BokitoKijker - Glasses for viewing gorillas and the like.

This is a fun thing which I saw mentioned on a TV programme here in the UK called 'QI'. (Hosted by Stephen Fry). This was a repeat of an episode broadcast a few years ago which mentioned a rather alarming incident at the zoo in Rotterdam. You can use your favourite search engine to find precise details using terms such as 'Rotterdam zoo gorilla attack' but the story concerned a gorilla called Bokito who got rather fed up and annoyed at a lady who had been gazing at him for quite some time - perhaps trying to make a human-primate connection of some sort. The gorilla lept over the moat which was supposed to protect the public and attacked the unfortunate lady who survived but suffered multiple injuries.

It turned out that animals like gorillas don't like being stared at which led to an insurance company handing out the BokitoKijker - translates from Dutch as 'Bokito viewer' - as part of their advertising campaign to enable the wearer to look straight ahead but appear to be looking away to his/her left :-)

This thing is a 3D printed Bokito viewer, a little more hard wearing than the cardboard cut outs handed out in Rotterdam.

I have used the arms and hinge design from leoedlin's Customizable Word Glasses to produce this thing as well as a printed copy of the 'averted eyes' graphic, currently downloadable free of charge from the dutch site shown in the instructions.

Instructions

Print the PDF file of the Bokito viewer via this link: http://www.fbto.nl/fbto/assets/pdf/bokitokijker.pdf I used photo glossy paper - you will need something a little more substantial than normal copy paper.

Slice and print the GorillaGlassesComplete STL file. (I have included two other STLs - one with just the front part of the frame and second with the arms taken from leoedin's Customizable Word Glasses which is thing #58259).

Assemble the glasses by CAREFULLY inserting the arms into their respective hinges on the frame - watch out not to get the arms upside down! One handy dandy tip is to warm up the plastic forming the hinges on the frame before you try and push in the arms. This will soften the plastic enough to make the job a whole lot easier and once in place, you can gently push the hinge together.

Cut out the eyes from the PDF which you downloaded.

Now comes the tricky part - finding out where to punch small holes into the paper eyes so that you can see through them once fixed to the plastic frame. I found that the easiest way is to put the glasses on, look into a mirror and gauge whereabouts the centre of your eyes appear in the lens spaces - if you want to be super accurate you may need the help of someone else with a ruler.

Fix the cut out eyes onto the frame using adhesive. (I used CA - superglue - watch those fingers don't come into contact!),

Now push a pin or needle into the eye picture at the place previously measured.

Finally put them on and spook your nearest and dearest .... with the confidence that you can now observe gorillas at the zoo in the safest way possible.