This Idea was inspired by a TV real-estate commercial. Lots of homes don't have a very good view of anything but the neighboring homes. Well, a tall periscope (but with cameras) on the roof could give you a good view of the entire neighborhood. Just put some monitor screens on various blank walls (interior walls!, but maybe also near an ordinary window if the wall is big enough), dress up the monitors to look like ordinary windows, and feed the periscope video into those monitors.
A variant on the theme would have a 360-degree-view camera on top of the periscope mast, and the video signal would be processed to send, to each monitor, a continuously "panning" view (no need to actually pan the camera).-- Vernon, Apr 15 2015 Wouldn't this just give you a view of all your neighbours' periscopes?-- hippo, Apr 15 2015 Bonus if I can subscribe to somebody else's view; say, the ocean on one wall, a skyline on another, the Grand Canyon on a third, perhaps some rainforest on a fourth...-- RayfordSteele, Apr 15 2015 [hippo], that is possible, of course, but the farther away another skinny periscope mast is, the less it will interfere with the overall view.-- Vernon, Apr 15 2015 Webcams exist.-- cudgel, Apr 15 2015 Ha hippo. Bun for idea, I would love to see what goes on in the evening on my neighbors rooftops.-- blissmiss, Apr 15 2015 At least it seems possible.
Your not talking about a house that wakes up, yawns, stretches, stands, shuffles down to the beach, yawns again, looks longingly at the sunrise, takes a leak, and shuffles back to it's lot when a policeman pulls out her ticket book and gives it the eye.
Periscopes toward the beach seem easy and tame by comparison.-- popbottle, Apr 15 2015 You could put the entire house atop the telescopic mast.-- pocmloc, Apr 16 2015 Underground periscopes would have to image your neighbours' basements, the nearby cemetery, the sewage network, etc. with some radiation that penetrates soil easily - maybe radar or some sort of sonar perhaps?-- hippo, Apr 16 2015 I would only see trees, but bun for a fun idea. + In the ground, I would only see all the chipmunk tunnels around my house and into my garden!-- xandram, Apr 16 2015 random, halfbakery