Skip to main content

Surf's up or what? This new device shows tide and wave height and period

wave clock kicktarter waveclock
WaveClock
Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly once puzzled an atheist guest with a riddle. “Tide goes in, tide goes out,” he said. “You can’t explain that.”

Tides are actually no mystery: It’s about gravity. Thousands of years ago, an old Greek astronomer figured that the moon played a big part. Now, kids learn about it in elementary school.

But O’Reilly’s awe is not lost on us. We get it, the ocean is massive and magnificent. We know less about its depths than we do about the lunar surface and things like rogue waves still have scientists knocking their heads together. But tides? Well, tides are like magnets — blamed on magic by people who did not do their homework.

Craig Jones knows a thing or two about the ocean. He spent his childhood sailing with his dad, an engineer with a fondness for nautical gadgets. Now, as an environmental engineer himself, Jones has decided to combine his love of the sea with the maritime themes of his childhood. He designed the WaveClock, an analog display for real-time ocean data, and recently launched a campaign for its support on Kickstarter.

“As a kid … I was fascinated by the brass weather stations showing barometric pressure, temperature, and humidity,” Jones told Digital Trends. “A few years back, I realized we ocean enthusiasts really need similar information on the ocean waves and tides. The birth of the WaveClock soon followed.”

The WaveClock’s three faces depict wave height, wave period, and the rising or falling of the tide. The device — which accesses the database of the National Oceanic Administration Association (NOAA) to display data from any NOAA station — updates every half an hour and is quickly configured with a smartphone app using BlinkUp.

Jones says the display is fairly accurate — within half a foot and half a second — but that he and his team are trying to improve. “While the actual [NOAA] data is much more accurate, the setup of the device leaves very small errors in hand position,” he said. “In this Kickstarter we are going to find a better way to calibrate the stepper motors to display the most accurate data.” So the WaveClock isn’t yet pinpoint accurate — it’s more decorative than purely functional.

Jones has teamed up with Santa Cruz, California, creatives to give the WaveClock a bit more flare as well with scenic photos on the face. But the WaveClock isn’t cheap. Backers can claim one now for between $169 and $250.

Editors' Recommendations

Dyllan Furness
Dyllan Furness is a freelance writer from Florida. He covers strange science and emerging tech for Digital Trends, focusing…
Why AI will never rule the world
image depicting AI, with neurons branching out from humanoid head

Call it the Skynet hypothesis, Artificial General Intelligence, or the advent of the Singularity -- for years, AI experts and non-experts alike have fretted (and, for a small group, celebrated) the idea that artificial intelligence may one day become smarter than humans.

According to the theory, advances in AI -- specifically of the machine learning type that's able to take on new information and rewrite its code accordingly -- will eventually catch up with the wetware of the biological brain. In this interpretation of events, every AI advance from Jeopardy-winning IBM machines to the massive AI language model GPT-3 is taking humanity one step closer to an existential threat. We're literally building our soon-to-be-sentient successors.

Read more
The best hurricane trackers for Android and iOS in 2022
Truck caught in gale force winds.

Hurricane season strikes fear into the hearts of those who live in its direct path, as well as distanced loved ones who worry for their safety. If you've ever sat up all night in a state of panic for a family member caught home alone in the middle of a destructive storm, dependent only on intermittent live TV reports for updates, a hurricane tracker app is a must-have tool. There are plenty of hurricane trackers that can help you prepare for these perilous events, monitor their progress while underway, and assist in recovery. We've gathered the best apps for following storms, predicting storm paths, and delivering on-the-ground advice for shelter and emergency services. Most are free to download and are ad-supported. Premium versions remove ads and add additional features.

You may lose power during a storm, so consider purchasing a portable power source,  just in case. We have a few handy suggestions for some of the best portable generators and power stations available. 

Read more
Don’t buy the Meta Quest Pro for gaming. It’s a metaverse headset first
Meta Quest Pro enables 3D modeling in mixed reality.

Last week’s Meta Connect started off promising on the gaming front. Viewers got release dates for Iron Man VR, an upcoming Quest game that was previously a PS VR exclusive, as well as Among Us VR. Meta, which owns Facebook, also announced that it was acquiring three major VR game studios -- Armature Studio, Camouflaj Team, and Twisted Pixel -- although we don’t know what they’re working on just yet.

Unfortunately, that’s where the Meta Connect's gaming section mostly ended. Besides tiny glimpses and a look into fitness, video games were not the show's focus. Instead, CEO Mark Zuckerberg wanted to focus on what seemed to be his company’s real vision of VR's future, which involves a lot of legs and a lot of work with the Quest Pro, a mixed reality headset that'll cost a whopping $1,500.

Read more