I believe it was in March of this year that Rob Hall posted about his “virtual elmo”. A homegrown projector device & software that can be put together for *far* less than $2000 … which BTW is what a real elmo will run you these days (email me if you find something cheaper!).

Recently, I did some modding and came up with this design for a virtual elmo. I must apologize for the quality of the images, but my real digital camera is out of service right now.

Basically, it’s composed of an intel play qx3 microscope (for the base, I stripped out the components including the actual scopes & mechanics), half a DVD cover (for the tray … just rip a DVD case in half), an apple i-sight (for the video capture), some electrical tape (for binding stuff together), some sticky side velcro (to keep the device and components in place), and Robert’s projection swf.

I would have created something more elaborate, but I lack the funds to buy a CNC machine to make my own parts … so there you have it, one “Frankenstein elmo” for displaying FL content to an audience. It’s pretty quick and easy to make, and all the parts you can find at CVS, ebay, etc. The quality of the i-sight is decent, though I noticed it can go out of focus at times.

The velcro makes a good touch, you can stick the “male part” on the tray (the DVD cover), and the ‘female part” on the back of your phone (or vice versa). Then when you use the elmo, it’ll be easier to keep it in place without it sliding all over the place.

Also, if you want to fiddle with the microscope, you can leave the lifting tray and controls intact … then try to use that as your “tray” … I constructed the DVD tray because I wanted to “drop” the profile down to ground level … doing so, would prevent devices from slipping and potentially breaking. I’m sure you could rig a nice snug fit using some plastic or rubber mounts if given time … then take advantage of the built in knob controls on the scope for inspecting content at different heights (zoom in to display, zoom out to device and keypad).

Anyways, that’s my hardware hack for a bit. It’s an easy one … and one you’ll need if you are ever asked to show your Flash Lite content (or other mobile content) to an audience, or clients.

If you build an elmo, share your photos! Here are some of mine:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 9th, 2005 at 1:33 am and is filed under Flash, Mobile, flashlite. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.