[Nick] is working on a prototype of a coffee table sand plotter that draws patterns in sand a lot like a zen rock garden. [Nick]’s zen rock garden uses a magnet to draw a ball bearing across ...

Why not just build a robot to create the perfect Zen garden in miniature? That was what [Tim Callinan] and his classmates did for a semester project, and the “ZenXY” sand plotter was the result.

Mini-Zen gardens, inspired by ancient Zen Buddhism, offer a meditative and relaxing experience through sand manipulation and design creation. The author, a cancer survivor, uses a Zen garden to manage ...

the sand a tranquil sea. In 2002, a research team at Kyoto University claimed to have cracked the Zen code. Relying on computer models, they found that the garden's rocks—when viewed from the ...