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Remotely adjustable picture hanger

An almost serious concept
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Please consider and comment seriously, after which we can also entertain ways to make it sillier and add more explosions.

A flat box, perhaps 6 to 8 inches square and less than an inch thick. Vertical tracks on the right and left edge each hold a protruding spool / thin hard rubber disc with a groove in it. The spools can move up and down on the track and also rotate in place. The box contains motors, a rechargeable battery, bluetooth receiver, and control circuitry. IOS and Android cellphone apps can control the position of both spools.

Charge the device first. Then mount on the wall, put the picture hanging wire across the spools, and use your cellphone app to adjust the exact hanging position.

The ideal use case is for hanging multiple pictures near each other and getting the precise height for all of them. So these should probably be sold in multi-packs of 2, 3, or more.

a1, Oct 05 2022

Rough sketch https://ibb.co/kgKxD4H
[a1, Oct 05 2022]

Inductive Charging https://en.wikipedi.../wiki/Qi_(standard)
Qi Standard says 40mm, but that's "official"; real/workable numbers will be much higher. [neutrinos_shadow, Oct 06 2022]

Inductive chargng is for wimps Machine gun powered consumer electronics
[pocmloc, Oct 06 2022]

Straighten Up!
[xaviergisz, Oct 06 2022]

[link]






       The inclusion of an annoying health and safety warning sound as the adjustments take place will make it even more halfbaked.
xenzag, Oct 05 2022
  

       // annoying warning sounds //   

       Good point. A beeper like a forklift or truck backing up.
a1, Oct 05 2022
  

       Thinking about to recharge this. Shouldn’t need to power it up very often - but of course when you want to use it the battery will likely have gone dead. May be a thin ribbon cable that could be left in place and rolled/folder up behind the picture frame?   

       To add to the annoyance factor (as if a dead battery isn’t bad enough when you want to adjust the thing), it could chirp like a smoke alarm when the battery level is low.
a1, Oct 05 2022
  

       There is a major standards issue as to whether the system is mounted to the picture, and therefore can be hung on any handy picture hook or nail, but requires battery and/or trailing charging cables, or whether the system is mounted to the wall, allowing any picture to be hung onto it but requiring the system to be installed into the wall wherever a picture may wish to be hung.   

       Either way I think there should be an "auto mode" where you set your phone in the centre of the room, and it auto-detects the height and angle of each picture perhaps through its camera or something, and then it adjusts all simultaneously to what it thinks is the correct height and angle. The user can press a button to over-ride this and manually correct the positions.
pocmloc, Oct 05 2022
  

       [pocnloc] - I like your auto mode, great idea.   

       I see this as a wall mounted item on which you can hang any picture. Maybe the charging the cable could be attached/detached via a thin magnetic coupling (like apple's magsafe) inky when needed. Sure you'd have to take the picture off the wall but that wouldn't be very often - and the hanger itself makes it much less bother to rehang the frame abs get it lined back up.   

       For just a few hangers I don't think this needs connection to the mains. But expanded to a gallery setting, I could imagine a wall length rack with many spools bolted to a wall. Then a fixed power line would make sense.
a1, Oct 05 2022
  

       Needs a built in level... Perhaps displayed on the remote?
21 Quest, Oct 05 2022
  

       [21_Quest] - the remote control app could help with the leveling, yes. The thing you nail to the wall only has to be sorta kinda close enough to level as the adjustable spools let you fine tune it.
a1, Oct 05 2022
  

       Inductively powered. You have a "box of motors etc" behind each picture, but you only need 1 "power pack", which you hang on the FRONT of the picture while you level it. Then remove to do the next or recharge or whatever.
neutrinos_shadow, Oct 05 2022
  

       Inductive charging might work - how close do think it needs to get? rather not have to touch the artwork.
a1, Oct 05 2022
  

       [xaviergisz], thanks for the prior art. It's not exactly the same as my idea but I might borrow pieces from it.
a1, Oct 06 2022
  

       Take [pocmloc]'s auto mode and install it in a medieval house which has visibly warped over the centuries, so that it no longer has true horizontals, verticals or right-angles. Watch it trying to make a picture "hang right" until you take pity on it and switch it off.
pertinax, Oct 06 2022
  

       A hanger worth a thousand words.
pashute, Jun 08 2023
  
      
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