Mechanical Toys Overview Multimedia CD

A dedicated reader of The Automata / Automaton Blog, has passed along info about this multimedia educational CD-ROM about mechanical toys.

Basic Principles of Mechanisms
Structured to encourage students to conduct their own investigations into the basic principles of mechanisms, this learning aid covers:

Mechanical Toys
* Types of motion
* Cams and followers
* Levers and linkages
* Pulley systems
* Gear systems
* Technical vocabulary

Educational Models
Combining these topic areas with detailed analyzes of 21 real-life automata, Focus on Mechanical Toys delivers a comprehensive educational package that's equally useful as a teaching aid, learning resource or research tool.

Interactive Animations
High quality 3D animations are available in addition to the photographic images, written descriptions and videos of each toy's mechanical structure. Each animation can be paused at any time and the on-screen image copied and pasted into a word processing or DTP program for inclusion in students' design folders.

They offer a free download demo on their site -- with some functionality disabled. Much can be learned from the free demo (Windows only).

Here is the product page for the Mechanical Toys Overview Multimedia CD.


Note: You might also consider Flying-Pig.co.uk's Mechanisms Offline download.

[Thanks bhaaluu!]