Josh

Humane Mousetrap

The Brief - The Solution - Additional Images

Brief

Any branding shown by the project on this page has been produced by me purely to adhere to the requirements for this project set for me by Bournemouth University. There is no official affiliation between this project and any brand or registered trademark.

Design a mechanical humane mousetrap to fit within an envelope of 120mm x 120mm. Prove that the mousetrap will work mathematically and build a fully working prototype by hand - 3D printing not allowed.

The Solution

As there are a lot of products already on the market in this sector, I did as much research into current brands and methods of humanely catching mice as possible before putting pencil to paper and sketching out ideas.

I wanted the design to be discrete, and not obviously a mouse trap, as the possibility of having mice in your home is not something that most people would like to advertise.

Therefore, I settled on a fairly minimalistic design, sticking to white, with just two colours to reinforce the brand and also help guide the user on how to use the product. I also made sure to pick opaque materials as some people may not want to be able to see the caught mouse in the trap.

The mechanism used to capture the mouse is fairly simple, but effective. The entry door, red, rests on top of a seesaw, when the mouse enters the trap and tilts the seesaw, the face holding the entry door up is moved away and therefore the door falls shut, trapping the mouse. The user can then take the trap outside, open the rear, green, door and the mouse can run off.

The process of using the trap is shown in the presentation boards below.

Additional Images

Various development and experimentation sketches - not presentation sketches

Various development and experimentation sketches - not presentation sketches

Presentation board 1 - Humane Mousetrap

Presentation board 1 - Humane Mousetrap

Presentation board 2 - The Mechanism - Humane Mousetrap

Presentation board 2 - The Mechanism - Humane Mousetrap