A good use for a Raspberry Pi - Missile Control
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My brother gave me what will likely be one of the best useless-but-oh-so-fun gifts ever—a Dream Cheeky Thunder USB foam missile launcher.
The launcher can be used with an extremely boorish app for Mac or Windows... or you can control it with some basic USB communication! I've found a few projects which allow the launcher to be controlled via any OS with Python fairly easily:
- stormLauncher - A basic Python script that allows command-line usage.
- Retaliation - A Python script that integrates with Jenkins build servers and fires at preselected targets upon build failure.
- USB Rocket Launcher implementation - A quick overview of the USB commands to use the launcher.
My idea is to figure out a way to use one of my spare Raspberry Pis to give some brains to this launcher; I will hopefully be able to set it in 'patrol' mode, and by mounting a Pi camera on the top, I can use OpenCV to do facial detection, aim the missiles just under a detected face, and fire.
Responsiveness isn't amazing, but it would be a fun project to hack on when I get some time. For now, I'm happy enough using my keys to point it at someone (to usually myself since others aren't willing targets) and fire :)
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