Bring the project to life–meet the creature!

Time to let on with our idea. The plain box as a scanner is plain boring, so we decided to give it a personality. To do this we were thinking of Moshi monsters.

The box is getting a face on the front, the eyes are made from two cat food cans with aerosol can tops for the whites of the eyes. These eyes need bringing to life, so I’m using the neopixel LEDs to animate the eyes. It should allow the eyes to change colour and rotate during the scanning process.

To hold the LED’s inside the lids, I go do my printer and design these rings that allow the tape to wrap around them, exit for the wiring and friction fit inside the can lids.

The two eyes will be connected in serial so I can control them separately, the lids should act as diffusers.

Below you can see the finished effect, without the LEDS on. The pupil is formed with some card and a pin prick to let a glint of light form from the pupil. the LEDS shine out and reflect on the white inside of the cans, to form eyes that really work well.