This Wooden Block Hides an Arduino-Compatible Smart Clock That Tracks a PhD Student's Citations

Pseudonymous maker "TheBlackBird808" has showcased a present for a friend currently going through a PhD: What appears to be a blank block of wood, but is actually a connected clock which pulls down key information about his work.

"I used a MAX7219 LED matrix display [with] 8x32 LEDs," TheBlackBird808 explains of the build's design. "I 3D printed the inside cuboid, which holds the display, buttons and the WeMos D1 Mini [microcontroller], and made the outside out of four equal sized wooden strips. Afterwards I ironed on wooden veneer, which is thin enough for the LEDs to shine through."

The resulting creation appears, from the front, to be a plain block of wood. When powered up, though, the WeMos D1 Mini connects to the local Wi-Fi network and sets its internal clock — displaying the current time by shining the LED matrix through the thin veneer of wood.

That's only part of the clock's functionality, though. It also doubles as a countdown timer, showing the number of days left until the PhD student's next conference deadline — and even tracks the sum of his academic citations for good measure.

TheBlackBird808 has not released design files or source code for the project publicly, but more information is available on the project's Reddit thread.