The camera mounted on the miniature cable car was met with skepticism at the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco. But when a sound designer let it loose on the garden railway, its rollicking journey captured on a video monitor charmed the staff.

"That's how we test things here at the conservatory," says Lau Hodges, director of operations and exhibitions. "If it entertains the adults - if it causes the 8-year-old in all of us to come out - then it definitely stays."