Halloween Hangover: Talking Heads

Here’s a Halloween prop leftover; [Chris] built his own version of singing heads from Disney’s Haunted Mansion on his porch for last year’s ghoulish decor. A projected image of actors singing a spooky song gives each of the four Styrofoam mannequin noggins its own digital life. There’s an optical sensor on the porch stairs that is tripped by unsuspecting candy-seekers. An Arduino monitors the sensor and uses AutoHotkey to start the video clip on a netbook. Check out the video after the break to see the finished display do its thing after dark.

17 thoughts on “Halloween Hangover: Talking Heads

  1. @Robert Costume it was pretty low cost since I had/found most of the parts needed. If I had to total everything…

    Arduino UNO $30
    4x Styrofoam foam heads $40 (approx on ebay)
    Motion sensing switch $10-$15

    The rest I imagine you could scrape together:
    Laptop for video playback
    Projector
    Speakers or karaoke machine

    So I guess somewhere around $80 if you had to buy everything new.

    If you have any other questions I’d be happy to answer them. Shoot me an email at chris [at] thenewhobbyist.com

Leave a Reply to bluewraithCancel reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.