Slow Elvis

A lifesized Elvis Presley robot that follows people. I wrote the code and designed the circuits.

11 November 2014

This post has been migrated from its original home to here. It originally lived at this location.
project_slowelvis_0

In the ghetto

Slow Elvis is an installation for our Bournemouth, office window. A life size cardboard cut out of The King stands on a skateboard and slowly mirrors the movements of random pedestrians as they pass by outside.

The wonder of you

A webcam monitors the pavement and our software latches on to a random pedestrian in the feed, then tracks them as they walk past. Their position data is passed on to Elvis who is moved along a track. Elvis is powered by an Arduino controlled stepper motor, which as we found out, isn’t the fastest or most powerful way to create movement, but the result is wonderfully creepy.

A little less conversation

Check out these vines to see Slow Elvis in action:

Thank you, thank you very much

Links & resources

Project code: GitHub