I am making a window display for my computer shop.
Can you think of some way that I can make it look like a laptop
Computer is floating about 30cm from the ground?
The floor of the window area is about waist-high for people standing
in the street. The window is about 2.5 by 2 metres and about a metre
deep. It would be possible to attach things to the back and side of
the window display area. Unfortunatly it's not posible to attach
things from the ceiling.

Ideally we would like infomation on four or five different techniques
we could try to implement. If you have only one idea that could be OK
but we want it to be good enough to make people to come into the shop
to ask how we have done it.

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Request for Question Clarification by ericynot-ga on 21 Dec 2002 10:33 PST

How much control do you have over the lighting in the display area?

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Clarification of Question by oliver-ga on 21 Dec 2002 11:28 PST

Right now the area is brighly lit from the top. I have power to the
area so I could it in any way I wanted. It is daylight outside and
obviously I cant control that.

hi oliver,
  
please go to:  http://www.geocities.com/screbamotherfly/
i have uploaded some rough hand-drawn diagrams, to illustrate what i
have in mind...
 
 
My sugestions are as follows:
  
Option A:  
Attach clear nylon string (i.e. fishing line) to wall hooks, to the
left & right sight side of wall. The wall hooks screw into the wall,
and the nylon wire would be attached to each end of each hook. Clear
fine nylon wire is barely visible (esp. through a window), but i am
sure it could give the appearance that the laptop is suspended in thin
air (unless one looks very closely)

Option B: 
Attach two pieces of thin material e..g. wood, plywood, perspex etc to
underside of laptop. It will either have to be two pieces binded
together perpendicular to each piece (i.e at 90 degree angle) , or one
piece bended in such a way. The vertical side would be attached to the
the wall firmly. i.e with screws (and rawl plugs). So the laptop will
be help in place from the back, and underside, but no one can see
support from the front side.
 
Option C: 
My initial idea (but perhaps less practical) - attach four pieces of
cylindrical perspex tubular "things" - like straws (if they exist), -
each one carefully placed under each end of the laptop (i.e. front
left, front right, back left, back right).  It is difficult to tell
how well any of these options would work - it all depends on the
lighting, and colour of the background, and how it reflects light from
the side walls, sunlight, shadow, thickness of the showroom glass
window etc)
 
Option D: 
Similar idea to Option B, but the support would simply be a block of
wood or perspex, or some other BLOCK of  material that can be painted
or be made to blend with the overall colour of the surrounding walls.
It would simply, (but firmly), be attached to the back of the screen,
so it could support the whole laptop. It would have to be a very firm
bond e.g. heavy-duty VELCRO etc
 
 
I hope you find my ideas useful
 
 
Search Strategy:
Used my imagination

I wqanted some research not just the same ideas I could think up.
STill there was some stuff to think about.