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It’s an acrylic painting of a goose, in case you couldn’t tell, but there’s nothing static about its eyes. It even senses when you return the gaze, as you can see in the short videos below. On their movement being observed, the painting’s eye snap back to a straight-ahead stare! (Complete with a comic wobble.)
Thanks to the Arduino team for highlighting this one, with the Gadget Master being James Mertke, an artist based in San Jose, California.
For readers of a certain age, it kinda recalls episodes from Scooby Doo, which the maker cites. You know, where the eyes in an old painting follow someone around in a sinister old mansion. Though for the more cultured it may also recall the Mona Lisa, of course! <cough>
You can find a list of the system’s components here, and it involves an Arduino-compatible Mega 2560 controller board, servo, and (HC-SR04) ultrasonic sensors, a little bit of Python code (and a lot of artistic ability to create such a characterful painting)…
As James explains in the video below, a transmitter sends out a high-frequency sound wave that will hit and bounce off any object in front of it, and a receiver then records the sound wave sent back. So, the sensors detect movements and a servo moves the eyes, correspondingly, all from within a simple cardboard box that has holes cut out for the sensors to work.
The eye mechanism is simply a (triangular pie sliced) piece of construction paper, which is glued to the arm of the servo. It certainly works.
Excellent. Scooby snacks all round!
For a more in-depth video, check out James’ YouTube entry below:
The eyes have it
The use of eyes has certainly drawn my attention to previous Gadget Masters. See, for example, The unblinking stare of an adafruit eye.
And then there was the work (pictured, below right) of another San Jose artist, Chris Eckert, who worked up an Arduino-based prototype for a dynamic, pan-handling sculpture dubbed “Gimme”. It’s eye tracks you and then asks for money!
Finally, and more recently, there’s also the 3D-printed robot head that won’t look away (it’s dubbed The Watchman) – an Arduino and Raspberry Pi-based mask which follows you around the room. I love it.
