Tim’s Novatrope

While Tim does have some very old toys in his collection, some over 40 years old, he is still collecting new toys, and here is a brand new toy he has just acquired that has not hit the mass market yet. You may recall that Victorian toy called a Zeotrope, where a series of still images becomes animated when viewed through thin slits in a revolving drum? Well the Novatrope is kind of an updated version of the same principle. Basically a 3D sculpture is rotated above a series of strobing LED lights, to create an optical illusion of impossible motion. Each sculpture is based on the spirals that you find in flowers and sea shells (think Fibonacci Sequence). The LED lights illuminate the sculpture from below in various colours, and by changing the speed of the strobe action, different motions can be created, where the structure appears to endlessly cascade. There are virtually limitless combinations of colour and motion, and Tim is planning to experiment (well, play really!)