Cezar Mocan

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Physical Computing Midterm: Ghost Box

01 Nov 2019

Posted under: Physical Computing; ITP;

Ghost Box

For the physical computing midterm project I worked in collaboration with Keunjung Bae. The assignment was Halloween themed, so we decided to build a device that allows one to search for the spirits stuck between worlds. Inspired by technology used by the ghost hunting communities (namely ghost boxes,) we came up with our own interface for finding ghosts.

Ghost box side view, with headphones attached.
Ghost box side view, with headphones attached.

We chose a dark, mysterious look for the box, so we chose glossy acrylic as the main fabrication material. Using the illusion technique called Pepper’s Ghost (so many ghosts!,) we display a visualization of the spirit search frequency spectrum as a hologram on the box screen.

Turning on the ghost box.

Using a knob, the user explores the frequency spectrum and, eventually, reaches a few spirits.

Exploring the frequency spectrum.

Sonically, the white noise sounds coming out of the box are produced by an FM Radio Receiver which jumps between different frequencies a few times a second.

Turning off the ghost box.
Ghost box frontal view.
Ghost box frontal view.