The Raspberry Pi has reimagined what’s possible with low-cost computing: powering robots that clear landmines and conducting experiments in space.
The following projects are a trifle less lofty, not so much lowering the bar, as dropping it into the Mariana Trench. Here are perhaps the silliest Pi-powered creations around, projects with less ‘wow’ and a lot more ‘why?’, starting with one for tea lovers.
If your cupboards are cluttered with CD drives from long-deceased PCs, why not put them to work making the perfect cuppa.
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Thought RSI was bad? Imagine licking your way through an eight-hour stint at your desktop.
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When you take a picture, do you ever think ‘Why did I bother?’. This ‘camera’ throws away your photo and replaces it with one of the thousands of similar images online.
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A machine that draws hamster selfies. Alternatively, a contraption that traps unwitting creatures in a cycle of behavior to power a machine beyond their comprehension.
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Not really a robot or a cod, but it’s still a goldfish driving a vehicle by swimming around its tank.
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Basically an exercise in self-torture. Every subscriber to the YouTube channel of Pi tinkerer Michael Reeves’ results in him being blasted by a siren louder than a jackhammer and spasms the lights in his office on and off.
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This greedy dog is no match for a laser-based motion sensor, which triggers a recording scolding the hound the moment it puts its paws on the countertop.
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Ever wished your dog could open doors? No. Well, someone created a bark-triggered door anyway.
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The Whoo-Pi cushion promises hilarity for fans of boisterous bottom burps and thunderous tush trumpets.
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Elon Musk warned us this would happen. An autonomous weapon that tracks movement and peppers intruders with round after round of high caliber, compacted foam.
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A fitting reward for the effort, or a surefire way to undo your hard work?
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Not a serious project in any way, but a demonstration of how not to rock your baby to sleep.
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From the same creator, this joke robot removes rather more than clothing.
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Because nothing is funnier than staring at a screen, waiting for the punchline to a joke about C++.
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A complex mesh of deep learning and other back-end systems work round the clock to make sure this guy never runs out of coffee.
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Every time this pampered puss uses its cat flap, an image is Tweeted of its resolutely unimpressed face, alongside a computer-generated ode to the kitty.
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If the ravages of time aren’t terrifying enough, perhaps a looming specter will give you a jolt.
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A hamster in its wheel, listening to party music, with disco lights–all caught on camera. A livestream waiting to happen.
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Now you don’t even need a drum kit to set free your inner Phil Collins.
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If surveillance capitalism isn’t creepy enough for you, why not build a floating eye that tracks your every movement?
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Greek mythology’s got nothing on this lurid creation, which, as promised, spews jelly beans from its rear.
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Bid your friends adieu by blasting them with a verse of James Blunt’s Goodbye My Lover or Lily Allen’s less affectionate **** You, complete with fitting hand gestures.
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Say goodbye to unwelcome surprises in the bathroom, thanks to a Pi-powered system that uses radar to track what’s lurking in the bowl.
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Another Michael Reeves creation, this modified Roomba fills your home with blood-curdling screams and the harshest profanities every time it bumps into something.
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Complete your transformation into a denizen of the underworld with a suitably nightmarish rasp.
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If pirates don’t make you want to walk the plank, why not try adding the flavor of the high seas to your text?
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Music connoisseurs who favor ostentatious displays over convenience can play music by placing vinyl albums in front of a camera-equipped Raspberry Pi.
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It doesn’t get much more Pi-themed than this, this Pi-powered scale tracks how much pie is left using a pie chart.
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This system tasks a deep-learning neural network with the very serious matter of detecting whether that guy with the long beard really can shake his belly like a bowl full of jelly.
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Who’d have thought a teapot could look so sinister? This robot fuses the short and stout receptacle to four distinctly insectoid legs, allowing it to stalk through your home.
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Nick Heath is a computer science student and was formerly a journalist at TechRepublic and ZDNet.
