h a l f b a k e r yStrap *this* to the back of your cat.
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Flying Goldfish Bowl
A classic idea dug up, electrodes attached to its neck bolts... ZAP! "IT'S ALIVE!!!" | |
It's a fish monorail.
You hang the track from the ceiling all around the living
room.
The zeppelin or pod shaped fish tank hangs from the rail
and has a motor.
Optical sensors in the front and back of the pod sense
when the fish gets close and apply power to the motor
moving it forward
or backwards, faster or slower
according
to the fish's proximity to the sensor.
So the fish would control where it went. "Over by the
sofa
where the people are? Let's get away from that dog. I'm
going to go see what the cat is up to. Are those fish on
the
tv? I like this show."
It would need an absolutely silent motor so as not to be
annoying but that's easy to do. You could also switch it
off
if a fish flying over head was not something you were
into
at the present time.
Then of course, the question would be "Where does that
fish want to go? What kind of fish travel the most? Do
they
have particular areas they frequent more than others?"
On top of the book case you'd of course have a model
castle it could go into at night. Or more appropriately a
zeppelin hangar.
Inspired by this HB classic
Roaming_20Goldfish_20Bowl [doctorremulac3, Dec 03 2017]
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Annotation:
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Three small winch drums fixed to the wall-ceiling joint,
equidistantly round the perimiter. |
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Thin cables joined to a ring from which the bowl is suspended. |
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As the fish moves, the winches quietly reel in and out, driven by
geared stepper motors, allowing both height and position to be
smoothly controlled. |
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That's very clever but I'm not sure if I want to
suddenly have a fish land on my shoulder. |
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But yea, that option should be available. Good call. |
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// I'm not sure if I want to suddenly have a fish land on my
shoulder. // |
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You need to be more open to new experiences. Don't knock it 'til
you've tried it ... who knows, it might be fun. |
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On consideration, there should be four winches, not three. It
would give a margin of safety from falling goldfish bowls should
one cable snap or a winch fail. |
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Of course there could be the roller coaster version
where the fish goes up and down but has no
control
over it other than the forward / reverse thing. |
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I'm just not sure how much power I want to give to
these little bastards. Yea, they look harmess
enough
but remember, Goldie would bite your head off
without a thought if you were somehow shrunk
down
and dropped into his tank. |
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But seriously, for public aquariums and even
science museums this thing's a no brainer. |
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There's this place called "The Exploratorium" in San
Francisco that I'm almost positive would love to do
this. This was always my childhood happy place
and if I could actually get an exhibit put up there
that would be pretty darn cool. |
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And one more thing, why stop with one fish? Have
20
or 30 of these things "swimming" around on
intertwined roller coaster tracks that would look
like
a modern art sculpture. Each pod would be lit so
they could be clearly seen. All these lit pods
rolling
around each other like fireflies at night. |
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You could also have a hamster wheel version where
the animal powered the rolling along on tracks. |
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I think that's a separate idea. |
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