• Introducing a Simple Mechanism
  • Working with Tinker Toys to assemble a basic structure
  • Plastic cups are attatched to the Tinker Toy Frame to resemble eye sockets
  • Foam soccer balls are placed in the cups to operate as eyeballs
  • Paperclips are inserted into the back of the foam balls to attatch string that is used to mimick proper eye movement

First Design:

Another shot of the first design focusing on the use of the strings to rotate the "soccerball eyes" in the plastic cup:

The Team hard at work on the first design:

 

Our first design was a good starting point to demonstrate how the muscles move the eye. However, the plastic cups were causing too much friction for the soccer balls to rotate freely. Thus we changed our design to use a smoother plastic clear cup.

Design Two:

This design was getting us closer but we still were having problems with the ball rotating in the cup. We brainstormed a bit and thought of using a styrofoam ball and plastic mock martini glass. This allowed the ball to rotate better because the martini glass has a larger diameter and a smaller surface area to ball ratio.

Design Three:

 

A closer view of the styrofoam ball and cup:

 

• Moving forward with our design we plan on expanding from our tinker toy model to using a wooden and metal model. The materials we are going to be using for this new design consist of:

1”x12” board, 18” in length

6” metal gazing balls (2)

½” diameter wooden dowel, 6” in length

Chromium-plated chair leg glider (2)

1”x6” board, 12” in length, cut to 4 ¾” in height

2”x2” triangle

Ring of ball bearings

Post support (2)

Brass Strips 3 ½”x 5/8”

Rings

Sheet metal screws

Nails

8” wide, 17” long, 1/8” thick sheet of Aluminum

3’ of 1”x1”

1 to 20 miniature pulley’s (½” diameter)

Mason’s string

Brown and Red Paint

Lead Weights (3/8”x1”x6½”)