A website with a livecam, a basement full of cats, and radiocontrolled toy cars.
Internet users log into the website and assume control of the radiocontrolled toy cars to interact with the cats. The toy cars, equiped with robotic arms, would be sufficiently slow/weak so as not to injure the cats. The room would be equiped with food supplies accessible by the robotic arms. Radiocontrolled toy cars are equipped with cat toys (e.g., string with feathers, ball on elastic string). Other toy cars equipped with a tuna can opener, a robotic rake arm for litter box duty, etc.
Kindly Internet users (are there any?) would play with the cats, feed them, clean the litter box, etc. Mischievous users would chase the cats around the room. Could be problems with PETA.
The cats would be able to freely come and go from the room. They would be enticed to enter by the sound of the robot arm tuna can opener. The website would best be implemented by a computer savy person who, according to a different halfbaked idea, is 12-cats-mad on ST3F's spinster eccentricity index .
Basic concept could be scaled up/down: Cow pastures with robot vehicles; fish tanks with toy boats. I am hoping someone has seen this done--I'd like to give it a whirl.-- booleanfool, Apr 03 2004 //could be problems with PETA// they'd be all over you, although the cars //would be slow/weak as to not hurt cats//, they could claim you are causing the cats 'psychological trauma'. +-- echo, Apr 03 2004 And cat collar mounted spy cams for the passive audience...-- RayfordSteele, Apr 03 2004 [RayfordSteele] Or maybe the logged-in passive users could vote on who controls the toy cars. If someone was being annoying (crashing the cars, hurting a cat) they could be voted off after a few minutes, and control of the car would cede to the next user.-- booleanfool, Apr 04 2004 Too cool ... and duh ... so sign me up!-- fasteddy, Apr 04 2004 /And cat collar mounted spy cams for the passive audience/. So [RayfordSteele] since the cats come and go freely, what happens when the cat wearing the spycam wanders next door to visit the house full of friendly, scantily clad, sorority girls? Ohhhh...-- booleanfool, May 04 2004 random, halfbakery