Google gets arty, motion-sensitive with interactive Alexander Calder doodle

Google has created an interactive artwork "doodle" for the birthday of the late American artist and mobile inventor Alexander Calder.

The latest in Google's popular interactive doodles series - which replaces the Google logo with themed images in honor of particular events or people - pays tribute to the famous artist on July 22, what would have been Calders' 113th birthday.

The virtual mobile yields to peoples' desire to touch the things they shouldn't in art galleries. Google's Alexander Calder sculpture can be "touched" and spun around.

People using a laptop or tablet with an accelerometer can simply tilt their machine and watch as the "whimsical metal forest" of shapes and abstractions drifts gently around on its own.  

In June, a playable Les Paul guitar doodle was so popular that Google created a permanent web page for it so people could continue to strum out musical compositions in the web browser.

A visual recap of doodles that have appeared on Google's home page in countries all over the world can be found at http://www.google.com/logos/index.html.