Best friends forever...
Robert's closest friend in Junior High and High School was Michael England. Together, they formed both a lasting friendship and a passion for electronics. They have been close friends nearly all of their lives.
Both were returning Viet Nam era veterans when Robert proposed the first Kinetic Clock to Michael in 1974. Michael did the electronic design work, and Robert dealt with the artistic aspects, including mechanical and electrical assembly and testing.
The creative concept of Kinetic Clock II © was to design a unique participatory art experience for the tech literate art connoisseur. Art collectors are able to easily customize an infinite range of colors and revise them at will in the future.
Robert again approached Michael, and together, they brainstormed the current Kinetic Clock II ©, which exploits as much technology as possible: Embedded processors, I2C Buss, PWM color control, RGB LED lighting, Ambient Light Sensors and Bluetooth LE communications to smartphone app.
Michael's experience in these technologies were essential to the creation of Kinetic Clock II.
Thank you, Mike
The driving force...
Edward (Ted) Grenzbach, was the driving force behind making the original Kinetic Clock © available to collectors. When he first saw it at the home of Robert's in-laws, in 1974, he insisted that Robert make the clocks available.
Ted was a traditionalist architect who created homes for Hollywood stars. Ted grew up in 1930s Hollywood, which gave him an appreciation of glamour that was always evident in his work. He died in 1994.
Ted was praised for the sense of proportion he brought to the vast homes of the rich and famous. His clients over the years included Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Cher, Gene Kelly, Herb Alpert, Rock Hudson, Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand and Johnny Carson and remodeling Rupert Murdoch's home.
Ted saw something in the original Kinetic Clock © in the 70's that is even more true today.
Thank you Ted.
About the Technology
Kinetic Clock II © exploits as much state of the art technology as practical: Embedded microprocessors, I2C buss, battery backup, ambient light sensors, PWM color control, RGB LED lighting. switching power supply and Bluetooth LE communications to a smart phone. There are over 1500 lines of code in the main module, and the electronics design and execution has more than 500 man hours invested. Nearly all of this work has been performed by Robert DeLossa.