Aliens is the second film from the legendary science-fiction series about, well… aliens. Naturally, it featured some compelling future-tech — such as the M314 Motion Tracker. [RobSmithDev] wanted to recreate the device himself, using modern technology to replicate the functionality as closely as possible.
While a lot of cosmetic replicas exist in the world, [Rob] wanted to make the thing work for real. To that end, he grabbed the DreamHAT+ Radar HAT for the Raspberry Pi. It’s a short-range radar module, and thus is useless for equipping your own air force or building surface-to-air weaponry. However, it can detect motion in a range of a few meters or so, using its 60 GHz transmitter and three receivers all baked into the one chip.
[Rob] does a great job of explaining how the radar works, and how he integrated it into a viable handheld motion tracker that works very similarly to the one in the movie. It may not exactly keep you safe from alien predators, but it’s always fun to see a functional prop rather than one that just looks good.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen somebody try to replicate this particular prop, but the modern electronics used in this build definitely bring it to the next level.
As one Rob Smith to another, well done!
I for one would like a water pistol based on the UA571-C auto sentry from Aliens to keep cats out of my yard.
oh come on dude, have some extended footage of the thing (motion tracker) doing the thing (detecting motion)…
watch part 2 and he shows it working at the end.
It was a more or less real time video documentation not done after project completion.
This was done on HaD years ago. Functional with sound effects to. Using Ultrasonic transducers with a visual display.
which does not work through walls, making it useless
Micro changes in air density my ass…