A personalized Open Source Time Machine takes you ‘Back to the Future’

Considered to be a project work for graduation at HDK Design School in Gothenburg, Sweden - Dan Henriksson’s Time Machine has brought him huge amounts of accolades. The concept though does not fittingly give users the experience of going back in time or into the future, yet provides a visual treat to the users in alignment with the time that they choose to be in.

The Working of the Machine

Dan’s Time Machine is a working prototype for the moment, which is quite similar to the clock however instead of portraying the correct and present time, reflects ‘the user’s own sense of time’. That is, the Time Machine comprises of various ‘sliders’ that act as adjusters that can be attuned left or right considering the user’s convenience and this will enable the user to create his or her own ‘elastic time’ as against the real time. The idea behind developing this Time Machine is for users to relish a whole new visualized experience and feel the effects of the rush and drag of the time-flow exhibited by the Time Machine. Users need to be educated with the working of a 24 hour clock to be able to use this Time Machine since it runs on a 24 hour clock system.

The Composition of the Time Machine

The maker of the Time Machine - Dan Henriksson has used a mix of the open source hardware and software tools. He has used the Arduino circuit boards which are “intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.” The circuit boards are designed in a manner wherein there is the presence of a few sensory units that can track and receive the kind of environment where the Machine is located, based on which the effects and controlling of lights, motors and other actuators takes place.

The entire make of the time machine is owed to the CNC Milling machine which Dan used to create the design and markings for the system as a whole. The costing of the the CNC machine could well be on the higher side, but if there exists enough demand for the Time Machine from consumers there could be the emergence of an alternative very soon.

Most technology enthusiasts have definitely heard of and used Apple’s Time Machine which evidently creates backup of all your files, but Dan Henriksson’s Machine comes very close to personifying the true meaning of what a Time Machine really does. This has enabled him to not only win a lot of praises from his fellow college mates, but has also earned him a scholarship from Göteborgs Slöjdförenin.