Have you ever watched champagne bubbles in a champagne flute? Bubbles form in only a few locations in the glass. These are the parts of the glass that are not smooth where scratches or protrusions act as nucleation sites. Champagne flutes will often have these nucleation sites added deliberately so the champagne can bubble in an elegant manner.

I thought it would be interesting if the nucleation sites could be actively controlled (turned on and off) so the bubbles form an image briefly as they rise before the bubbles pop at the surface.

The nucleation sites could be formed by several alternative methods. Here's two possibilities:
•The points of glass could be selectively heated by a scanning laser.
•An array of piezoelectric elements could focus sound waves at different points of the glass.

The nucleation sites could be in a line, thus forming a two dimensional images with a wall of bubbles. Alternatively the nucleation sites could be in a plane, thus forming a 3D image with bubbles.
-- xaviergisz, Jul 20 2019

The_20Bird_20Men_20of_20Alka-Selzer Entertainment by bubbles [xenzag, Jul 20 2019]

Prior hb art Nucleadverts
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 20 2019]

Fun with waves Antichirp-wave_20fleet-sinker
As mentioned... [neutrinos_shadow, Jul 21 2019]

Like one of those "messaging" water features ?

Yes, why not. [+]

"If you build it with Gin and Tonic, they will come ..."

<aside>

Don't invite any of the Buchanan family to the product launch.

</aside>
-- 8th of 7, Jul 20 2019


[+] cheers
-- FlyingToaster, Jul 20 2019


Oi! Some twat's put tonic in my G&T!
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 20 2019


"Why bother with mass spectrometry when you can just get [MB] to sniff it ...? "
-- 8th of 7, Jul 20 2019


Rickards Red beer used to have their logo etched into the bottom of their mugs so that it made a stylized R on the foam. (+)
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 20 2019


Is the tech needed for the Tokamak, to make our little box equivalent to that of Sol's processes?
-- wjt, Jul 21 2019


Hmm... if you have a few piezo's in an open grid (spacing and therefore quantity depends on the vibration disipation) you could do a "phased array" input of *not quite enough* energy to initiate bubble nucleation (at each piezo) but where the multiple vibration waves converge (as per the "Anti-chirp" linked) there IS enough energy and a bubble rises. So you can create a bubble anywhere with minimal piezo units (and if your software is smart enough, multiple anywheres at the same time or quickly sequential or whatever).
-- neutrinos_shadow, Jul 21 2019



random, halfbakery