The Fibonacci Clock: the Project Hits 2585% of Its Goal on Kickstarter
Montreal, Canada (PRWEB) May 15, 2015 -- Driven by a passion for technology and mathematics, Philippe Chrétien created a clock using the Fibonacci mathematical sequence. In order to bring his project to fruition, he launched it on the Kickstarter.com site, a platform with the mission to fund creative projects, attracting the attention necessary to finance them and help make them happen.
After launching on May 5, the inventor reached 2585% of his pledge goal in just a few days. The minimum Kickstarter.com pledge goal required to kick off the project and receive financing was $5,000. People can still back the project and qualify for a variety of different packages offered per pledge amount.
The project is driving online chatter all over the world. Some find the idea brilliant; others are still trying to decipher it, but all agree that the project is simply ingenious.
Entirely conceived and assembled in Montreal, Canada, the Fibonacci Clock is guaranteed to spark conversation, especially when guests inevitably notice it; it’s guaranteed to entertain. Fans of new gadgets find plenty to capture their attention, while kids are delighted to take up the challenge of decoding the time at various moments throughout the day. The Clock can also be displayed as a decorative object.
The screen of the clock is made up of five squares whose side lengths match the first five Fibonacci numbers: 1, 1, 2, 3 and 5. The hours are displayed using red and the minutes using green. When a square is used to display both the hours and minutes, it turns blue. White squares are ignored.
To tell time on the Fibonacci Clock, people need to do a little math. Philippe explains: "To read the hour, simply add up the corresponding values of the red and blue squares. To read the minutes, do the same with the green and blue squares. The minutes are displayed in 5-minute increments (0 to 12) so you have to multiply your result by 5 to get the actual number."
*The Fibonacci sequence is a sequence of numbers created by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci in the 13th century. This is a sequence starting with 0 and 1, where each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two: 0+1=1, 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+3=5, 3+5=8, etc.
The Fibonacci Clock is an open source / hardware project, driven by an Atmega328 micro-controller running Arduino. That means the code running in the clock can be changed by using the official Arduino IDE. The possibilities are as infinite as the Fibonacci sequence. A mode button on the back of the clock will turn it into a modern version of a lava lamp. Two different lamp modes are included with the clock, but people can hack the clock and create their own. The possibilities are limitless.
About Philippe Chrétien
Driven by his interest in new technologies, Philippe Chrétien started coding at the age of 12 on a TRS-80. He completed his studies in Mechanical Engineering, with a specialty in Computer Science. Alongside his career as a Web developer, Philippe sets time aside to patent and create various electronic projects in his workshop. His blog basbrun.com features a number of his projects and creations.
Nathalie Corbeil, Nat Corbeil, http://natcorbeil.com/en, +1 514-244-7202, [email protected]
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