[Chris] writes in to let us know about his latest animatronics tutorial, this time on robotic eyebrows! The tutorial takes us through the process of using a fairly simple PIC circuit to display various facial expressions. Since a wide array of facial expressions have unique and well understood eyebrow positions this simple hack can make even the most bland looking mask come to life . Animatronics is a subject near and dear to our hearts, but the simple actuation of servos can go much further than cardboard faces. This easy to follow tutorial can help you on your way to controlling all sorts of servo stuff like vent flaps or um… fish, if you’d like. The software is not very deeply explained but it is commented and available for download from [Chris]’s site.
From here [Chris] plans to expand the project with more tutorials that can help further animate the face. We are particularly interested in the one and two eye systems he mentions, as well as more complicated eyebrow mechanics. Also check out [Chris]’s other servo based robotics tutorials like the Sharpie Spotifier and the Wooden Menace.
There is also a video of the eyebrows in action after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/yoEkXngbcfE&hl&w=470]
Integrate facial recognition software and mimic what the person is doing ! Ok, maybe that’s a bit down the road.
Good start man. Looking forward to see it progress.
surprising with a neutral mouth how much “mood” information eyebrows give
evil/angry \ /
or sad / \
:D
when i watch that video i see windshield wipers for eyeglasses.
It would be good if it had an audio input and the eyebrows went up and down with the beat of the music.
Just like the Cadburys addvert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVblWq3tDwY
It would be good if it had an audio input and the eyebrows went up and down with the beat of the music.
Just like the Cadburys add.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVblWq3tDwY
Hey all, entertainment is not the purpose of this article. It’s a tutorial, for people who are interrested in learning animatronics. So it willingly kept simple.
This looks almost like my final graduation project.
At the time I used arduino and also gave lateral movement to the eyes.
All was controlled via a web server and a flash interface. At the time it was supposed to be controlled via multitouch, but the only multitouch phone on the market was a very expensive iPhone