Remember The Clapper? It was a home automation tool (of sorts) that let you turn appliances on and off by clapping. [Kevin O’Connor] has built something rather similar, if more terrifying. It’s called The Screamer.
The build is based around a Sonoff S31 smart switch. [Kevin] selected an off-the-shelf device because he wanted something that was safe to use with mains power out of the box. But specifically, he selected the S31 because it has an ESP8266 inside that’s easy to reprogram with the aid of ESPHome. He ended up hooking up a whole extra ESP32 with an INMP441 microphone over I2S to do the scream detection. This was achieved with a simple algorithm that looked for high amplitude noises with lots of energy in the 1000 – 4000 Hz frequency range. When a scream is detected, it flips a GPIO pin which is detected by the S31, which then toggles the state of the smart switch in turn. Job done.
It’s a simple project that does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s The Screamer! If you’d like to learn more about the original Clapper that inspired this build, we’ve looked at that before, too. Meanwhile, if you’re cooking up your own excuses to scream at the lights and walls in your home, please only notify the tipsline if it has something vaguely to do with electronics or hackery.
Lewin’s next trick is to wire up The Screamer so it submits his next hack to HaD when he screams.
Well, maybe not, but here’s hoping.
I wanted a screamer for Christmas, but all I got was a sweater.
I’ll see myself out.
When I first read this, I thought you said “swearer” instead of “sweater” 🤭
I think I’d quite like that one. Being able to turn the lights on by uttering an expletive sounds amusing. When you stub your toe in the dark or your alarm goes off for work, the natural urge to swear is what triggers the lights.
I don’t know how but I think this would have some use with babies.
Combine it with a security system that plays a voice field “Automatic Defense Systems are now active”
With ESP32 you can even do inference to distinguish between your wife yelling at you or yelling out of pleasure, if you know what I mean. Then show the score on an e-paper display.
Going by horror movies this would indeed be a good security device.
I am still wondering if anybody ever screams in such a horror-movie manner when in actual panic/shock/distress.
Incidentally a clapper isn’t annoying is it? I mean people were suppose to use those when they live alone surely. Might annoy any pet present though.
(seeing this is HaD: ‘pet’ is not referring to the ancient computer in this case.)
When the lights start flashing, don’t ask questions.
I’ve often thought that something like this would useful as an industrial emergency stop device.
My younger brother used to be able to scream an unmodified Clapper on and off when he was about 5 years old I think. He must have hit the same tuned frequency used for clapping. Cool party trick that, being able to scream so loud that the Christmas lights turned off.