After studying semiotics, Matthew and a partner were tasked with designing and building a speculative chronometer device that would control the flow of time. With consideration of the context signifiers and affordances of the mechanism, the device is designed so that any user can easily understand and operate it.

• Understand semiotics and its role in user-interface design in both the physical and digital realms.
• Create a device that is sleek and easy to understand for any user, regardless of whether they have interacted with it before.
• Design and build housing for a button that performs a function relating to the hypothetical concept of controlling time.
• Physically build and program a device using a circuit board and wiring so that it performs its necessary function.

Considering the requirements of a mechanism that can control planetary rotation and therefore time, the team realized they needed the user to be able to adjust rotation from reverse to forward-accelerated. These parameters would need to map the range of numbers from negative to positive, with signification of zero and one-times speed.

• The dial turns smoothly forward and backwards from a neutral zero with values indicated by relative LED lights.
• Intuitive functionality of elements that indicate to the user how and why to use the device.

Embracing the space-fantasy tone of the assignment, the team decided on a retro-futurism aesthetic that takes influence from modular synthesizers and industrial consoles of the 1960s.

• Sleek plastic inlayed into a wood paneled case with colorful LED's providing visual feedback.
• Arduino microcontroller board that allows for the connection between the dial and LED lights.
• Dial is connected to a potentiometer inside of the housing, the input from which is mapped to integers from -4 to +4.