Recently browsing hack-a-day I came across Michal Janyst’s project where he used an arduino with some cheap (~$3) led matrix displays to animate eyeballs on a jack-o-lantern.
I really liked the idea and decided I wanted to try and drive the pupils using motion detection from the raspberry pi camera module! Unfortunately I only had a day to work on it, and I’ve never done motion detection before, so the learning began!
Today is Halloween and the effective deadline for the project, and while I’m not happy with the framerate I’m getting in python, I’m quite happy with what I was able to do!
I want to move the python to c++ for next year, which should triple the framerate or so.
Items used:
Cheap plastic pumpkin – Target – $3
2x MAX7219 LED matrix boards – eBay – $2.18
(I actually ordered mine from Amazon – $6.58 to make use of prime shipping)
Longer pi camera cable – Ebay $9-$27
Raspberry pi + camera
Source:
https://github.com/philharlow/Pi-o-lantern
Setup:
Coming soon!
Phil's Project Blog 