Big Head Costume Would Make Max Headroom Jealous

big-head-halloween

[Dan Rosenfeld] does a lot of thinking in his spare time, and one thing he returns to pretty often is videoconferencing. He’s often wondered why it hasn’t caught on enough to become a ubiquitous piece of technology, and his examination of the topic in regards to eye contact and spatial awareness inspired him to create a very unique Halloween costume.

His “Big Head” costume consists of a front-mounted 24” LCD panel that displays the wearer’s face in real time. Inside the large headpiece [Dan] installed a microphone, another LCD screen, a half silvered mirror, and a video camera – not to mention all of the power-related goodies required to keep it running. While the main LCD displays his face, the internal monitor is fed by an externally mounted camera that shows him everything going on outside the box. This image is reflected off the half silvered mirror, allowing him to gaze directly at the camera, while also seeing what’s going on in front of him.

As you can see in the video below, the effect is pretty cool, and devoid of the ‘disconnected’ look most people have when talking to others via a camera and computer screen.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4VY5dQqR-k&w=470]

21 thoughts on “Big Head Costume Would Make Max Headroom Jealous

  1. Fantastic idea, good implementation, minor flaws. If he’d used a small projector onto a screen, he wouldn’t have those viewing angle artifacts, and the weight of the gear wouldn’t be so far out in front of him.

    Personally, I couldn’t conceive of such a getup without trying to make it into The One Electronic.

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