My wife and I always go all out for Halloween. This year I’m looking into a couple new ideas rather than staying with the standard pumpkins & ghosts…
One idea I’ve got involved a casket; you know… the kind where the lid opens and shuts giving the appearance someone is trying to get out. I’ve never worked directly with actuators, though I can’t imagine this being too hard to pull off. Just buy an actuator rated for the psi I need (very low in this case) and rig it in place. Now, my question comes… since I’ve never used an actuator myself, I’m not sure how I could attach it to something like I’m needing. Do they have plates where I could bolt them down, how would I attach it to the lid? These are the kind of things I’d like to figure out before I jump on e-bay and just order one.
Another idea I’ve got is called Pepper’s Ghost. If you’ve ever been on the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney World you know what I’m talking about. The holographic ghosts are made using this method. Basically you’re using light and mirrors here to make it appear there is a ghost in your presence. Very simple concept, but the project would be costly and probably a bit tricky given that I want to pull it off outside. I’m looking into using plexi; some sources say it works just fine. I think this is going to be a case of trial and error.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper's_ghost
Taking it a step further, I could use a projector to display moving images.
http://www.instructables.com/id/STIJF2DF8IEN5BI/
So, any thoughts? Any additional ideas? I’m starting early because I don’t want to spend everyday the week of Halloween trying to come up with these things.
