a microcontroller attached to the internet. The microcontroller would then move the clock.