Get smart curated videos delivered to your inbox.   SUBSCRIBE
The Kid Should See This

Computational Design of Mechanical Characters

Watch more with these video collections:

Imagine building a mechanical character from a computer program that could calculate the size and positioning of gears in order to make that character’s motions come alive. The team at Disney Research have designed and programmed this interface for non-experts, and have 3D printed the resulting objects: Computational Design of Mechanical Characters.

The video presentation could definitely use a bit of background music or narration, but it’s still fascinating to watch and great for discussion. The content is also groundbreaking for automata, self-operating, moving mechanical devices that look like robots or living things.

Related video watching: kinetic sculpturesgears, toys, and spirographish things.

via The Automata Blog.

This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.

Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.

🌈 Watch these videos next...

Walking mechanical woman and man

Rion Nakaya

The Writer, a drawing machine automaton by Pierre Jaquet-Droz

Rion Nakaya

The Slinky Machine: A hand-cranked, wooden Slinky escalator

Rion Nakaya

The Skeleton Dance, a 1929 Silly Symphony

Rion Nakaya

The Silver Swan, an 18th century automaton at the Bowes Museum

Rion Nakaya

The playful wonderland behind great inventions

Rion Nakaya

The Peacock Clock at The State Hermitage Museum

Rion Nakaya

The Old Mill, a Walt Disney Silly Symphony (1937)

Rion Nakaya