So here's the quick story... In my office is a cardboard cutout of an 8ft tall Borat. Y'know, like the ones you typically see in movie theatres. My friend and I want to record some of his choice sayings like "It is niiiice" and when someone walks by it will trigger the audio. We've looked online for kits and stuff but nothing really has grabbed us as the solution for this "problem". Some loose requirements:

- the motion sensor doesn't have to be powerful, just a couple of feet will be fine

- we have to be able to record audio. holding the unit up to a speaker and hitting the "record" button will work for us. we're not picky on sound quality...

Anyone have a suggestions?

Thanks,
Ajay

PS. Still love my empeg after 5 years.

Something with a photocell and an adjustable gain should work. Someone walking by will either darken or reflect additional light onto the sensor.

There is a candy machine in my building that has something like that. When you walk into the room it always resets the coin mech. to draw your attention. Just flipping the lights on or off does the same.

Is there something online that I can just "buy" to handle this task? No one here wants to (or can) assemble something like this.

--Ajay

I seem to recall that there are:

a) Toys you can purchase in the store that already do something similar. Such as a moose head that talks to you when you walk by, or a fish that sings when you press a button.

b) Sites on the internet which describe how to "mod" these toys to flash your own sound files into their chips. I would expect that some of these toys would be easier to hack than others.

You said you searched for items that would do this sort of thing pre-made and didn't find any. But I'll bet if you searched for sites that talked about hacking a preprogrammed toy to do your bidding, you'd find something.

Anyone got links?

Could you adapt the PIR out of a security system?

If you could have something both sides, you can get very cheap infra red beams that would set your sound off when somebody interrupts them.

You can still get the under carpet sensors that shops used to use to ring a bell.

http://www.instructables.com/id/EDKBOIBC2LEP2870SF/?ALLSTEPS
http://www.circuitcellar.com/pastissues/articles/vona132/article.htm

This is one of the fish Tony refered to.
The second link seems (I sped throught it) to cover what you'd like to do, now you just need someone to do it.

What about using an infrared "trip wire" near the figure? That could probably be hooked up to software on a computer (Pentium 90) to trigger playback of an MP3. Cost = trip wire only, since everyone's got P90's lying around for spare. And a huge hulking figure of Borat could easily hide all the necessary guts.

By far the easiest and cheapest way is to higher a small team of midgets to take turns standing behind the cardboard cutout.

why all these suggestions are great, do you guys know of anything that I can just buy off the shelf without having to "hack" or "assemble" that would do the job?

thanks,
ajay

PS. Borat comes out november 3rd in the US. whee....

It wouldn't be for Empeggers if you didn't have to hack or assemble it!

Your response is so much more polite than the one I typed but didn't submit. Well done sir!

-Zeke

Do you mean like this?

Thanks andym. I bought that thing and it works perfectly!!!

--Ajay