Weasleys' magical clock to become a reality?
October 11, 2005 at 2:30 PM ET
eudaemonia
HPANA (via Phoneyworld.com & Irish Independent)
As it was mentioned back in spring, the Weasleys' living room clock
in the Harry Potter books, which indicates where any family member is at the moment, may become available to households in the future. The Irish Independent reports that Microsoft is researching on the development of a similar device that will display locations of family members outside the home with the use of mobile gadgets.
Inspired by JK Rowling's novels, the researchers and developers have labeled it the "whereabout clock". A brief summary as to how the technology is being developed surfaced recently:
The whereabout clock's screen uses icons bearing the faces of each family member. Signals from their mobile phones are used to tell the computer where they are and the icons wander between colored segments to show whether they are at home, school, work or elsewhere.... The clock will also be able to receive and display text messages. For instance a mother could text the screen that "working till 9pm, please put dinner in oven" and the words would hover next to her face icon.