This Idea was dreamed up as a solution to a real problem, but since anything can be mis-used, and since I couldn't find a Category appropriate for the intended purpose, the "Prank" category will have to do.

Consider a Finger. It typically can be moved various different ways. For this Idea, we only need the motion that is used when it presses a button.

So, the device is a small box containing appropriate electronics and a battery, and a small motor to move the attached Finger in a button-pressing way. On the outside of the box is some sticky stuff, appropriate for easy attachment and removal of the device to/from somthing else.

Now consider a "Secret Santa" (link). One way to do this is to leave a present on the door-step, press the doorbell, and immediately start running very fast.

No more! With the Remote Controlled Finger, you attach it to the door area near the doorbell-button, and walk casually away. THEN you press the button on the remote-control that activates the Remote Controlled Finger, which in turn presses the doorbell-button.

You can even use a chain of these things, if you really want to be far from the scene, when you press the button on the remote control --the Finger it controls presses the button on the next remote-control (which of course is tuned to a different radio frequency), which activates another Finger that pushes the button on a third remote control....

In terms of 'prank', the Finger might not be so large as to be immediately noticed. So the victim opens the door and sees nobody there. Immediately after the door is closed you press the remote-control button again! The Finger activates the doorbell again, the door opens again, and still there is nobody there....
-- Vernon, Dec 24 2011

Secret Santa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Santa
As mentioned in the main text. [Vernon, Dec 24 2011]

Closed Loop Fingers for [Ling] http://youtu.be/UkgoSOSGrx4
[Klaatu, Dec 28 2011]

Recursive Mouse Recursive_20Mouse
Similar? [csea, Dec 28 2011]

And I thought the prank part was going to be that you buy this as a gag gift for someone who is too lazy to opperate the buttons on their remote control.

Your prank is good too, as long as these are cheap enough to be disposable. Or at least make them reprogramable so when someone leaves one of these on your doorbell, you can reuse it with the trasmitter you have left over from a previous prank.
-- scad mientist, Dec 28 2011


The modern art version could have the fingers in a closed loop.+ What have you done with the other Vernon?
-- Ling, Dec 28 2011


Reminds me a bit of "Recursive Mouse." [link]
-- csea, Dec 28 2011


Thanks, [Klaatu].
-- Ling, Dec 28 2011


A friend of mine did this ages ago. He used a solenoid device and a PLC to physically press RECORD and STOP on a VCR connected to a video camera. By coincidence (we hadn't met at the time) I accomplished the exact same task, by soldering extra wires to the appropriate PCB terminals inside the chassis, and controlling the functions with a second-hand BBC computer via relays.
-- spidermother, Jan 14 2012


[+]
-- FlyingToaster, Jan 14 2012



random, halfbakery