We've got one of those fancy sand boxes over in the engineering building on campus here.

@GutterIsATool:

Oh yea, well I've got one of your engineering buildings in my fancy sand box.

What a beautifully simple application of otherwise complex technology. All his work seems to have that effect.

@GutterIsATool: @Daniel_Voegelin: I've got one of his engineering buildings in your fancy sandbox in my toilet. SO THERE!

Anyway, this is really cool; I don't see how he made the sandbox & steel ball calculate for the sand that builds up.

Crap! My Girlie is a philosophy grad and if she's sees this hunk o' bolts, she'll talk my ear off about the mechanical and the ephemeral and blah blah blah.

@OMG! Ponies!: Just tell her it's Chen sticking something down her pants, that should throw her off.

Watch out for that Syphilis V.. it's not the same as the regular ole garden variety syphilis.

I like that guy.
He sounds like an average-joe genius, but at the same time I'm getting the feeling that he might just get himself killed by one of those things. My money is on the "Aneanemone".

@athingunique:
Chances are he didn't calculate it. He mentioned that there are people who try to model the "output" of these sculptures but it's easier to just do it and adjust until it works. Chances are he just played around with it until he got a line spacing that yielded the appropriate resolution.

Just think of it as an etch-a-sketch, and hopefully it will sink in how clever the whole thing is.

@GutterIsATool: Either that's a very common thing to have in an engineering building, or I know where you go to school. (Although, the fancy sandbox has been supplanted by a fancy fountain.)

@acceptablerisk: You are correct, sir. And, he only has to do it once. Since, you know the range of movement, and you know the size of the trough the bearing is making, it's actually quite simple to generate parametric equations for any pattern or image you might want to create.

@athingunique: There's no calculating of how the sand builds up. You don't actually have to have a completely "level" set of sand when you begin. The sand wants to be level. You can run a set of patterns over the sand to "level" it out anytime you need to.

@OMG! Ponies!: UPDATE: Girlie says that it's a perfectly cromulent application of technology.

The point of a zen garden is to help the user zone out and achieve a state of lowered thinking. A robot would therefore represent the ideal.

Additionally, since some basic programming of the robot is involved, the robot is less an entity and more of an extension of the user.

I wish I could be more detailed, but I was on my second beer of the meal.

@allstarecho: thats what i thought was said too,hahah

It takes balls, that's for sure.

@OMG! Ponies!: I actually looked up cromulent :P

Interesting idea though that a robot is inherently the perfection of the zen "state" of consciousness or being. Robots, however, lack conscious or being (despite various science fictional speculation).

However, as an "extension" of the artist, is the robot a part of the intuitive action? Usually 'pre-programmed' is seen as the opposite of 'intuitive'.

@ParJoe: Look, I did my good boyfriend duties last night. I took Girlie out to a real restaurant, discussed philosophy and our relationship and turned down "Iron Man" for staying in and cuddling instead.

I don't need to get Girlie started again.

@OMG! Ponies!: haha. Harsh though turning down Iron Man. :D

the link to the faire isn't working, i think it should be www.makerfaire.com not www.makerSfaire.com

just fyi

Might be cool for the living room.

not impressed. do that ball trick with artichoke & jalapeno dip, then call me.