The world’s largest selfie machine
By Andrew Gregory. Posted
This article was originally published as part of HackSpace magazine, which has since been incorporated into Raspberry Pi Official Magazine.
This is As We Are, a 14-foot tall interactive sculpture imagined by Matthew Mohr and built by DCL, a Boston-based company, specialising in fabricating really cool things.
It’s built out of layers of contoured aluminium, covered in custom SANSI LED modules, comprising 850 000 individual LEDs. In the back of the head there’s a photo booth, with 32 Raspberry Pis and Camera Modules, controlled by custom facial recognition software that finds your face, flattens it, and maps it onto the LEDs on the exterior of the sculpture, making your face twice as high as André the Giant.
As We Are is located in the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio; it was inspired when Matthew wanted a project to show off the diversity of the city.
This struck us as a brilliant project for a couple of reasons. The first is that it’s a giant version of the Frank Sidebottom head. The second is that, at its heart, it’s just some Raspberry Pis, Camera Modules and LED screens, meaning that it should be possible to make one of these yourself (OK, a much smaller, lower resolution one, but technically similar). Go forth and give it a go.
Features Editor Andrew trawls the internet for Cool Stuff while keeping the magazine running smoothly.
Subscribe to Raspberry Pi Official Magazine
Save up to 37% off the cover price and get a FREE Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W with a subscription to Raspberry Pi Official Magazine.
More articles
TinyProgrammer
Want a coding companion? TinyProgrammer lets you watch as it tinkers with Python all day. Sean McManus finds out how it works
Read more →
Make a Smart Home in Raspberry Pi Official Magazine issue 167
The dream of smart, connected devices controlling your home automatically, is especialy appealing on a lazy day when we’re trying to get work done in a heatwave. Maybe this will be the year we finally integrate temperature sensors with fans and a drinks dispenser to keep us cool, or maybe not, but we do know […]
Read more →
Win 1 of 3 Pironman 5 Pro Max cases!
Transform your Raspberry Pi with this amazing case
Read more →