Weird Raspberry Pi Projects: Ingenuity or a Waste of Time?

There is no shortage of weird Raspberry Pi projects floating around on the internet. I feel like for every banal use you see from users, you’ve got an equally strange use case. While plumbing around the depths of the internet exploring what can be done with these little single-board computers, you come across some real oddities. These are the strangest of the strange, that I’ve found at least.

The Wonder Pop Controller

On the surface of this weird Raspberry Pi project, there is a fairly solid foundation. Creator Nicole He was learning about networks, a subject near and dear to my heart, and made a physical interface utilizing networks to control a game.

However, that’s about where the stuff that makes sense to me ends. Nicole’s game features four gigantic lollipops, and you participate in the game itself by licking them. Well, I take that back, you’re just licking conductive copper tape affixed to the lollipop itself. Still, you have to admire the ingenuity at play here.

The Automated Hamster Selfie Machine

I don’t even know what to make of this weird Raspberry Pi project. Creator Neil Mendoza wasn’t satisfied with the average use of a SBC. He wasn’t out to make a router, a retro gaming station, or even a portable low-powered laptop. Instead, Neil decided it was high time to create one of the most bizarre contraptions I’ve seen on the internet.

The Automated Hamster Selfie Machine, my appellation for this particular device, houses Joji, a wee little hamster. As he runs, he is powering a mechanism that draws a selfie of the hamster in real-time. As if that wasn’t enough, Joji is also displayed on a small LCD monitor, which messed with my perception for a moment.

Taking Your Fish for a Walk

When it comes to pets, goldfish are the least likely to be seen out and about. You might see cats and dogs as you venture into a city. However, the humble goldfish is confined to its water tank, isn’t it? A group of students at Carnegie Mellon University spearheaded by Alex Kent weren’t satisfied with this.

As such, they’ve developed what amounts to a motorized carriage for his fish to pilot. When I read William Gibson’s Neuromancer all those years ago, I never comprehended that this was the cyberpunk future we’d be living in.

Home Alone Would’ve Ended Quickly With This

Robots in the military aren’t anything new. Drones that roam the ground have been used in combat, but not quite like this. This project from Hackster is an impressive feat of engineering. They took the time to fabricate a base before placing together the mechanisms needed to fire the Nerf blaster at the heart of this configuration.

So, how exactly is this a weird Raspberry Pi project? Well, for starters this is an automated motion-tracking turret essentially. It tracks movement and opens fire when targets appear. I might need one of these to pelt the kids when they stumble into the office to dig around the various gizmos and books I keep on my side table.

The Most Essential Project of All

I love coffee, let’s just preface things with that. While for some of you, this might be a weird Raspberry Pi project, I think this is absolutely crucial. This fantastic little gizmo keeps stock of Terren Petersen’s coffee. When the bean count gets low, it sends an order out to Amazon to get more.

Now, I can hear you shaking your head and asking why. Well, who doesn’t want their coffee tracked meticulously and kept in constant supply? Tea drinkers probably, but I digress.

Closing Up

The Raspberry Pi is a fantastic little device. I don’t have much experience with one myself, since I went for networks and cybersecurity instead of learning a programming language. That said, you really do have to admire the ingenuity and creativity that comes about when people get their hands on these devices.

Maybe I can convince Terren Petersen to send me a JavaWatch of my own.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Kiklas/Shutterstock.com.