Smarttalk Clock: An Assistive Time Announcement System

This paper presents the design, development, and performance evaluation of a Talking Clock—a real-time embedded system capable of displaying and audibly announcing the current time AbstractTime announcement and public address systems are essential components in educational institutions, healthcare facilities, and public infrastructures. Conventional digital clocks provide only visual representation of time and lack the ability to communicate information dynamically. Talking clocks overcome this limitation by providing audio-based time announcements, but most existing systems are limited to fixed functionality and cannot adapt to real-time announcement requirements. This paper presents the design and implementation of a dynamic microcontroller-based talking clock and smart announcement system using the ESP32 microcontroller, DS3231 Real-Time Clock (RTC), DFPlayer Mini audio module, LED matrix display, and a push-button interface. The system announces the current time on demand and is further enhanced to support dynamic and real-time announcements through wireless communication. The proposed system can temporarily override the regular clock operation to broadcast emergency or scheduled announcements, making it suitable for smart classrooms, hospitals, and public alert systems. The design emphasizes accuracy, flexibility, scalability, and low-cost implementation.