Phase 1: Configurations

We created a set of two gears that mimic heartbeat and breathing. The heartbeat gear, pictured in green, uses a round gear with two closely placed half-circle shaped tabs, with the first being taller than the second. As the gear turns, the lever (in yellow) on top is pushed up by the first tab and fall abruptly onto the second tab as the first tab ends. The lever then pushes upward and drops again in a heartbeat pattern. The other gear works in a similar way to mimic the slow rising and falling movements of the chest in breathing. This gear, pictured in red, is a circle with the hole it turns around placed halfway between the edge and the center-point of the circle. This causes the lever resting on it to rise and fall slowly, simulating the movement of breathing. The entire sculpture is surrounded by a rectilinear support frame that has a thin membrane strethed over it. As the gears turn the levers are pushed up against the fabric, mimicking the natural movements of the organs in the body.

Configuration 1
The first of our configurations is exactly what was described above in a square block, with one heart gear and one lung gear with one lever each that move the levers as the gear is turned. This serves as our base configuration.

Configuration 2: The Wave
The second configuration is a long rectangular creature with seven heart gears in a row that are all set up to raise the lever a moment after each other in a wave formation as the crank is turned. It is meant to replicate the way that a pulse looks and how blood moves through veins in a creature.

 

Configuration 3: Heart Noise
The third configuration uses the movement of several lung gears moving two support bars up and down at opposite times. The moving bars each support half of a lever that is hollow and filled with dry rice. When the crank is turned the lever is tipped back and forth length-wise and the rice runs back and forth, creating the sound of breathing.