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Beetlejuice, Beeltejuice, Beetlejuice!

That’s all you gotta say for this jump scare to work! 

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Inspired by Eric Fogle’s lessons on creating jump scares with the Hummingbird Robot Kit, I decided to take a crack at creating my own scary creation. 

The first thing I needed to find was a good cardboard box and luckily I had a perfect size shoe box waiting to be made into something new. I connected the sensors and motors that I planned on using to the Hummingbird Robot and laid them out in the box to visually see where I needed to place them to make this work.

To keep from infringing on copyright laws, I decided to talk with ChatGPT, a generative AI tool, to see if it could create a Beetlejuice character for me. I first asked it to describe the character Beetlejuice, then from this description asked it to create an illustration. This is what it came back with. 

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Beetlejuice, from the 1988 movie Beetlejuice, has a distinctive, wild appearance. Here's a breakdown of his iconic look:

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1. Hair: Wild, untamed, and greenish in color, giving him a chaotic and unkempt appearance.
2. Face: Pale, almost white, with exaggerated dark circles around his eyes, making his face appear ghoulish and decayed. His teeth are often yellowed, adding to his grimy look.
3. Clothing: He typically wears a black-and-white vertically striped suit, usually paired with a white shirt and a black tie.
4. Makeup: He has a ghostly, corpse-like look, with random patches of moss or mold on his face and hands, enhancing his undead and spooky aura.
5. Body Language: His demeanor is mischievous, eccentric, and chaotic,     often moving with exaggerated gestures and expressions.
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This unique appearance makes Beetlejuice instantly recognizable as a comical, yet creepy, ghost character. 

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The pieces were all starting to come together! I cut out my image and pasted it to a piece of cardboard to make it more sturdy. Then I needed to find a way to attach it to the position servo. 

I used Tinkercad and a 3D printer to create a custom attachment.

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I also needed a motor that would lift the lid, so I attached another position servo to the inside back to pop open the box. 

At first I was going to use a distance sensor to make it popup when someone got close to it. But then I thought it would be way cooler to make it jump when you said “Beetlejuice” (iykyk) using AI. I was able to make this work using Google Teachable Machine to train data sets of audio which would then be uploaded to Snap! Programming to make it all work. I also added in some LED lights for the eyes to glow. 

After I got it all working, I added a few more things to make it look cool, including the snake and house from the movie, the Flux HEXA laser engraver to engrave and cut the outline of the house,  and some MakeDo screws to hold up the decor and lid when it opened. 

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Check out the video of the final product!

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