Hello Guys, after reading about the Upcycle it Design Challenge, I looked around I just found myself sitting in middle of a junk yard ( so much od electronics stuffed around) . I looked around and found a few things and found they can be salvaged and re-purposed.
I just planned to make a talking skull, that would recognize voice commands and reply Unread Gmail count, Temperature, Humidity etc. Sounds like the usual stuff? There are some more fun too. How about some motion tracking eyes that glows blue( I couldn't find blue ones for the pic 
) , a cool night lamp and some LEDs and High Voltage Arcs* that reacts to audio?
The Intel Edison is kept inside a box and the plastic skull is place over it, it measures temperature humidity and unread gmail count. The USB audio card will help in bridging the microphone and speakers to the Edison board. The Intel Edison looks for programmed voice commands, and gives a reply back.
For example.. key words like "any mails?" will give out a reply as "you have 'x' numbers of unread mails."
The jaw movements of the skull are synced to the speech audio with the help of the stepper motors salvaged from the CD drive.
A I2C MEMS thermal sensor(Omron D6T-8L-06D6T-8L-06 will look for thermal signatures and movements if any movements are detected the eyes will start to follow the motion(Ocular motion will be only in horizontal direction since the thermal sensor resolution is 1x8
AUX option will be added using a custom PCB , which splits the audio to Input of the Amplifier and Analog pin of Intel Edison through a low pass filter,so that the skull is made to move only to Bass and The fly-back transformer* will be turned on only after a specific of magnitude of the analog signal (need to try and choose which value gives a good effect). When aux is used the other options will be disable and some reactive LEDs inside the box will illuminate the Skull for the beats.
The LCD from the laptop will be used as cool under glow and will work as a night lamp too. All circuits and components will be shielded away from High voltage.
Things founded around and their Role in the Project
Electronics and Electrical
Old CRT - Fly-back transformer can be used for some high voltage fun*
A few CD Drives (got 4, have been lying around for years) - Motors can be used to drive the Skeletons Jaws and Ocular movements, maybe also some neck movements (would be nice if the skull shake its head to music), Laser Diodes can be made into some cool lighting
A Laptop Screen - Will be used as Base, and becomes a cool under glow night lamp
USB Sound Card - Used as sound card itself, for audio IN and OUT of Edison.
Some Old Radio shack Speakers and Amps - Perfect for audio output
Old Headphones with Mic - Will use the Mic for giving voice inputs.
Electronic Components from Drive and CRT - Will be de-soldered and Used for Decorative purpose over the skull and the enclosure.
Non-Electrical
Plastic Skull - Enclosure for Steppers, Sensors and some HV electrodes
Plastic Box - Enclosure for Circuitry and Intel Edison. Will have the LCD screen Below
*I've been thinking about safety issues with the fly-back transformer and after a few discussions have decided to replace the High voltage part and simulate the Arcs using EL wire or side glow fiber.
Will be away for 5 days, will try the most to update things next week.
Cheers
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