For making 3D models, a bulb that is somehow pressure-sensitive, sort of like a USB gooshball, or a spherical pin-board, that could be molded to affect onscreen models. I'm not sure what use this would have beyond character creation in, say, Maya, or another 3D program, but for character creation it would be far more intuitive than the mouse. Probably uses a combination of pressure-sensitive skin, like a touchpad, and tiny hydraulic internal sensors to map shifts in internal fluid or claylike substance. Or, like I said, a spherical pinboard with teeny hydraulic sensors.
-- cloudface, Jun 14 2004

Sculpting Box http://www.halfbake...l_20sculpting_20box
[cloudface, Oct 04 2004]

Suma http://www.cambridg...com/news_pr257.html
Somebody baked it! [cloudface, Dec 01 2009]

Another somewhat baked input device! http://dvice.com/ar...puyocon-the-mou.php
Like Suma, only a rubber ballish sort of concept thingie. [cloudface, Jan 15 2010]

Easier, I think, to mold the thing using clay, which is infinitely malleable, then scan it in using standard 3D scanning tehcniques.
-- DrCurry, Jun 14 2004


But what would be the invention in that, [DrC]?
-- bristolz, Jun 14 2004


BTW, if anyone sees something like this, please link the page!
-- cloudface, Jun 24 2004


Ooooh. I really want one of these. Lovely idea. + And I like the phrase "USB gooshball".
-- evilmathgenius, Jun 24 2004


bris: I think you're confusing means with ends. Although there is the saying that getting there is half the fun.
-- DrCurry, Jun 24 2004


the somehow is the invention. Without the somehow all we have is a nifty image.
-- WcW, Jan 15 2010


this links to the sculpting box, which links to this idea, therefore creating an infinite loop of 3-d ideas!
-- neo_, Jan 18 2010



random, halfbakery