Torso-Supporting Puppet Sling for Life-Like Manipulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing large-scale puppets lack support for their arms and legs, resulting in an unappealing limp appearance and inability to assume a hugging or cuddling posture, which detracts from their realism and display value.
Innovation Solution
A torso-supporting puppet design featuring a sling that allows the puppet to be securely positioned on a user's torso, with a hollow head and body, and a slit for hand insertion to manipulate the puppet, providing a life-like appearance and feel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the puppet size is increased to be larger than average human hand, then the puppet appears more life-like, but the arms and legs become unsupported and unmanipulatable, resulting in a limp appearance
Solution Approach 1:
The sling acts as an intermediary support structure between the puppet and the user's body. It provides the necessary support for the puppet's limbs and body, enabling larger puppet sizes while maintaining a natural, non-limp appearance. The sling distributes the puppet's weight across the user's torso, allowing full-sized puppets to be supported without requiring proportional hand size increases.
2Volume of moving object
If the puppet size is increased to be larger than average human hand, then the puppet appears more life-like, but the manipulation becomes difficult as only the head is directly supported by the hand
Solution Approach 1:
The sling serves as a mediator that transfers control from the user's hand to the entire puppet body. By inserting the hand through the sling, the user gains indirect control over the puppet's limbs and body movements, enabling manipulation of large-scale puppets that would otherwise be impossible to control with hand size constraints.
Solution Approach 2:
The hand is inserted through the sling and into the puppet's head, creating a nested configuration where the hand is contained within the puppet structure. This nesting arrangement allows the user's hand to extend control throughout the puppet's body while maintaining a realistic appearance, as the hand is hidden within the puppet's hollow head.
3Ease of operation
If the hand is inserted into the puppet head for manipulation, then full-bodied movement is achieved, but the hand is visible which reduces the life-like appearance
Solution Approach 1:
The hand is nested within the puppet's hollow head structure, allowing manipulation while remaining concealed. The sling provides an insertion path that guides the hand through the puppet body, keeping the hand hidden from external view. This nested configuration enables full control of the puppet's movements while maintaining a realistic, handless appearance.
Solution Approach 2:
The puppet's hollow head and body are constructed with flexible materials that can accommodate the inserted hand while maintaining the external appearance of a complete puppet figure. The flexible shell allows the hand to move within the puppet without distorting the overall shape or revealing the internal hand structure.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein is a toy puppet that is supportable on a manipulator's torso. In particular, a torso-supporting means typically takes the form of a sling in which the puppet figure is supported. The sling can be tied about the user or have two ends which are attachable. Typically, the ends are attached via velcro. Thus, the torso-supportable puppet has a slit into which the user can insert their hands to manipulate the puppet. The torso supportable means also comprises a slit into which the user can insert their hand. When the puppet is manipulated, the inserted hand is hidden by the puppet which gives the operation of the puppet a life-like feel.