I'm thick, sorry- how do you rig this up? Are you cuffed in the bathtub?
Closest thing I found to a tickle machine was a foot massager, the ones with 2 sets of concentric circles spinning in opposite directions.
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TICKLE MACHINE: What'd work best?...
I'm thick, sorry- how do you rig this up? Are you cuffed in the bathtub?
Closest thing I found to a tickle machine was a foot massager, the ones with 2 sets of concentric circles spinning in opposite directions.
Maybe rig up an exercise bench as a "rack"?
BTW I Googled "Linear Actuators" and found plenty of "for sale" sites.
I think someone into RCs could probably help us out with the mecanical parts.
At some point we'll hafta discuss safety precautions for testing out prototypes- ie worst-case scenario in cuts you or catches fire somehow and you're cuffed and immobilized and burn to death, then it attacks the City...
I swear I was going to suggest this but have no idea how to program MIDI. Actually I had this idea a while ago where you'd plug a keyboard into a tickling machine and areas on the keyboard would control certain tickling devices and velocity would determine intensity etc. I think I might have gotten the idea from Barbarella.
But yes we are getting well ahead of ourselves and the first order of business is a simple tool that can create a genuine tickling sensation. I've been focusing on the mechanics of the arms since I think basic functionality of that aspect is likely to be the first most crucial step. I've looked around for robotic hands but damn those things are expensive. The best I could find would be a model of a robot hand that can change poses and the basic assembly line type. I think going down that road would be more trouble than it's worth. Working out how to get a full-blown robotic hand to act in the way we want it would be far too complex and an assembly line hand would only be able to hold another instrument to use, making it only slightly more affective than a do-it-yourself arm rig.
One thing I did come across when checking out some robotic sites is a microcontroller. It's something that receives programming data from a computer via USB and uses that to command the robot. Since RC requires manual control, this might be closer to what we'd be looking at. It should be simpler than building the simplest kit robot too since we're not programming it with a true artificial intelligence, just a random event generator.
I wouldn't look at massagers as tickle machines at all personally. I remember sitting in one of those ones you can stick on a chair and it HURT. It had those circular moving things that dug into my spine and kidneys. Maybe I'm just too skinny for that stuff. I do remember seeing images of women with what appeared to be some kind of massaging device strapped to the soles of their feet which was supposedly tickling them, but I doubt that would work.
I just remembered, we have one of those gyms at home that my mum's been wanting to get rid of for months! Guess I'll have to tell her I'll be wanting it for uh... exercise.
Safety precautions... Hadn't thought of fire. We could talk about mechanical releases but I don't know if I'd trust my life to one. I'd rather use the key with the frozen string technique and put my money on the laws of physics. But let's assume we come up with a release system that's connected to the computer, it should activate in the event of any failure in the system. For that to work the failsafe would have to be free from any chance of failure. This would all be a lot easier if you weren't tied up :lol
Definitely have to go with the exercise bench idea, but let's try not to make it impossible to use if you don't have one. I'm going to go work on a diagram for some simpler modules that you can actually strap to your body now. Oh and we're going to need to work out how the tickling implement at the end of an arm can rotate independently.
I've done a simple strap-based module but it looks like the mechanism to drive it would be more complex than the arm surprisingly. The implement in this case would most likely be a brush, with which physical contact between the body and the bristles would not cause enough friction to stop it from moving.
Perhaps foam or polystyrene could be used instead of rubber. That way it would be easier to fashion specialized supports for different parts of the body.
Perhaps foam or polystyrene could be used instead of rubber. That way it would be easier to fashion specialized supports for different parts of the body.
vmandude1
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it depends on how u want to go. i usually just twist some rope around my hands and pretend, but if ur an escape artist, or have flexible enuff wrists, u can put the key on a string, and cuff ur self up with the key hanging from the cuffs, so when ur ready to be undone, just grab the key and unlock urself. i pretty much explained the rigging of the shower head though
For rich sadists, how bout a form-fitted plastic sarcophagus or 'Iron Maiden' where you can't move and feathers or ticklers come out from panels on the inside tickling you all over... this might work; it's be a simple mechanism, plus you couldn't see what's coming.
Some people say Q-tips are the ultimate ticklers; just have a random 'arm' move wriggling Q-tips up and down the body and see what happens. This is simpler than a mechanical hand...
(if nothing else I've already gotten 100 cartoon ideas from this brainstorming)
kopfhorer1
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I also came across that tickle salon website. My problem with that one is all the effort has gone into an artificial intelligence to sense and react to the user's movements (way beyond what we're capable of) and very little has gone into the tickling mechanisms themselves.
I've also gotten plenty of large-scale ideas for the finished product but at the moment we'll never get anywhere without detailed plans for each part of the machine. It's all well and good to consider how the arm will function but unless we have a clear way of making it function in that way we haven't gotten anywhere. I've been thinking it over some more and looked into how actuators function and I'm not sure they're the way to go. A more computerized solution might be more effective, and since power is not a consideration something on the RC car size would probably work just fine. I wonder what the market is like for parts, even second-hand. I have an idea for how a rotary motor (which would be used to turn the wheels) could be given a modified linear output. That would be good for regular back and forth actions but as for precision positioning I think we'll have to look at something else. Something that can be programmed to slide back and forth but stop at an exact location somewhere along the line, like an old dot-matrix printer.
Starting to find the lack of interest here pretty demoralizing.
I've also gotten plenty of large-scale ideas for the finished product but at the moment we'll never get anywhere without detailed plans for each part of the machine. It's all well and good to consider how the arm will function but unless we have a clear way of making it function in that way we haven't gotten anywhere. I've been thinking it over some more and looked into how actuators function and I'm not sure they're the way to go. A more computerized solution might be more effective, and since power is not a consideration something on the RC car size would probably work just fine. I wonder what the market is like for parts, even second-hand. I have an idea for how a rotary motor (which would be used to turn the wheels) could be given a modified linear output. That would be good for regular back and forth actions but as for precision positioning I think we'll have to look at something else. Something that can be programmed to slide back and forth but stop at an exact location somewhere along the line, like an old dot-matrix printer.
Starting to find the lack of interest here pretty demoralizing.
I think the diagram is self-explanatory enough but just in case:
Motors from RC cars and the work by rotating, causing the wheels to spin which makes the car move obviously. One way of turning this into a back and forth movement is to have the motor rotate a disc, to which a rod is attached. The rod is free to spin independently from the disc, however it will move when the disc rotates. This rod is attached via a hinge to a second rod. The hinge allows the two to remain attached while the first rod alters its angle. The second rod maintains the same angle since it is supported by the casing of the structure but moves back and forth with the first.
This doesn't solve the problem of positioning but it does present a possibly more achievable and safe design than high-powered actuators.
Motors from RC cars and the work by rotating, causing the wheels to spin which makes the car move obviously. One way of turning this into a back and forth movement is to have the motor rotate a disc, to which a rod is attached. The rod is free to spin independently from the disc, however it will move when the disc rotates. This rod is attached via a hinge to a second rod. The hinge allows the two to remain attached while the first rod alters its angle. The second rod maintains the same angle since it is supported by the casing of the structure but moves back and forth with the first.
This doesn't solve the problem of positioning but it does present a possibly more achievable and safe design than high-powered actuators.
We've got 2-3 people interested (you and me at least) I think the best way to start is to try building things, see what works. I think we can buy little electric motors and gears at Radio Shack- I'm gonna look for my plans from years ago, or try and remember it from my faulty brain. I had some working mechanisms (on paper) for random movements, I'll send you what I can find (Once I get my stupid scanner working)
One design had a plastic 'arm' moved on it's X and Y axis, both quick and random and timed differently for unpredictable movement. Easier to draw than to explain.
Springs are very useful "random movement generators". Picture a wood handled feather-duster- now picture the feathers attached to a big door-spring, they'll flop around wildly- it's getting it JUST RIGHT to produce the level of sensation that's the tricky part.
One design had a plastic 'arm' moved on it's X and Y axis, both quick and random and timed differently for unpredictable movement. Easier to draw than to explain.
Springs are very useful "random movement generators". Picture a wood handled feather-duster- now picture the feathers attached to a big door-spring, they'll flop around wildly- it's getting it JUST RIGHT to produce the level of sensation that's the tricky part.
The thing about springs is that they release all of their stored elastic potential energy in one go. They might bounce around for a little while but you'd need a way to recharge it constantly. Also, as you say, springs are very unpredictable and I wonder how effectively you could focus their movements. What method did you use to make your plastic arm move?
I'm wondering if a really simple way to start might be to just attach a bunch of electric toothbrushes and flossers to some kind of rig that just holds them against your feet. Maybe vibrations + simple rotation + strength in numbers will have more of an effect than is presently obvious.
I'm wondering if a really simple way to start might be to just attach a bunch of electric toothbrushes and flossers to some kind of rig that just holds them against your feet. Maybe vibrations + simple rotation + strength in numbers will have more of an effect than is presently obvious.
I guess the first step would be testing the effectiveness of those kinds of devices with very simple, even repetitive movements to see just how much variation is even needed. I'll see if I can buy an electric toothbrush next time I'm out shopping. I need some new audio cables soon anyway.
The springs don't power it, they make it less predictable. Maybe wire coat hangers are a better example- a wooden feather duster handle is rigid and predictable, you can't tickle yourself with one. But put the feathers on something springy and bouncy (like a stretched-out wire coat hanger) and you have much less control or predictability, and it just about works.
I think your toothbrush/flosser idea is a good thing to try out first- it's simplest to build.
Actually I'm getting your idea with the spring now. You've managed to apply chaos theory into a rudimentary tickle machine :lol
Effective application would still be a challenge but it would provide a much greater scope for true random behaviour than a random 2-dimensional event generator. I think if you could combine the two you'd really be onto something.
Effective application would still be a challenge but it would provide a much greater scope for true random behaviour than a random 2-dimensional event generator. I think if you could combine the two you'd really be onto something.
Wow you can get a tiny (fits in your palm) remote controlled helicopter off eBay for $AU10 from the right seller. I'm sure the motors are weak as Hell and not at all up to the job of making something reliably airborne but for something as simple as spinning a brush at modest speeds they might be useful. And with luck with can find a better way to power them than batteries. And since it's designed to work via remote control it should be possible to modify it to have a robot control it. Shame I completely dismantled the last RC car I had.
I used to have Lego Expert Builder set, without motor. This taught me about gears etc, I wish I still had it. It came with dozens of gears and axles, all different sizes. I could build whatever I want with that even today.
You could build a replica car engine with moving pistons- circular motion transferred into up-and-down motion, just like we need.
You could build a replica car engine with moving pistons- circular motion transferred into up-and-down motion, just like we need.
In addition to testing out what tools would actually work for a tickle machine, we need to decide early on what would be the best method for combining each part. I'm very much into the idea of a machine that can be easily upgraded with interchangable parts, since I think a working tickling machine might just be the beginning. When folks realize it's something that can be done that they can put together themselves there'll be threads a-plenty on mods, programs etc. Designing each part to be changed just seems the way with me.
If computer control is the route we take then the program will undoubtedly need to be connected to some sort of robotic hub. I'll have to do more research into exactly how those things work, are programmed and if they can do everything we need but unless you were thinking of something else specific that's what I'll assume we're going for. It just needs to be able to translate digital programming data into the mechanical units. The same way pushing forward on a joystick activates the engine on an RC vehicle.
Every mechanical component will then have to be electrical I'm guessing. Actuators, as it turns out, can get surprisingly expensive. Simple back and forth motions with variations in speed can be easily manifested using low-powered motors. Building something that can actually change position will be a lot harder and at the moment I can't think of how to do it with simple, easy to find components. Even on eBay most of the actuators I'm seeing are in the hundreds of dollars. We need to think of other solutions if we're going to progress to this level of motion. Maybe you could do it by using controlled bursts from the motor, which would be pretty random anyway.
I'm also worried about supplying power to each individual motor. RC vehicles are designed to run on batteries so are there converters or transformers that you can plug into a power socket and connect to the motors?
If computer control is the route we take then the program will undoubtedly need to be connected to some sort of robotic hub. I'll have to do more research into exactly how those things work, are programmed and if they can do everything we need but unless you were thinking of something else specific that's what I'll assume we're going for. It just needs to be able to translate digital programming data into the mechanical units. The same way pushing forward on a joystick activates the engine on an RC vehicle.
Every mechanical component will then have to be electrical I'm guessing. Actuators, as it turns out, can get surprisingly expensive. Simple back and forth motions with variations in speed can be easily manifested using low-powered motors. Building something that can actually change position will be a lot harder and at the moment I can't think of how to do it with simple, easy to find components. Even on eBay most of the actuators I'm seeing are in the hundreds of dollars. We need to think of other solutions if we're going to progress to this level of motion. Maybe you could do it by using controlled bursts from the motor, which would be pretty random anyway.
I'm also worried about supplying power to each individual motor. RC vehicles are designed to run on batteries so are there converters or transformers that you can plug into a power socket and connect to the motors?
Well I've found the connection from software to hardware. It's called "Arduino". It appears to consist of a USB interface to connect to the computer and control board which receives instructions from the program on how to operate. It's actually a little more elegant than I had expected. And get this: the most expensive board I could find is just $AU79.95 😱
Looks like we're going to have to learn a bit about robotics.
Looks like we're going to have to learn a bit about robotics.
And I'm not sure but I think I may be onto the solution of the positioning problem. It may require setting up some kind of sensor to test the position of the object which relays back to a servo, connected to the motor which then attempts to correct the positioning by moving it in the appropriate direction.
This is fast becoming a ridiculously complex project for someone with no experience in this stuff. Whoever could have imagined that robotics would be this hard.
This is fast becoming a ridiculously complex project for someone with no experience in this stuff. Whoever could have imagined that robotics would be this hard.
The more I look into the components that could make up the "brain" of the tickle machine, the more I think a simple robot would be the simplest, cheapest and most effective method. You can even have a start-up button placed near the last hand you secure with the handcuff so the machine doesn't start until you're completely bound. An optional off switch could also be easily rigged up.
For this aspect of the design I think I'll either have to buy one of the simple kit robots to thoroughly learn the way it all works and the limitations before moving onto unique application. I'm also starting to wonder if people will be prepared to go through all of this to make the machine themselves. The good news is that this should all be a lot cheaper than I originally thought.
At this point I think there might be two things to do. Firstly, we create a poll to see what people would want in a machine like this; pre-built then shipped at their expense or just the plans provided, level of configurability on the programming and mechanical sides, price-range etc. Since it looks like only two of us are actually working on it at the moment we could skip that step and design it however we like then just make the plans available but I'd really like to see this turn into a community project at some point. The other thing is to actually get one of these robots and become familiar with all the ins and outs. That'll probably be the best way to know how the rest of the machine should be designed.
For this aspect of the design I think I'll either have to buy one of the simple kit robots to thoroughly learn the way it all works and the limitations before moving onto unique application. I'm also starting to wonder if people will be prepared to go through all of this to make the machine themselves. The good news is that this should all be a lot cheaper than I originally thought.
At this point I think there might be two things to do. Firstly, we create a poll to see what people would want in a machine like this; pre-built then shipped at their expense or just the plans provided, level of configurability on the programming and mechanical sides, price-range etc. Since it looks like only two of us are actually working on it at the moment we could skip that step and design it however we like then just make the plans available but I'd really like to see this turn into a community project at some point. The other thing is to actually get one of these robots and become familiar with all the ins and outs. That'll probably be the best way to know how the rest of the machine should be designed.
Don't worry too much about other people taking an interest. Hate to sound negative, but I live in New Jersey- the land of non-participation and empty talk.
The fact that one other person on the other side of the planet is seriously interested is, to me, a miracle.
Look at WHY we're doing this in the first place- TO REPLACE PEOPLE. Why? Because they're all non-participants and I'm sick of it. In over a year on these internet forums I've had exactly ONE in-person tickling encounter- Dismal results, worse than any pessimist could have expected. I keep PM-ing people who say they're really eager and desparate for live tickling, then maybe I hear back from them one time and that's it, they disappear.
I have little need for other humans in my life (except my close friends)
Tickling is one 'need' I can't fulfil all by myself...yet. Once a machine is built I'll have one less use for unreliable human beings.
I don't mean to get all negative, but that's how useless people are- don't get your hopes up, don't get frustrated when it seems no one else is seriously interested cause they're NOT, that's the natural state of these "Do-Nothings" out there, you can't expect more from them.
Don't get discouraged by it.
