Wednesday, July 4, 2012

My Rube Goldberg Invention

Well, it has been a nice 4th of July.  I've been out all day, basically wandering and testing my mad invention.  A few months back I was driving down San Tomas Expressway when, ahead of me, there was a motorcycle accident. It wasn't anything drastic, but it was very cool and it happened in the blink of an eye, as most accidents due.  At the time I thought "I wish I had my video camera rolling". Since then, it has always been in my mind that I would like to figure out a way to basically record the scene in front of me as I drove down the highway.  We see some pretty cool things as we go.  I experimented with my various tripods, but none of them had the stability I need.  I experimented with the various types of GPS and cell phone holders, but basically they all had a variety of problems. The main challenge I was facing was I need a.) a stable platform, b.) that held the camera securely, and c.) was easy to use.  So, last night I went to work with four sponges, a can of spray glue, and a piece of dowel.  The proof of concept was rough, but it worked very well. So, today, I bought two larger, solid pieces of foam to try for the next design iteration. I like it so far and the 25 minute test video today was very good.

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