Sunday, January 29, 2012

Telling Time IV: With Fingers

In this fourth of a series of posts, I'll review a few of the ways that we can tell time with our fingers.

Fingers? you ask, in wonder. Yes, how do you suppose blind people tell the time without asking?

Of course there are "talking clocks" where you press a button and are told the time, but this post is about telling the time yourself with your fingers.


Here's an analog Wakmann watch (with hands) that uses Arabic numerals AND a tactile display. A button at 2 o'clock releases the spring-loaded, hinged crystal, so the wearer can touch the hands and feel what time it is. There's a raised bar at 12, pairs of raised dots and 3, 6, and 9, and single dots at all the other others. You might wonder if I own this and all the other crazy watches I'm showing you. Not all, but most of them are mine.


This pocket watch is read in the same way, but is carried in the pocket.


This is a Seiko quartz alarm clock for blind folks. They can touch the hands to tell the time (orange is minutes, yellow is hours). There are bumps on the hands and on the hour markers. The 12, 3, 6, and 9 markers are raised bars rather than dots. There's an extra indicator (barely visible near 9 o'clock) which is the alarm time. A large button at the left turns the alarm off and on.

Personally, I find this clock very handy next to the bed as the alarm on/off button is the most convenient of any alarm clock we own. And there's no light glaring at me.

The next post in this series will tackle telling time in the dark, without fingers.