Iron Man Helmet Idea

Status: unbuilt brainstorm/idea, not a completed project.

This is a project blog, or journal, or brainstorm—I'm not sure what to call it. It's a place I spout off whatever's on the top of my head to look back at later.

The Inspiration

My friend Tyler is making an Iron Man helmet, and it got me to thinking about making one myself, or even a whole suit. It would be a kick-ass Halloween costume for me and my future kids. Get Lindsay a red-haired wig and she'd be Pepper Potts. I haven't even begun to really think about this or design anything yet. But it's a fun idea.

The Sound Challenge

I think the coolest thing about Iron Man's suit is the sounds it makes when he moves, and it's something I've never seen replicated in real life cosplays or costumes. I see two ways to replicate this:

1. Artificially

I would bet there's a simple way to tie audio pitch to a rotary encoder. This would enable an Arduino to drive a speaker that changed pitch with the movement of your knees/elbows. The faster your elbow bends, the higher the pitch produced by a speaker.

On second thought, I'm already seeing an issue with that, because 0 speed (a stationary person) would still produce a low pitch instead of being silent. Volume would have to be tied in as well somewhere, and making a smooth transition to silent could be difficult. I'm not too experienced in this area so I have to do some Googling.

2. Genuine Servo/Motor Noise

Tying an actual servo or motor to the joints could produce some similar-ish noises when moved. Ooh, then that servo would produce electricity when moved. That could be tied to an Arduino and used as an input device, and the level of charge produced could be used for motion-controlled sounds or actions. A high voltage would mean a quick movement, and trigger the repulsor charging sounds or a voice line or something.

The exploration continues...