that — even though the dancers movements are essentially
completely disconnected from any musical soundtrack —
human observers tend to comment about how well the
dancers seem to be moving in time with the music. They’ll
usually ask how we managed to get them to synchronize
so well. Seeing patterns in random motions — even when
none are actually present — is a psychological
phenomenon known as Apophenia:
Apophenia is the experience of seeing patterns or
connections in random or meaningless data. The term is
attributed to Klaus Conrad by Peter Brugger, who defined it
as the “unmotivated seeing of connections” accompanied
by a “specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness,”
but it has come to represent the human tendency to seek
patterns in random information in general, such as with
gambling and paranormal phenomena. (Definition courtesy
of Wikipedia.)
Essentially, this means anyone can build animatronics,
puppets, or marionettes that — to the observer — appear
to have deliberate or pre-programmed motions when in
reality the motions are nothing more than a simple motor
and a crank!
Animation Motivation
In our trio, the guitar-playing skeleton is animated
through the use of a Tamiya three-speed crank-axle
gearbox purchased from Pololu (Figure 2). It was powered
by adapting an old Nokia 3.5V 500 mA cell phone
charger and connecting it directly to the motor. The
56 September 2014
FIGURE 7. Use a
springpunchto help
keep the drill from
wandering.
FIGURE 8B. Bolts
tighteneddown.
FIGURE 8A. Horseshoe
bolt fitsperfectly on
the 1/4"shaftof the
gearheadmotor.
FIGURE 10A. Patio door wheel
attachedto the end of the crank shaft.
FIGURE 9.
The flatted
shaft flush
against the
aluminum
crank arm.
FIGURE 10B. Detail of the
crankarm with mutipleholes
to allow travel distance
selection.