Hack your Teddy Ruxpin with Arduino, Raspberry Pi and Alexa

• Tweet
• Pin It

If you had a Teddy Ruxpin in the ’80s and ’90s, you probably remember inserting special tapes and hearing him read stories to you. Whether you loved or hated the little bear, it was hard to forget his weirdly moving mouth and eyes. Today though, with small and cheap development boards readily available, this mechanical system is just begging for a retrofit.

In this project, hacker “Tinkernut” employed an Arduino to sense the intensity of a sound input, and in turn used it to allow Ruxpin to lip sync to any audio source. This could be a song, story, or even output from a virtual assistant.

He chose the latter option, and after installing Alexa on a Raspberry Pi, used the two boards in tandem to control the retro toy. With this setup, he can ask it such questions as “how tall is the empire state building?” and have it answer back with audio and a semi-synced bear mouth.

Have an old Ruxpin lying around? Give new life to it by following Tinkernut’s instructions here.

Source: Arduino Blog

Related Posts

• 

  ARDULEGO KIT: create with Lego and Arduino
  ARDULEGO KIT: create with Lego and Arduino
• 

  ENERGY METER IOT
  ENERGY METER IOT
• 

  Energy Meter GSM with Arduino (part 1)
  Energy Meter GSM with Arduino (part 1)
• 

  ARDULOCK: a keyboard with RFID module
  ARDULOCK: a keyboard with RFID module