Designing the Ghost House

In the posting I did about the doll's house that we are building I mused about whether or not it could be automated to give the appearance of people or things living inside it.

Since then I thought a bit more and I think it's entirely practical that such a thing could be done and the diagram here gives an idea or two.

First up is using puppets - or automata - to give some motion to it. The mechanism can be hidden in the roof or floor - depending if they work by string or wire. Here you can see a ghost coming down through the floor and another skull making the same trip. Although these are shown using cranks, intact I'd probably use small servos or stepper motors to allow them two be moved individually. While the romance of brass cams and steampunk mechanisms appeals, using electronics gives more control and would allow interaction between the ghosts and the viewer in a less predictable way.

The last ghost, sitting bottom right in a chair is a variation on pepper's ghost a victorian illusion that I keep find now days being referred to as a 'hologram'  - it's not. It's a simple partial reflection that unless done live isn't even stereoscopic. In the use of the effect above, the originating image is a LCD screen built into the floor. You can see the reflective glass at 45 degrees and the ghost will apparently sit on the chair or move around.

I don't suppose I will ever build this, at least not in this form; but it was a good think through and design.I also quite liked the drawing that I did - at the moment I'm still into grunge and imperfection in a big way.

SS April 2015

The house that Steve and Ruth built.

OK, so this is a Quay kit (http://www.quayimports.co.uk/d004_fantasy_villa.html) that we picked up last year. Lots of parts, abysmal instructions and does hold together without glue. Brought it because Ruth always said that she would like a doll's house - so decided that this would be the one. To be honest there are not many dolls that size/scale, but I thought it would be an interesting exercise building it. Been on the go now for six months. Didn't do much over Christmas periods, brought some titchy furniture for it a week ago and that revived the interest.

Here's the front with all the furniture drying on the balconies and verandas. Some are more successful that others. All of them, leave gaps for the imagination - i.e., they are not perfect facsimiles of the originals. Have a look below at the bathroom furniture.

Not finished yet! Painting roof tiles. Quite happy with them once I've done3 some but taking some time. My hand isn't as steady as it was, and I don't seem to get the paint in the right consistency. 

View from the back. All the time I've been building this, I've been wondering how you could add some life to it. I thought of an idea recently that I'll put up in a separate blog posting.

Interior, washroom. Too small for the bath to stand in so just and on-suite loo and washbasin. Although you could confuse the wash basin for a sewing machine.