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Semaclock
RCA, London
Semaclock is an electro-mechanical Internet device for people with deipnophobia or other social anxiety disorders. Installing a Semaclock in the home means that sufferers need no longer worry about awkward silences and the crippling embarrassment of running out of things to say when entertaining guests. Plugged into a home network, Semaclock connects to the Internet to retrieve news and topics of interest from one of the thousands of freely-available RSS feeds, and then displays them using the semaphore alphabet. Seating your guests with their backs to the Semaclock allows you to easily read the incoming items of interest without them noticing.