Thread: Haunted Mirror Scare

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Hello All,

One of the scares I would like to incorporate into my haunt is a variant of the Scary/Bloody Mary haunted mirror prop in which someone walks up to what seems like a regular mirror, but is actually a 2 way. Then a video is triggered that would appear in the glass, presenting the 'victim' with a good scare.

I know I could do this all with a computer, but that would be hardware overkill when all I need to do is trigger a video to play.

So my thoughts were to use something like a media player that would play an video MPEG file directly from a compact flash or SD card and then connect this to an SVGA monitor.

Sounds simple enough, right? However, the thought did pass through my mind on how I would trigger the video to play.

Now another thing is that I have come across more than a couple dozen media players that have an HD output or an S-video output, but what I need is an SVGA output so I could use a standard computer monitor for the effect.

So basically I would need a media player that has an SVGA output and can be remote triggered to play.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank You,

Geo

This sounds like a really great idea... I can't offer any advice, because I'm not exactly clear on how you will project onto the mirrored surface... but I wanted to give the thread a bump in case anybody else knows. Don't want them to miss it.

jukingeo
Here is how I did it
http://www.kadtronix.com/downloads/UsbMotion_Make.pdf
You will need a computer with a media player, a U421 USB Interface w/cable http://www.circuitgizmos.com/product...1/cgu421.shtml, a DC/DC converter 5V to 12V, a 1kΩ resistor and free software
Download the software here
http://kadtronix.com/downloads/usbmediapres10setup.zip

Here is my mirror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q22pdCilymQ
It is an LCD computer monitor sitting behind a two way mirror.
Not projected onto a mirror. DUH !

You can also just run it in a continuous loop with black intervals in between.
I did that the first few years.

Originally Posted by hauntcrazy

You can also just run it in a continuous loop with black intervals in between.
I did that the first few years.

This is what I was going to reply as well.

I have a tape loop that goes into an amplified speaker. The power to the amplified speaker is controlled by way of a motion detector. When the motion detector switches on the amp, you hear the sound. I'm sure the same could be done with the power to a monitor and amp'd speaker for the effect your talking about. Just run a loop on a portable DVD player or digital camcorder. The shorter the video clip, the less chance you'll have of turning on between clips. This would happen on occassion on my tape loop. Depending on the monitor, you may have a problem with sync screen when powering on. Monitors are all different in how they handle a power-up.

Good Luck.

Originally Posted by hauntcrazy

jukingeo
Here is how I did it
http://www.kadtronix.com/downloads/UsbMotion_Make.pdf
You will need a computer with a media player, a U421 USB Interface w/cable http://www.circuitgizmos.com/product...1/cgu421.shtml, a DC/DC converter 5V to 12V, a 1kΩ resistor and free software
Download the software here
http://kadtronix.com/downloads/usbmediapres10setup.zip

Here is my mirror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q22pdCilymQ
It is an LCD computer monitor sitting behind a two way mirror.
Not projected onto a mirror. DUH !

That IS pretty cool AND It is more or less what I would like to do. I would like the mirror to do 'something' that would capture the attention of someone, but only when that someone gets close to the mirror is when the scare is presented.

The thing is that I didn't want to use a WHOLE computer to pull it off. At my job, we have a motion simulator type ride/game in which the video is played using a compact flash card that is plugged into some sort of media player PCB. The PCB has connections for composite, s-video, and svga outputs in addition to stereo audio outputs. It is powered by a wall wart type power supply. There are four additional wires that connect via RS-232 (I believe) to the main computer and it is the computer that controls when the video is to be played (upon coin insert). This is really what I need.

Naturally I examined the card all over and found NO identifying marks as to the mfg. Furthermore I have not found anything similar on-line. The closest I got was something that only has HD outputs.

But yeah, I know I could certainly do the job with a full computer, but I was trying to avoid all that extra 'bulk' for something simple like this.

Originally Posted by hauntcrazy

You can also just run it in a continuous loop with black intervals in between.
I did that the first few years.

Well, I did think of that as well, but since I do want to have sound to go with the scare, I figured the prop would 'give itself away' prematurely.

What I would like to have is a track playing a colored mist or unclear formations. Then when someone steps up to take a closer look....WHAM! Gotcha!

Originally Posted by NIL8r

This is what I was going to reply as well.

Hello again Nil8r! I remember talking to you extensively when I first set up the magic mirror a couple years back. I have a new place now and have to revamp the whole mirror effect. As it stands I am not 100% sure how I am going to set it up this year. It will be in one of two locations that I have picked out. I had in mind of going with a projection this time to make the magic mirror really big. We have to see though, I only have one projector and I have a very large living room window and it is just screaming "Hallowindows".

Anyway, getting back on track...

I have a tape loop that goes into an amplified speaker. The power to the amplified speaker is controlled by way of a motion detector. When the motion detector switches on the amp, you hear the sound. I'm sure the same could be done with the power to a monitor and amp'd speaker for the effect your talking about. Just run a loop on a portable DVD player or digital camcorder. The shorter the video clip, the less chance you'll have of turning on between clips. This would happen on occassion on my tape loop. Depending on the monitor, you may have a problem with sync screen when powering on. Monitors are all different in how they handle a power-up.

Good Luck.

Hmmmm, I am not sure about the idea of powering up a monitor in that fashion. You could switch out the video & audio feeds, but most monitors revert to a bright blue screen when doing such. Typically not and ideal situation. I guess controlling the audio alone would help to a certain degree. Then I could just loop the video. When someone 'comes forth' The sound would engage via a relay. I could use a timing relay in which it stays on for the duration of the clip to ensure that when the 'scare' comes, that I would have sound.

This certainly would simplify things even further, but the downside is that I would have to locate the mirror in such a way that you can't see it from a distance. Even with no audio playing, the 'scare' could attract unwanted attention.

I still would be interested in using a media player over a DVD player as they are smaller.

Thanx all for the help.

Geo

You are on the right track I think. I've been thinking along the same lines... Amazon has a bunch of such media players, all including remotes. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...%3Daps&x=0&y=0 You could leave the monitor on, and have the media player hooked up to it with the sound, just like you have. To trigger, I was thinking you could hack the remote with a footpad from harbor freight to push the "play" button. So they step on the footpad, it completes the connection on the remote's "play" button and the clip plays.

Or maybe you have 2 clips, 1 that's just a black screen and is 15 minutes long or something, then 1 that's the short scare clip. Put the player on a loop(hopefully that's possible) and so once one clip finishes, it goes to the next indefinitely. So it sits on the black screen for however long it is or until someone steps on the pad. It hits the "Next" button and plays the scare clip, then loops back to the black clip, if that makes sense.

But being wired that way, if you have multiple people walking up to the mirror, you could have the first person step on the pad to activate the clip, and the second person could step on the pad and it would mess up the effect by going back to the black screen before the scare clip finished...

Originally Posted by scaringyou

You are on the right track I think. I've been thinking along the same lines... Amazon has a bunch of such media players, all including remotes. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...%3Daps&x=0&y=0 You could leave the monitor on, and have the media player hooked up to it with the sound, just like you have. To trigger, I was thinking you could hack the remote with a footpad from harbor freight to push the "play" button. So they step on the footpad, it completes the connection on the remote's "play" button and the clip plays.

Or maybe you have 2 clips, 1 that's just a black screen and is 15 minutes long or something, then 1 that's the short scare clip. Put the player on a loop(hopefully that's possible) and so once one clip finishes, it goes to the next indefinitely. So it sits on the black screen for however long it is or until someone steps on the pad. It hits the "Next" button and plays the scare clip, then loops back to the black clip, if that makes sense.

That would be the general idea to have it work.

But being wired that way, if you have multiple people walking up to the mirror, you could have the first person step on the pad to activate the clip, and the second person could step on the pad and it would mess up the effect by going back to the black screen before the scare clip finished...

I was thinking of that too. My thoughts of a solution are in the form of a time delay relay. As it is, I don't want to have kids trying to constantly trigger the effect once they find the trigger and then repeatedly trigger the effect. With a timing relay, I could set the time up to a 120 second delay and have it lock out the trigger for that time period. When the delay expires, the lockout is removed and the prop is ready to fire again.

So the remaining problem would be to find a media player that can be easily hacked.

Thanx,

Geo

Originally Posted by hauntcrazy

You can also just run it in a continuous loop with black intervals in between.
I did that the first few years.

This may seem like a dumb question but how do you create the continuous loop? Does the DVD player have a loop feature? or if it is .mpeg, can I loop it on an ipod connected to a monitor? I am looking to create a madame leota mirror (rather than a spirit ball) and was not sure how to take the video I downloaded from Youtube and let it recycle itself over and over again (I know how to add the black intervals). Thanks.

Originally Posted by SavageEye

This may seem like a dumb question but how do you create the continuous loop? Does the DVD player have a loop feature? or if it is .mpeg, can I loop it on an ipod connected to a monitor? I am looking to create a madame leota mirror (rather than a spirit ball) and was not sure how to take the video I downloaded from Youtube and let it recycle itself over and over again (I know how to add the black intervals). Thanks.

Whether it be a media player, CD player, DVD player (etc), there should be a button (or function) labeled "REPEAT". On a CD or DVD player this would also allow you to toggle between a single track repeat or all track repeat. I believe that an iPod should have the feature as well. I checked my wife's Nano and it most certainly does have the repeat function. Granted the Nano is an audio only iPod, but I am sure the full iPod should also have the same feature.

Geo