Say hello to Bubo, the 3D-printed steampunk owl by Kevin McAleer. Bubo has a Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 in one eye, and can recognise hand gestures to take photos and send the results to Twitter or to Mastodon.
Gesture recognition is provided by CVZone running on a Raspberry Pi, while each eye has a NeoPixel ring controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico. Bubo can also blink, thanks to Kev’s own 3D-printed mechanism and a servo for each eye.
That’s the technical aspect: artistically Bubo is inspired by the clockwork robot from Ray Harryhausen’s Clash of the Titans, Tik-Tok from the nightmarish Return to Oz, and the Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
