How shall we make the ultimate cat toy?

( I think this project has many commercial possibilities, but I doubt you could get any academic credit for it.)

The question of how to make a good cat toy is a question of technology. I've tried posting about this topic to Fedoraforum and Bad Astronmy and Universe Today forum, but didn't hear any engineering replies.

By a "good" cat toy, I mean:

1. A non-living toy. No (biological) mice, bugs, other cats etc.
2. A toy that gives the cat exercise without me having to manipulate the toy or frequently retrieve the toy from under sofas, tables etc.
3. A toy that will periodically interest the cat. The cat won't spend all its time playing with it but it won't lose interest in it either.

Examples of unsuccessful cat toys.
1. Catnip filled furry balls, imitation mice. Even the ones that squeek only interest my cat for a few minutes.
2. Remote controlled toy cars, animals etc. The ones that I have tried are so large that they scare the cat. Plus I have to work the controls.
3. Assemblies of ropes, cords etc. that cats are supposed to enjoy. They are no better than drapery cords and my cat has become bored with them.
4. Laser pointers. They fascinate my cat, but I have to manipulate them.


Cats show so much interest in laser pointers, that the simplest idea seems to be to have some sort of device (perhaps it could attach to an overhead light fixture) that would periodically turn on and move the beam of a laser ponter around randomly on the floor.

I would think that modern technology would allow a small mechanical toy to be buiilt that would amuse a cat. It would periodically become active for a few minutes and then have a long period of inactivity. Perhaps it could detect when it was being played with and adjust its behavior accordingly.

The only nearly successful cat toy that I had was a device that randomly moved a rod that had a furry toy suspended from it. It was programmed to have periods of inactivity. However the cat quickly demolished the furry toy and the base of the device wasn't substantial enough to prevent the cat from knocking it over.

Some cats are reported to watch TV, however Mine will occasionally watch a moving dot on a compute monitor. However, I think most cats don't have much interest in 2D displays. If a 3D display of some kind could be made it would at least be as nteresting to the cat as watching birds and fish. I don't know if the "MagicEye" illusion can be adapted to cats. That might be one approach. (Come to think of it, I've never seen an animated MagicEye display adapted to humans. Surely, they have such a thing nowadays. )