A while ago I had the idea of porting xeyes to reallife. After I had them readily standing around for some time now, I decided to finally install them behind a window in the 1st floor so they can watch passers-by on the street. A video can be found here. More pictures are here.
The eyes are made from large pizza boxes cardboard and rolled by RC-servos that are controlled by an ATTiny2313 that’s connected to the PC using the low-speed software usb stack. The camera is connected using USB as well. Since I disassembled my webcam and hooked it up to an FPGA for some experiments, I used an analog one and a USB video digitizer.
The video processing is done using mplayer. It’s cropped first to get only the street and no neighbour estates. Then a tiny & quick&dirty video filter plugin looks for the column with the strongest Y-component difference between the last & current frame and if the difference exceeds a certain threshold, that column is passed to the microcontroller using libusb.
I’ll post more details and some code in the next days. See the pictures for more details until then.
By the way – I’m neither recording the video, nor am I able to identify people – the 20 bucks cmos camera only does very low quality and the video digitizer won’t give me more than 320×240.
hey – this is cewl!
would like to see how you’ve done your “rlxeyes” in details…!
regards,
andi
Comment by andi — March 14, 2007 @ 2:23 pm
hey there and thanks!
I’ll put some more detailed explanations along with the sourcecode online during the weekend.
Comment by Hunz — March 15, 2007 @ 11:36 am
Very nice indeed. It’s fun to sit here trying to figure the various hacks … I assume two separate channels for the servos?
Comment by Dave North — April 11, 2007 @ 8:11 am
What an awesome idea! Good for you!
Comment by Jevy — April 11, 2007 @ 3:48 pm
That’s a great idea! I’m looking forward to seeing more details about it.
Comment by Dan — April 11, 2007 @ 4:32 pm
[...] Real Life Xeyes [...]
Pingback by Jentulman.co.uk » Blog Archive » xeyes exercise — April 11, 2007 @ 4:46 pm
Think of the potential to screw with your neighbors (or their kids) on Halloween or Christmas… Santa that doesn’t seem to trust you by watching you… or a ghost that creeps the kids out by constantly staring at them… oh this could be sooo much fun.
Comment by Jerzee — April 11, 2007 @ 5:35 pm
Great job. You could make a creepy life like dummy of a person stand in the window and watch everyone walk by all day.
Comment by Alan — April 11, 2007 @ 7:11 pm
Awesome idea…kinda creepy however
Comment by Ondra Soukup — April 11, 2007 @ 10:34 pm
Great project… what’s next, Xroach???
Simon.
Comment by Simon — April 12, 2007 @ 12:29 am
[...] While the software version of xeyes (or any of its many variants) is usually enough to get on most people’s nerves fairly quickly, hardware hacker Zn000h decided to take things one step further and rig up this mechanical contraption to keep watch on passer-bys on his street. Consisting of some pizza box remnants and a low-end video camera, the whole setup appears to work fairly well, simply relying on mplayer and a custom-made video filter to pick out its targets, with some RC servos rotating the eyes as needed. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll just have to admire this handiwork from afar for the time being, with no plans provided for building your own, although we suspect at least some of you will be able follow Zn000h’s lead without any assistance. [...]
Pingback by Shop Ship Wise - Your Guide For Shopping Online » Archive » Mechanical xeyes created to freak you out — April 12, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
[...] While the software version of xeyes (or any of its many variants) is usually enough to get on most people’s nerves fairly quickly, hardware hacker Zn000h decided to take things one step further and rig up this mechanical contraption to keep watch on passer-bys on his street. Consisting of some pizza box remnants and a low-end video camera, the whole setup appears to work fairly well, simply relying on mplayer and a custom-made video filter to pick out its targets, with some RC servos rotating the eyes as needed. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll just have to admire this handiwork from afar for the time being, with no plans provided for building your own, although we suspect at least some of you will be able follow Zn000h’s lead without any assistance. [...]
Pingback by Gadget News » Mechanical xeyes created to freak you out — April 12, 2007 @ 2:09 pm
[...] While the software version of xeyes (or any of its many variants) is usually enough to get on most people’s nerves fairly quickly, hardware hacker Zn000h decided to take things one step further and rig up this mechanical contraption to keep watch on passer-bys on his street. Consisting of some pizza box remnants and a low-end video camera, the whole setup appears to work fairly well, simply relying on mplayer and a custom-made video filter to pick out its targets, with some RC servos rotating the eyes as needed. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll just have to admire this handiwork from afar for the time being, with no plans provided for building your own, although we suspect at least some of you will be able follow Zn000h’s lead without any assistance. [...]
Pingback by My Geek News: All the latest news, just for Geeks! — April 12, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
[...] While the software version of xeyes (or any of its many variants) is usually enough to get on most people’s nerves fairly quickly, hardware hacker Zn000h decided to take things one step further and rig up this mechanical contraption to keep watch on passer-bys on his street. Consisting of some pizza box remnants and a low-end video camera, the whole setup appears to work fairly well, simply relying on mplayer and a custom-made video filter to pick out its targets, with some RC servos rotating the eyes as needed. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll just have to admire this handiwork from afar for the time being, with no plans provided for building your own, although we suspect at least some of you will be able follow Zn000h’s lead without any assistance. [...]
Pingback by GadgetsPlanet.info » Mechanical xeyes created to freak you out — April 12, 2007 @ 3:02 pm
[...] Sorry, dave. Post a comment — Trackback URI RSS 2.0 feed for these comments This entry (permalink) was posted on Thursday, April 12, 2007, at 8:11 amby Luis and categorized in software,misc.. [...]
Pingback by Luis Villa’s Blog / finally, geyes has been surpassed — April 12, 2007 @ 3:12 pm
[...] While the software version of xeyes (or any of its many variants) is usually enough to get on most people’s nerves fairly quickly, hardware hacker Zn000h decided to take things one step further and rig up this mechanical contraption to keep watch on passer-bys on his street. Consisting of some pizza box remnants and a low-end video camera, the whole setup appears to work fairly well, simply relying on mplayer and a custom-made video filter to pick out its targets, with some RC servos rotating the eyes as needed. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll just have to admire this handiwork from afar for the time being, with no plans provided for building your own, although we suspect at least some of you will be able follow Zn000h’s lead without any assistance. [...]
Pingback by Hostpundit - Hosting and Gadgets » Blog Archive » Mechanical xeyes created to freak you out — April 12, 2007 @ 4:04 pm
[...] While the software version of xeyes (or any of its many variants) is usually enough to get on most people’s nerves fairly quickly, hardware hacker Zn000h decided to take things one step further and rig up this mechanical contraption to keep watch on passer-bys on his street. Consisting of some pizza box remnants and a low-end video camera, the whole setup appears to work fairly well, simply relying on mplayer and a custom-made video filter to pick out its targets, with some RC servos rotating the eyes as needed. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll just have to admire this handiwork from afar for the time being, with no plans provided for building your own, although we suspect at least some of you will be able follow Zn000h’s lead without any assistance. [...]
Pingback by Mechanical xeyes created to freak you out at LifeParticles — April 12, 2007 @ 4:43 pm
What happens when there is more than one people walking in the street ?
Comment by boklm — April 12, 2007 @ 4:49 pm
I have made a You tube version of your video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88D630rofbQ
You have been digged:
http://www.digg.com/mods/xeyes_in_Real_Life_PIC
Great work!
Comment by Shetil — April 12, 2007 @ 4:55 pm
[...] While the software version of xeyes (or any of its many variants) is usually enough to get on most people’s nerves fairly quickly, hardware hacker Zn000h decided to take things one step further and rig up this mechanical contraption to keep watch on passer-bys on his street. Consisting of some pizza box remnants and a low-end video camera, the whole setup appears to work fairly well, simply relying on mplayer and a custom-made video filter to pick out its targets, with some RC servos rotating the eyes as needed. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll just have to admire this handiwork from afar for the time being, with no plans provided for building your own, although we suspect at least some of you will be able follow Zn000h’s lead without any assistance. [...]
Pingback by Jammed.mobi » Mechanical xeyes created to freak you out — April 12, 2007 @ 5:28 pm
[...] While the software version of xeyes (or any of its many variants) is usually enough to get on most people’s nerves fairly quickly, hardware hacker Zn000h decided to take things one step further and rig up this mechanical contraption to keep watch on passer-bys on his street. Consisting of some pizza box remnants and a low-end video camera, the whole setup appears to work fairly well, simply relying on mplayer and a custom-made video filter to pick out its targets, with some RC servos rotating the eyes as needed. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll just have to admire this handiwork from afar for the time being, with no plans provided for building your own, although we suspect at least some of you will be able follow Zn000h’s lead without any assistance. [...]
Pingback by iTaiwan.mobi » Mechanical xeyes created to freak you out — April 12, 2007 @ 5:29 pm
[...] While the software version of xeyes (or any of its many variants) is usually enough to get on most people’s nerves fairly quickly, hardware hacker Zn000h decided to take things one step further and rig up this mechanical contraption to keep watch on passer-bys on his street. Consisting of some pizza box remnants and a low-end video camera, the whole setup appears to work fairly well, simply relying on mplayer and a custom-made video filter to pick out its targets, with some RC servos rotating the eyes as needed. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll just have to admire this handiwork from afar for the time being, with no plans provided for building your own, although we suspect at least some of you will be able follow Zn000h’s lead without any assistance. [...]
Pingback by Your Gadget Guide » Blog Archive » Mechanical xeyes created to freak you out — April 12, 2007 @ 5:59 pm
[...] While the software version of xeyes (or any of its many variants) is usually enough to get on most people’s nerves fairly quickly, hardware hacker Zn000h decided to take things one step further and rig up this mechanical contraption to keep watch on passer-bys on his street. Consisting of some pizza box remnants and a low-end video camera, the whole setup appears to work fairly well, simply relying on mplayer and a custom-made video filter to pick out its targets, with some RC servos rotating the eyes as needed. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll just have to admire this handiwork from afar for the time being, with no plans provided for building your own, although we suspect at least some of you will be able follow Zn000h’s lead without any assistance. [...]
Pingback by iStereo.mobi » Mechanical xeyes created to freak you out — April 12, 2007 @ 6:09 pm
[...] Una versione reale di xeyes che osserva minacciosa i pedoni che passano sotto casa… Il tutto è funzionante tramite una webcam, un microcontroller e un portatile, grazie a Mplayer e libusb. [...]
Pingback by Real Life Xeyes « pollycoke :) — April 12, 2007 @ 8:05 pm
[...] Chi non ha mai sognato di poter essere seguito con gli occhi dal famoso Xeyes anche nella vita reale? C’è chi ha ingegnato un Xeyes reale. Leggete e divertitevi (c’è tanto di video). [...]
Pingback by Il Fornaio » Reallife xeyes — April 12, 2007 @ 8:13 pm
[...] Reallife xeyes Mas olhem só o quê que o cara fez… Inspirado pelos xeyes (um plugin tanto para Gnome quanto para KDE, que coloca um par de olhos perseguindo o cursor na tela) um GEEK criou uma máquina que faz a mesma coisa que o xeyes, só que com pessoas. Confira o post na Ãntegra aqui. Confira o vÃdeo de demonstração aqui. [...]
Pingback by Reallife xeyes « Bryan Garber’s Blog — April 12, 2007 @ 8:35 pm
[...] Anyway, Hunz created physical Xeyes that stands on his window and follow people’s walking movements. Tight! We want one. The eyes are made from large pizza boxes cardboard and rolled by RC-servos that are controlled by an ATTiny2313 that’s connected to the PC using the low-speed software usb stack. The camera is connected using USB as well. Since I disassembled my webcam and hooked it up to an FPGA for some experiments, I used an analog one and a USB video digitizer. [...]
Pingback by zedomax.com » Blog Archive » DIY LINUX HACK - XEYES — April 12, 2007 @ 9:30 pm
Coooool !
nice job ! now i want one too
Comment by Andrea — April 12, 2007 @ 10:24 pm
Can the xeyes rotate in opposite direction using a keyboard stroke when a beautiful person strolls by? Or the iris change color? Or bloodshot when person is drunk?
Comment by Larry South — April 12, 2007 @ 11:08 pm
[...] Resulta que un usuario con alto nivel de aburrimiento se ha dispuesto a diseñar la versión real de xeyes, aquel programita con el que tu escritorio no le quitaba los ojos de encima al puntero del ratón. Para ello se ha montado un sistema con artÃculos tan mundanos como cajas para pizzas y servomotores, el cual debidamente puesto en su ventana se comporta igual que el legendario programa para las X. No contento con ello ha dejado constancia de ello con fotografÃas y hasta un vÃdeo, para que en todo el mundo se conozca su obra. Esperemos que a nadie se le ocurra hacer lo mismo con Xkill. La verdad es que me sorprende el nivel de frikismo del que algunos hacen gala. [...]
Pingback by Kernel Source » Blog Archive » Xeyes en la vida real — April 12, 2007 @ 11:18 pm
[...] Googley Eyes Jump to Comments So once again we are celebrating the greatness of humanities achievements…curing cancer?Hell, no, creating the coolest creepy follow you down the street googeley eyes ever! [...]
Pingback by Super Googley Eyes « Marc and Cat’s World — April 13, 2007 @ 2:03 am
Put the video on YouTube.
Comment by Curt — April 13, 2007 @ 4:21 am
[...] http://hunz.geekheim.de/?p=47 [...]
Pingback by Linux by Enatux » Blog Archive » Real Xeyes - Linux Videos — April 13, 2007 @ 5:27 am
[...] http://hunz.geekheim.de/?p=47 [...]
Pingback by Real Xeyes - Linux Videos » Linux News by Tofupax — April 13, 2007 @ 6:38 am
[...] http://hunz.geekheim.de/?p=47 [...]
Pingback by Real Xeyes - Linux Videos » Linux — April 13, 2007 @ 7:54 am
[...] While the software version of xeyes (or any of its many variants) is usually enough to get on most people’s nerves fairly quickly, hardware hacker Zn000h decided to take things one step further and rig up this mechanical contraption to keep watch on passer-bys on his street. Consisting of some pizza box remnants and a low-end video camera, the whole setup appears to work fairly well, simply relying on mplayer and a custom-made video filter to pick out its targets, with some RC servos rotating the eyes as needed. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll just have to admire this handiwork from afar for the time being, with no plans provided for building your own, although we suspect at least some of you will be able follow Zn000h’s lead without any assistance. [...]
Pingback by Mechanical xeyes created to freak you out - Indexing The Web — April 13, 2007 @ 8:12 am
[...] This guy had a great idea and actually made it work! He have made a real life version of xeyes that is an old applet in Linux Gnome. Link to blog post: http://hunz.geekheim.de/?p=47 [...]
Pingback by Linux by Enatux » Blog Archive » Spooky eyes that follows you - Linux Videos — April 13, 2007 @ 8:48 am
Really cool, and creepy, in a cool way.
All I can think of adding is 2 axis control of each pupil. Allow it to look straight.
Jesse
W5JCD
Comment by Jesse — April 14, 2007 @ 3:49 am
[...] ÀÌ°Ç ¸®´ª½º»ó¿¡¼ µ¹¾Æ°¡´Â XEYES¶õ ÇÁ·Î±×·¥À» (¸¶¿ì½º¸¦ ¿òÁ÷ÀÌ¸é ´«µ¿ÀÚ°¡ µû¶ó´Ù´Ô) ¾î¶² ÇØÄ¿°¡ »ç¶÷µéÀ» µû¶ó´Ù´Ï°Ô ¸¸µç °Í ÀÔ´Ï´Ù. [...]
Pingback by DIY - ¸®´ª½º ÇÁ·Î±×·¥ XEYES¸¦ ÁøÂ¥·Î È°¿ëÇϱâ! at Zedomax Korea - Á¦µµ¸Æ½º ÄÚ¸®¾Æ - À¥ 2.0, Å×Å©³î·ÎÁö, ±×¸®°í ºí·Î±× — April 14, 2007 @ 4:01 am
[...] This guy had a great idea and actually made it work! He have made a real life version of xeyes that is an old applet in Linux Gnome. Link to blog post: http://hunz.geekheim.de/?p=47 [...]
Pingback by Spooky eyes that follows you - Linux Videos » Linux News by Tofupax — April 14, 2007 @ 6:42 am
[...] Meer details zijn beschikbaar op de blog van Zn000h: http://hunz.geekheim.de/?p=47 [...]
Pingback by profoX’ Blog » Reallife xeyes — April 14, 2007 @ 5:10 pm
lmao – this is great.
Comment by jojomonket — April 14, 2007 @ 6:10 pm
haha totaly cool xD
Comment by Sebastian — April 15, 2007 @ 1:31 am
any howto? or source code?
I wanna do it soon!
Comment by dav — April 15, 2007 @ 1:27 pm
that is just insanely cool!!
Comment by ubuntuguy — April 18, 2007 @ 10:39 am
How AWSOME!! i wanna make one aswell
please please put up a how to.
Comment by AdamNZ — April 19, 2007 @ 5:02 pm
[...] Mir haben auch schon mehrere Leute gesagt, ich sollte mein USB-Servo-Projekt nicht nur als Mauszeigerzeiger benutzen sondern um ein zweites Servo erweitern und xeyes nachbauen (für nicht-X-Benutzer: ein kleines Spielzeugprogramm das Augen anzeigt die dem Mauszeiger folgen). Das brauche ich nicht mehr zu tun, denn cooler als in diesem Projekt kriege ich es auch nicht hin: Elektronisch dürfte das ganz ähnlich sein wie meines, aber gesteuert werden die Servos über eine Kamera. Die Augen folgen also Bewegungen. Der Erbauer hat die Augen hinter seinem Fenster stehen so dass sie Passanten nachschauen. Ich bin tief beeindruckt! via: hackaday.com [...]
Pingback by Die Schatenseite: Weblog » USB-Servos spielen xeyes — April 24, 2007 @ 9:53 pm
[...] This project, courtesy of [fbz] brings back memories. Xeyes is one of those classic apps – handy for testing out connections and great for screwing with new people who had wide open servers. [Zn000h] built this set of mechanical Xeyes – instead of following a mouse, it samples video and follows the highest contrasting moving object around. (See the description for more on the video filter) The data is passed on via USB to a set of ATTINY controlled servo operated eyes. Just in case the server can’t handle the load, you can find pictures of the setup here. [...]
Pingback by Clover Thoughts | Mechanical Xeyes — April 27, 2007 @ 12:16 am
[...] This project, courtesy of [fbz] brings back memories. Xeyes is one of those classic apps – handy for testing out connections and great for screwing with new people who had wide open servers. [Zn000h] built this set of mechanical Xeyes – instead of following a mouse, it samples video and follows the highest contrasting moving object around. (See the description for more on the video filter) The data is passed on via USB to a set of ATTINY controlled servo operated eyes. Just in case the server can’t handle the load, you can find pictures of the setup here. [...]
Pingback by Clover Thoughts | Mechanical Xeyes — April 27, 2007 @ 12:16 am
Your next project should be to port xsnow to real life.
Comment by anon e. mouse — May 7, 2007 @ 8:51 pm
[...] This project, courtesy of [fbz] brings back memories. Xeyes is one of those classic apps – handy for testing out connections and great for screwing with new people who had wide open servers. [Zn000h] built this set of mechanical Xeyes – instead of following a mouse, it samples video and follows the highest contrasting moving object around. (See the description for more on the video filter) The data is passed on via USB to a set of ATTINY controlled servo operated eyes. Just in case the server can’t handle the load, you can find pictures of the setup here. [...]
Pingback by Mechanical Xeyes - Defend PC — May 9, 2007 @ 5:45 pm
WOW!
Super nice. Can’t wait to get my hands on the DIY tutorial
ps. how about a quicktime version of the movie ..or at least post it to youtube?
Comment by Andrei Stoleru — July 30, 2007 @ 10:58 am
[...] Com mola! [...]
Pingback by Xeyes real « El gag d’Schrödinger — August 6, 2007 @ 2:57 pm
[...] Una versione reale di xeyes che osserva minacciosa i pedoni che passano sotto casa… Il tutto è funzionante tramite una webcam, un microcontroller e un portatile, grazie a Mplayer e libusb. [...]
Pingback by Real Life Xeyes at pollycoke :) — January 25, 2008 @ 3:32 am
[...] Di tutte le implementazioni di xeyes che abbia mai visto questa è semplicemente fantastica! [...]
Pingback by perSbaglio » Blog Archive » Hardware & Software — February 5, 2008 @ 3:35 pm
[...] Reallife xeyes [...]
Pingback by n3rd.tv » Blog Archive » Episode 0×20 — March 12, 2008 @ 4:54 pm
[...] to Paris to help the vice squad apprehend a Chinese drug lord and his unknown French connection. Kiss of the Dragon. The French connection is Richard, the head of the vice squad, who intends to kill the drug lord [...]
Pingback by Kiss of the Dragon, 2001 — May 3, 2009 @ 2:58 am