Photo Booth

This is a portable photo booth that J and I made. It has been popular at Halloween parties, Roller Derby bouts, and even one wedding with a super-hero theme.

It is housed in an old suitcase for portability. Hit the button, pose, and see the picture come up on the monitor. The monitor is a big desktop flat screen bolted to the suitcase. The computer its under the cloth flap. At first it was a slim-but-heavy desktop, but J found a laptop with a broken monitor that has replaced it now to save weight. The camera is not pictured; it mounts onto the vertical bolt behind the handle in the picture above. That has now been switched to a swiveling camera mount off to the side for adjustability.


J whipped up an excellent piece of software that drives the camera and saves the files. We trigger the software with an Arduino micro controller hidden in a book. The Arduino can be triggered by either a button in the book or a foot pedal. For looks, we rewired the USB cable for the Arduino into a long, phone-style coily cord, and used an identical cord for the foot pedal. J has recently added a pair of LEDs to the book cover to indicate when the camera is busy and when it is ready to shoot.


The first time we set up the photo booth, before it was in the suitcase, we used a pumpkin to house the button. At that time we were just using a keyboard hack to control the computer, not an Arduino.



Now K&J have made a fantastic curtain and sign for the booth. Here it is in use.


Thanks to J for the photos!