Conceptual Idea #1: 3d magic Eye Autostereogram

How It Works: The motion of the 3D objects will be determined by gears and CAMs. Gear systems including gear trains and compound gears will be attached to motors to generate rotary motion. CAMs are eccentric or curved wheels mounted on a rotating shaft. The rotating shaft produces variable or reciprocating motion in another engaged or contacted part.

Simple Gear Train Compound Gear Pear-Shaped CAM

this sculpture would incorporate the elegance

of motion with the dancing beauty of balanced objects. Ultimately, this design could be placed

in the market as a desk accessory for business executives. One examples of a desk accessory is the trendy pendulum toy. Possible distributors include The Sharper Image, Brookstone, and Skymall.

Additional Information: Possible materials for this project may include gears, motors, CAMs, plastic, metal, batteries and solar cells. When analyzing this design idea, subjects like machines, mechanisms and noise reduction are crucial. Microprocessors, elementary computer programming and solar cells will also be explored in this design.


Conceptual Idea #3: Waterfall Painting
Description: This design consists of 3-dimensional "painting" created by an arrangement of clear tubes filled with water colored by lasers. Valves controlling the movement of the water would open and close, thus changing the flow of water. Ideally, when varying lasers are combined, the combination would result in a different wavelength and different color.

How It Works: The design consists of a water reservoir at the bottom of the “painting” that pumps water to the very top. At the top are tubes that allow the water to flow into them. Laser beams of different colors will be attached at the top to project the beam into the tube of water, thereby lighting it up to give it a neon sign effect. These varying colorful tubes of water then flow down the painting into valves, which would control the flow of water into other tubes, allowing colors to mix and change directions. These valves are on motorized pins that slide around on the back of the painting in a grid-like fashion. This is computer controlled with a user interface at the bottom of the painting. Also, the laser beams are computer controlled, as well as the flow of water. There is complete control by the user over the flow of water and the laser beams. The user is able to save certain situations for future reference.

Market Potential: The central theme is the elegance of water and the “artistic creations” of the user. If done well, the painting would be as beautiful as the user would want it to be. Ultimately, this design would be marketed towards high-end art collectors who are also interested in technology. This design would not be mass-produced so potential distributors would include auction houses and art galleries.

How It Works: This proposal consists of a single rod with overlapping rods at perpendicular angles. These overlapping rods would be able to full rotate about the central rod at varying angles and lengths. The tips of these overlapping rods may be able to support objects at the end giving more color to the work of art. The overlapping rods are mechanically driven by an electric motor that is able to be user controlled with the aid of a user interface. This allows certain designs to be saved and used for a future time. This proposal would establish a sense of balance and user controlled creativity.

How It Works: Although our conceptual idea is not finalized, we would obviously need to develop a water and power source for the sculpture. Also, pumps must be used to distribute the water throughout the sculpture and motors would be used to generate a controlled movement of elements of the sculpture.