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.
-- doctorremulac3, Dec 03 2017

Inspired by this HB classic Roaming_20Goldfish_20Bowl
[doctorremulac3, Dec 03 2017]

[+]

Better ...

Three small winch drums fixed to the wall-ceiling joint, equidistantly round the perimiter.

Thin cables joined to a ring from which the bowl is suspended.

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.
-- 8th of 7, Dec 03 2017


That's very clever but I'm not sure if I want to suddenly have a fish land on my shoulder.

But yea, that option should be available. Good call.
-- doctorremulac3, Dec 03 2017


// I'm not sure if I want to suddenly have a fish land on my shoulder. //

You need to be more open to new experiences. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it ... who knows, it might be fun.

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.
-- 8th of 7, Dec 03 2017


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.

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.

But seriously, for public aquariums and even science museums this thing's a no brainer.

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.
-- doctorremulac3, Dec 03 2017


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.

I'd want to see it.

You could also have a hamster wheel version where the animal powered the rolling along on tracks.

I think that's a separate idea.
-- doctorremulac3, Dec 03 2017



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