A small, battery-powered and very low-gear driven sticky rubber (silicon rubber) roller that clings to the wall and is squarely attached to the back of a picture or artwork frame. The device has an orientation sensor, either mercury or other sensitive level, that is periodically checked and if the sensor indicates that the picture is crooked then the roller drive engages and moves the painting back to a level sensor reading. The low gearing and stickiness of the rubber help to keep the artwork from creeping back out of level.
The painting must be hung by a single point for this to work.-- bristolz, Dec 20 2004 Conceptual scribble and rendering. http://bz.pair.com/fun/strUp.html60Kb image. [bristolz, Dec 20 2004] Monica Gellar would sell her chef's hat for this.-- spiritualized, Dec 21 2004 Nice pen work.-- FarmerJohn, Dec 21 2004 I like it. This would be very useful in places that hang and re-hang pictures often, like art galleries (well, popular ones anyway). I think a mercury switch would be best - you can keep from having to use digital circuits, and use no battery at all when it's straight.-- Worldgineer, Dec 21 2004 think of the time saved - top gallery gadget (+).-- neilp, Dec 21 2004 Nice. I consider myself a laid-back sort, most of the time, but crooked pictures drive me crazy.-- RayfordSteele, Dec 21 2004 Damn, I was hoping this would be something to keep me from slouching. But since crooked wall-hangings drive me insane, I'll give this a plus.-- Machiavelli, Dec 21 2004 Evil Version: deliberately design a 10 degree skew into the widget, then give a picture in that frame to your Great Aunt Gertie. You know, the one who has OCD and is constantly dusting & such.-- krelnik, Dec 21 2004 Poor Aunt Gertie, she'd never leave the house!-- Machiavelli, Dec 21 2004 [krelnik] - if they were made using mercury, as suggested, some small, well placed magnets would do the trick.-- Detly, Dec 21 2004 + I'll take a bunch. But I also want a haunted-house mode, whereby the pictures move around and mutter to themselves.-- Don Quixote, Dec 21 2004 Good if your house suffers from subsidence in one corner, or is in an earthquake zone.-- hippo, Dec 21 2004 I think this one was preheated by Scott Adams in the Dilbert principle. It's one of the tests to see if someone is truly an engineer.-- david_scothern, Dec 21 2004 [bristoltz] - did you use sketchup for the illustration?-- energy guy, Dec 21 2004 David,
Scott Adams didn't provide a solution, though, he merely sugggested that a true engineer would be unable to resist solving the problem.-- egbert, Dec 21 2004 Yes, Sketchup. Delightful piece of software. I re-inked the line work, though, as Sketchup's line quality is horrid.
[BrauBeaton], yes, a flaw. I thought that hard felt pads could be used at the lower corners or little rubber balls that mimic the design of a ball-point.
Alternatively, an articulate tractor-tread or, like you wrote, a network of rollers.
[David] I've not read that but am not surprised. Crooked paintings are almost cliche.-- bristolz, Dec 21 2004 I tried to read the print on the edge of the rubber thingy in the sketch. But even with Sharpen I could not make it out. Its too bad the cops and CIA don't let us have those really excellent sharpen tools like you see in the movies.-- bungston, Dec 21 2004 It says "bz 100 superformance" I think, or close to that, anyway. I knew it wouldn't be very readable but didn't think anyone would go to any lengths to try and read it. Next time I'll turn up the supersampling ;-)-- bristolz, Dec 22 2004 The picture is straight. Your body is crooked.-- elfling, Dec 22 2004 I'd love to bang into a wall full of these and watch them all adjust slightly differently. Or tip one way off and see if it causes a brief pendulum effect. Or walk past one in the middle of the night and hear the tiny whirr as it adjusts itself just slightly...
[edit] However please make it non-mercury if possible. Mercury too often gets disposed of improperly and contaminates things...-- Etymon, Jan 03 2005 Wow! Biscuit for the artwork alone! Nice job brist!-- doctorremulac3, Jun 09 2005 Why would your picture ever BE crooked in the first place? My walls don't move much at all. Far less than a mercury switch would detect. I mean, this would be great for grass hut museums or for art galleries at sea, but for MOST pictures, two screws will ensure flawless picture hanging.-- Ccapeland, Jun 09 2005 Unless it's in Tokyo.-- wagster, Jun 09 2005 Two screws? I guess that's okay if you're hanging velvet art in a cheap motel.-- bristolz, Jun 09 2005 Rip a 1x4 at 45 degrees into two equal pieces. Put one piece on the wall and insert one screw, but make sure the bevel is facing up and slopes down toward the wall. Then level and insert other screw. Affix other piece to picture frame in similar manner, but make sure the bevel is facing down and slopes away from the frame. Now hang the picture on the wall. Never ever needs to be releveled, and if you run a screw down from the top through both halves of the 1x4, it'll never get knocked off the wall.-- Ccapeland, Jun 09 2005 Thank gawd you don't hang our art.
What if you regularly move your art like we do at our house? We hang our art as it is done in a typical gallery but we don't use the museum wire method as it looks ugly.
In any case, this is a halfbaked invention and defending the idea is out of scope ;-)-- bristolz, Jun 10 2005 This is indeed an outstanding presentation. Fascinating application of ultra low power device. I'm tempted to suggest power by phlogiston (phlogistological magnetic propulsion), but the quality of your work demands serious comment. Power by lithium cell would suffice for a couple of years, but that's quite pedestrian. The obvious candidate would be a small photoelectric cell (galleries are lighted, after all). Perhaps also an advanced version that ingests flying insects and slowly converts them into motive power for picture straightening.-- crater, Jun 10 2005 I actually like [capeland]'s sea version. The boat will bounce back and forth, but the pictures will remain level. You'd need a little gyro and more power, but you could generate energy from the rocking motion itself.-- Worldgineer, Jun 10 2005 + How'd I miss this?-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 27 2006 She was truthing, it says "BZ100SUPERZOOM".-- normzone, Jul 27 2006 This is really cool. I find that the pictures that move the most are the little candid shots or 6x4 pictures with light frames. A tiny version (and cheap) would be perfect for this application.
Damn, I'm really pissed and greatly saddened that she won't be around anymore. It also depresses me that all too often a person isn't told how special they are until it's too late.-- NotTheSharpestSpoon, Jul 27 2006 I was thinking of this the other day when looking at all my framed photos coming down the stairs. They all get knocked crooked all the time.-- wagster, Jul 27 2006 + In the event that I happen to dust my pictures, (or one of my cats decides to dust them)- they always go crooked.-- xandram, Jul 27 2006 random, halfbakery