Sci-fi movie prop doubles as DJ headphones

Sci-fi movie prop doubles as DJ headphones

Arduino Team — January 21, 2023

Take a moment to think about some of your favorite electronic music DJs. How many of them are wearing some sort of helmet or mask? You can probably think of at least a few. For some reason, DJs love their privacy. Daniel Aagentah was commissioned to make a sci-fi movie helmet and decided to use it for DJing as well. The result is this awesome sci-fi themed audio-responsive headset that incorporates an Arduino-controlled display.

Aagentah is part of a team working on an indie sci-fi film being filmed in Manchester, England. He was given the task of building a helmet for a character costume and here is the result. He made the helmet from every cosplayer's favorite material: EVA foam sheet. It is a light and strong material that is easy to cut and form. He carefully crafted this helmet-shaped EVA foam, then gave it a coat of silver paint that we all know is synonymous with the future. The finishing touch was a seven-segment display mounted where the eyes should be.

An Arduino Uno board controls the four digits of this seven-segment display. It sets numbers based on MIDI notes from a connected computer running Ableton DJ software. Each MIDI note contains information about the corresponding digital instrument, which the Arduino uses to determine which numbers to display on the screen. The result is a DJ headset with digital playback that mirrors music in real time, which doubles as a prop for the sci-fi movie.