Art Lebedev's Reflectius clock tells time with a single laser beam
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 9th 2010 3:23PM
posted April 9th 2010 3:23PM
Art Lebedev managed to impress us with its Segmentus analog clock last month, but it looks like the prolific design firm has now already outdone itself with its new Reflectius clock concept, which uses a single laser beam and sixty rotating mirrors to display the time. That impressive mechanism is matched by the clock's angular exterior (pictured after the break), which Art Lebedev describes as "a complex triangulated surface that reminds of the complicated trajectory the beam of light travels in no time." Unfortunately, it is still just a concept, but you can at least get your usual glimpse of Art Lebedev's design process at the source link below.
Who wanna buy me one?
@fowenati
you are?
Is there a Lebedev fan page on FB? This guy is nuts (in a good way)!
Now that is cool!
Id buy it
@abedinthehouse
Needs sharks.
@Marbles
Seriously...
Lets break it and kill someone with the laser :) Just Kidding
@fowenati
Oh phew! Thought you were serious there for a minute.
@fowenati
I was about to call the cops, dude!
@RottingOrange
Take them out using hi-tech chinese water torture. Instead of dripping water on thier forehead we just shine the light.
@RottingOrange
He didn't say "lol". He still might be considering it.
@zangetsu2
Damnit, u got me! *runs really really REALLY fast*
*cops* weee ooooo weeee ooooo weeee oooo*
ITS DA PO PO, RUN!
Thats one sexy clock, let me tell you that~
@shoxite
I wonder what the number 3 will look like? or for that matter the number 8...
@DeFlanko Hit the source link, there's video.
http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/reflectius/
@DeFlanko I though the same thing -- I'd like to see what they did to make the 8's in particular. It seems the beam would have to render one of the loops, leave the field of view and re-enter to render the second one. It could be done, but definitely a few mirrors needed behind the scenes for this.
Yes, a laser beam will singe you if you get too close... but I don't think that's what you meant in the headline.
its all fun and telling time until someone goes blind.
Thats what my clock looked like on that acid trip.
*witty comment about headline*
@SFR
Art Lebedev's cock tells time with a single laser beam?
This looks amaaazing!
I wonder how they could manage to get 4 clear numbers with one single laser without loosing light intensity tough...
@Toha
No need for explanations: LAZERS!
@DBx "Imma tellin' time wit mah lazerz?"(Yeah, not very good with the meme...)
One question: If made, cost?
copped
COOOOL!
Why make this? I already have a clock They should be researching how to make a lightsaber!
New meme imminent: IMMA READIN TIME OF MY LAZERZ
Does Art Lebedev actually make anything they concept?
@Uncontrol
yeah like the optimus keyboard but it is as expensive as it looks
@Uncontrol I was about to post about the very same thing... Concepts, concepts, concepts. Make something real and stop playing with that 3DS Max. We want PRODUCTS, not PICTURES. How do these guys make a living?
@atheos If you check their website you may discover that they have done a ton of work for other companies, like for example microwaves for Samsung. They are a design studio and don't really have the capacity to make their own products, that's why the Optimus came out so late and expensive.
How are they planning to make the beam visible? Unless the beam is travelling through some medium to scatter enough light to make it visible you won't see anything except the projected dot at the end of the lasers path.
@djlaser
thats not so much of a problem you just have to make sure there are enough particles flying around in the chambers where the laser passes through (you can create haze with water and ultrasound for example)
@Xstream , yeah so this clock is meant to have water inside as well as the laser and rotating beam splitters? Yeah, right, they just haven't thought about it.
@djlaser
there are no beam splitters involved here, only mirrors (hint: there are more mirrors than you can see on the picture).
also water isn't so hard to handle, it wouldn't be so difficult to hermetically seal the laser and the motors from the "viewing chamber".
if you don't like water there are more ways to generate a particle rich atmosphere.
@djlaser
The sketch says something about "diffusers[frost glass or polycarbonate]".
And they appear to have an actual working prototype, shown at the bottom of this page: http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/reflectius/process/
@putte , and the prototype proves my point. Look how dull and diffuse it looks in real life compared to the concept. This will be a clock you can only see in the dark. Looks like they've also defocussed the beam(i.e. made it fatter) so that you can actually see it.
Very cool!
PEW PEW (tick tock) PEW
@zangetsu2
You stole my line.
No, Art lebedev has shown us nothing but a picture. A concept is different than reality. Ha
Working model or GTFO.
@redkamel that ha is a type by the way
Seriously, who would have that clock in their bedroom? I would go insane if I were to look at it before going to sleep.
Lazers make the everything better!..... well except for alderaan.
@Firesuite Umm, don't some lasers cause cancer...? Seems like the opposite of making things better.
Looks cool, build it.
Yes! RTFA!
Or in this case, the article on the Yanko Design source. It *looks* like they have an actual, real picture of actual real laser numbers at the very very bottom.
They seem to be angling the lasers downward slightly so the skim the black enclosure. Or maybe they oscillate like a laser level. I don't really know.
But there are pictures, definitely.
I count only thirty two (32) mirrors, and now that I checked so does the art lebev site documents too.
Where did you come up with the sixty figure?
@newone
There are probably a few mirrors that are not visible. I'm not sure they figured out how to bend light yet. :)