Engineer creates living furniture: The table that walks to you

[frauenfelder]

Originally published at: Engineer creates living furniture: The table that walks to you - Boing Boing

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[Otherbrother]

@frauenfelder

The Carpentopod leg linkage itself was generated by some software I wrote that evolved thousands of virtual generations of leg variations by having them compete against each other.

I was going to mention the similarity to the Theo Jansen leg linkage design but I see that the inventor has already discussed that:

Anyone who’s ever seen one of Theo Jansen’s inspiring Strandbeest sculptures will probably see the similarity between his leg linkage and the Carpentopod linkage. The Carpentopod linkage, however, has a very different set of component ratios, as well as an extra joint point and an evolved rounded toe diameter. These extra parameters allowed the evolution process to find a solution that is more compact and causes less foot slide.

A really cool case of convergent evolution! (Also maybe of carcinisation specifically?)

[robertmckenna]

I’ve been sending that to friends all day as The Luggage!

The Luggage

[anon15383236]

Living furniture?

Pee Wee was on it, decades ago!

[Grey_Devil]

Seems like an oversight not to mention it in the BB post, if i had to give constructive feedback. The furniture is very clearly based on Jansen’s work, he’s very much synonymous with the Strandbeests.

[Otherbrother]

@Grey_Devil

The furniture is very clearly based on Jansen’s work, he’s very much synonymous with the Strandbeests.

Yeah, well the inventor mentioned it on the site that BB links to, so it’s all good.

He even had this handy side-by-side comparison video:

Carpentopod - Side-by-side with Jansen's Strandbeest linkage

Jansen’s mechanism is well known and among the most-developed but there have been different variations of somewhat similar crab-walking mechanisms used in toys and whatnot for many years.

[Melizmatic]

Obligatory:

[geoduck]

Can’t find a copy online, but there’s a Far Side strip where a woman’s furniture can talk, and they are all maliciously conspiring to get her hauled away to the asylum as a crazy person.

[FSogol]

Exactly. Rincewind has entered the chat.

[allenk]

I didn’t realize furniture technology had made such great strides! (at 3:32 – why does bb strip off the time tag )

The Tick : S02 E07 - Evil Sits Down for a Moment

[enkidoodler]

yesssssssss, finally some wonderful thing

[Mangochin]

JD Vance reads with intense curiosity.

[Melizmatic]

@allenk

such great strides

[allenk]

what The Tick did there

[anothernewbbaccount]

Came to say the same. Leaving satisfied. As would Sir Terry.

@FSogol

Rincewind has entered the chat.

And run away, again, probably screaming.

[Insert ‘just take my money’ gif.]

I badly want one of these!

[Brandano]

I fitted casters to my coffee table. Recently I replaced them with better ones, and discovered that my floor is not perfectly level

[anothernewbbaccount]

Applying some castor oil to the old ones might have revealed that earlier.

[Doctor_Faustus]

@Otherbrother

A really cool case of convergent evolution

I’m pretty sure that his starting point was Jansen’s linkage with the goal of making it more efficient via machine learning. Plus, Jansen’s linkage isn’t evolution, it’s intelligent design!