If you’re a fan of the Harry Potter series, you’d be familiar with the wall clock used by the Weasley family. It doesn’t tell the time but location of members of the Weasley family.

I don’t know how true this report is but Gizmodo quotes a report from phoneyworld.com that researchers are working on a similar contraption (there’s even a photo in the site) using GPS to get the location data from family members’ cellphones.

Microsoft researchers are working on a wall mounted display wich will allow busy families to keep track of each other. Researchers have christened it as the “whereabout clock”. They agree to being partially inspired by Harry Potter novels. The whereabout clock’s screen uses icons bearing the faces of each family member. Signals from their mobile phones are used to tell the computer where they are and the icons wander between colored segments to show whether they are at home, school, work or elsewhere.