A Shapeshifting LED Mask for Halloween

Costumes, Cosplay, and Props Craft & Design
A Shapeshifting LED Mask for Halloween

There’s finally a hood full of pixels.

Sebastian Staacks from There Oughta Be built a mask that can change into any face using grids of LEDs. Made for his uncle’s Halloween party, the mask is built from two 128×64 LED matrixes driven by a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W, plus a face shield and enough magnets, zip ties, and 3D-printed brackets to hold them all together. Combined with a black hood, the effect in the dark is amazing, and allows him to change from one character to another on a whim. The minor downsides include a narrow slit to see through, and 3A of electricity millimeters away from his face.

As cool as the LED mask is, the most complex part of his costume is the accompanying staff. Also powered by a USB power bank and Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W, the staff includes controls and an accelerometer, so he can use it to toggle different settings on-the-fly. The whole glowing setup pairs with a Bluetooth speaker on his belt for an audio/visual experience in costume form.

There are enough part numbers and assembly details on his blog write-up for intermediate makers to build their own version.

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Sam Freeman is an Online Editor at Make. He builds interactive art, collects retro tech, and tries to get robots to make things for him. Learn more at samtastic.co, or on socials @samdiyfreeman.

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