TWELV - The Rebirth of Time

About TWELV™

Inventerprise^® LLC

TWELV™ is a patented time display system created by product development firm Inventerprise^® LLC, a California limited liability company based in Los Angeles. Using color as a stand-alone time indicator, TWELV clocks enjoy a number of advantages over conventional time formats, including:

Smaller footprint

Greater flexibility for industrial design, including use of company logo or other image

Universal legibility: speakers of all languages can readily identify colors

Long-range legibility: colors can be correctly recognized at distances far greater than individual characters

Almost unlimited user-customization

Glanceable technology: color recognition may require less cognitive energy than symbol translation, and colors can be easily recognized in one's peripheral vision

Combining size, distance, and glanceability advantages, TWELV is particularly well-suited for wearable computing, mobile phone, and ambient intelligence applications. Visit Gizmag, Wikinews, or PRWeb for related stories.

An Evening as "Prince Charming"

As often seems to happen in the inventing field, TWELV was created almost by accident. That story goes something like this:

Teegan Cohan, owner of Daizy the Clown & Company and a friend of Inventerprise founder Shelley Harrison, had lost her "Prince Charming" for a birthday party gig at the last minute. Harrison volunteered to substitute for said Prince.

The pair of performers didn't wear watches at the party so as to avoid breaking character. But, as the evening went on, the somewhat-reluctant Prince wished he had a way to find out how long 'til closing time. Unfortunately, the particular venue was wholly clockless.

Harrison began dreaming of a magical watch that indicated the time without looking like a time-telling device (to non-princes, anyway). While no frog-kissing is known to have occurred, TWELV sprang to life that evening in fairy tale land.

Creating the First TWELV Clocks

Design artist Christopher Tjalsma has embodied the TWELV system in a series of Flash clocks that are both functionally practical and aesthetically elegant. He has focused on making TWELV an ambient information mechanism that conveys the time without distracting the user or requiring his or her conscious attention.

Direct Descendants

Shortly after developing the color-to-hour system used in TWELV timepieces, Inventertainment™ attorney Harrison expanded the use of color as an information-bearing medium to create the Chromocode™ barcode symbology. Chromocode--one of the highest information-density barcode symbologies ever created--received honors in the 2006 Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge, hosted by the National Inventors Hall of Fame in conjunction with the History Channel and others.

The TWELV time-telling system also gave rise to the Chronaissance™ birthstone watch, patented in May, 2007. The Chronaissance watch indicates the current month, not by standard month dial, but by revealing the actual, authentic gemstone that has been assigned to the given month by the American Gem Society as the birthstone for that month.

Other products descended from the TWELV project include the BarChrome™ color-coded automobile license plate, which remains legible at distances far greater than those for conventional plates, and the BarCodometer™ color-coded automobile odometer and updateable barcode.

See also, Stanford Magazine article on TWELV.

Explore TWELV.