The detail that surprised me most: the whole project began with a Pro Micro, yet the finished costume runs on a phone and a tablet working together. Where that little board fits into the current setup is a mystery to me, and it is the one loose thread I keep turning over.
The build is a wearable camera costume that doubles as a roaming photo booth for outdoor gatherings. A phone on the front takes pictures of guests, and a screen worn on the back shows the results. A tap on the wireless ring remote triggers the front camera and its flash, and each shot lands in a custom web gallery on the rear tablet. All of the software was written by the maker from scratch.
The three-year evolution is what stands out for me. The 2024 prototype was a black-painted cardboard shipping box with an old Pixel, a folding Chromebook, a USB-C hub, tape and messy external wiring, thrown together in about twenty minutes, while the first version of the software took several weeks. For 2025 the maker swapped in a Z Flip and an iPad set flush into a strapped chassis, routed every wire out of sight and rewrote the code; that build won a costume contest and started drawing paid booking requests. The 2026 rig is stripped down to a phone, a tablet, the ring trigger and a purple plastic cone standing in for a lens, mounted on a repurposed KMD-labeled box with duct tape and an adjustable clamp.
In my view the fake lens is a fair trade: it sells the camera look without adding a real one, though I would love to hear how convincing it appears up close.