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Infinite Garden

 Large rotating discs with plants on them.
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Have you ever wanted to just be able to walk through a garden for a while in your backyard? But your backyard is too small and you would feel like an idiot walking around in it for 20 minutes. Enter: Infinite Garden

Imagine two discs, side by side. They meet at a single point. If you stand at that point and look to your left you see one disc of terrain and if you look to right you see another. If you then rotate the two discs as you walk on a treadmill, you would see the terrain on both sides of you progress. The larger the discs, the more convincing it would be that you are actually moving.

So, that's the idea. Big discs with plants and stuff on them that rotate as you treadmill between them to cause the illusion of walking through a garden that apparently spans an infinite length. Anyone have any thoughts?

—daseva, Nov 14 2006

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       Well, first of all, you never change direction.   

       It's true you would see the same things over and over, but when you are out on a trail and you pass the 5,000,000th tree do you notice its utter uniqueness? Maybe...   

       But what about the 5,000,001th?
—daseva, Nov 14 2006
   

       Have the discs rotate at slightly different speeds and the terrain would be *slightly* different over time, not by much though.
—NotTheSharpestSpoon, Nov 14 2006
   

       Hm! Back-project a changing scenery on a fog screen that covers part of the rotating disks, and maybe this can be made to work.
—jutta, Nov 14 2006
   

       why not make the discs big enough to walk on? then you could change discs and see everything from a different angle.
—bleh, Nov 14 2006
   

       Oh, yeah. You are correct, sir.   

       I'm thinking the discs would have teeth and turn just like gears, but the teeth would be long and narrow so that you really wouldn't notice them. Then you would walk on the teeth to walk straight, but if you turned you would move onto one of the two discs.
—daseva, Nov 15 2006
   

       Are the discs slightly tilted? If not, why would walking on them make them rotate? You'd just walk in a circle on a circle. Or more likely, straight off the edge.
—squeak, Nov 15 2006
   

       No, they rotate only when you walk. They are smart like that.
—daseva, Nov 15 2006
   

       Just build a single very long garden by joining up the gardens of all the houses along your street, and complete the circuit with all the gardens which back on to those. Put a connection every 10 houses or so, then you can return by a different route. It may not be infinite, but how far would you get in 20 minutes?   

       Keep the access via houses only, and it might even work, especially in house-proud neighbourhoods.
—Loris, Nov 15 2006
   

       An infinite garden should be able to produce an infinite amount of berries (which incidentally go great with custard). Let us assume the discs are rotating at a constant, comfortable speed. Could the discs be sufficiently large that new berries will be available on each rotation?
—ed, Nov 15 2006
   


 

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