It’s not too late to put together a spookyRaspberry Pi-powered Halloween project, and we’ve got a cool one to share today that’s sure to inspire your inner maker. This one comes to us from maker and developer Nathan from NathanBuildsDIY, who’s created a really coolPi-powered AI ghostnamed Casper that talks to trick-or-treaters.
Much like the ghost he’s named after, this ghost is light-hearted and friendly instead of scary. According to Nathan, the idea was to create an interactive ghost who could talk back and forth with trick-or-treaters as they approached the porch. Casper can detect when they’re nearby and uses AI to come up with all sorts of conversational quips, from answers to questions to Halloween-themed jokes.
Nathan shared a video showing off Casper’s creation’s ins and outs. In it, he explained that his design has four main elements. It relies on a distance sensor to look out for approaching trick-or-treaters. Once they’re nearby, a microphone listens foraudio, which is translated into text. This text is then parsed through an AI system that comes up with the responses.
The main board powering this project is a Raspberry Pi 5. It’s connected to an ultrasonic sensor housed inside a cute little bowtie. A few LEDs are thrown into the mix as well, illuminating his eyes and mouth. The head features a custom 3D-printed frame that has been made open source, with STLs available for anyone to download and print at home.
The video goes into extremely in-depth detail about the software side of the project, so we won’t give away too much. However, we’ll touch on the major components, which include Vosk for text-to-speech andGoogleGemini for all of the AI processing. you may peruse the source code over atGitHub.
If you want to see thisRaspberry Pi projectin action, you can check it out onYouTube. There, you’ll find not just a demo but a comprehensive breakdown of its construction.
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Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.
