11 of the Strangest Raspberry Pi Projects Ever Built
On RaspberryTips, we normally cover gadgets you can DIY with a Raspberry Pi, projects that teach you how to code or that save you money. But maybe the “Dr. Frankenstein” in you doesn’t believe that inventions must be useful to have merit. If so, this post is for you.
The Raspberry Pi is the most portable and versatile single-board computer (SBC) on the market. It can bring to life any project that requires computer logic, even if there’s no immediately obvious application.
Today, I’ll share some of the coolest, most ingenious, and possibly useless Raspberry Pi projects out there. There’s no doubt that these builds took a lot of know-how and dedication, but it doesn’t change the fact that they’re just downright strange.
If you’re looking for inspiration for your next Raspberry Pi project, I’ve put together a list of 75+ ideas with full descriptions, difficulty ratings, and links to tutorials. Whether you’re a beginner or more advanced, there’s something here for you. Grab the list for free here!
Wake Me Up Inside (Can’t Wake Up)
This one might be my favorite because the first item listed under hardware is a hospital bed. Surely, you’ve got a spare one lying around somewhere! If you have trouble getting up in the morning, the EjectABed is the answer.
The EjectABed is connected to a Raspberry Pi that controls a servo. All you need next is some code for a timer, and when it goes off, the mechanism tilts the mattress vertically. It launches your sleepyhead right out of bed, flailing and screaming into waking life.
It’s the perfect, and permanently traumatic, way of teaching your kids what Mondays in the real world are like.
Missed Connections in Public Restrooms
Why are public restrooms so unappealing? Perhaps it’s how impersonal they feel. This is a problem I didn’t realize I had, and the Secret Dunny Box is the solution I didn’t know I needed.
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The Secret Dunny Box lets you leave a personal message for the stranger who’ll use the loo after you. A Raspberry Pi will convert your voice recording into an anonymous, computerized voice. It’s very intimate.
The next person in line can listen to the message, but only if they leave one first. Remember, even on your darkest days in a bathroom stall somewhere, you’re not alone.
Become a Master of Disguise
For the cost of 2,960 LEDs, you can finally become a Face Dancer from Frank Herbert’s Dune.
That’s right, this invention will give you the power to assume the face of anybody you want.
Become Anyone is a face mask that draws images onto its LED surface. Its brain is a Raspberry Pi that programs the LED controller using Python.
The strangest thing about this project is the impressive level of engineering that went into it, and yet it won’t fool anybody you run into on the street. I mean, clearly, you’re wearing a mask!
Everything’s a Musical Instrument if You Try Hard Enough
The Raspberry Pi Pico has 40 GPIO pins, which can be used to enable lights, motors, and various purposes. Along came a visionary who asked: “What if we made them all into touch sensors?”
The SPOKE is a Raspberry Pi Pico board that transforms any object into a capacitive touch object. There might be useful applications for this, but every demo I could find involves using SPOKE to turn objects into musical instruments.
In the video above, he’s playing some sort of throne object like a keyboard synthesizer. Other versions include playing music from a banana, a clamshell, and a cigar. Because why not?
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Home Decor for Dorian Gray
Decorating your home to make a statement takes aesthetic sensibilities, but sometimes all you’re missing is one painting to tie a room together. Like this creepy one that will make the kids in your neighborhood regret ever breaking into your haunted mansion.
The Possessed Portrait comes to life when it detects a person in front of it. A Raspberry Pi displays a still frame on an LCD screen, but when a PIR sensor detects a human presence, it plays the full video to scare the pants off your guests.
Let Random Strangers Be Your Alexa
Maybe you’ve decided that smart voice assistants aren’t good enough. Instead of AI, you’d rather have real-life human beings be your Alexa. Yes, this idea sounds reasonable and not like my favorite episode of Black Mirror.
No dystopian home of the future will be complete without Noodle, the crowdsourced robot. When you ask Noodle a question, it connects to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk program and pays humans to answer. For pennies, you can let strangers make decisions for you or control your smart devices. I can see no flaw in this plan.
The next time the shrink asks if you’ve been hearing voices, you can answer yes with conviction, knowing that you are telling the truth.
You might also like: No screen? No problem! Here's how to setup a Pi without one.
In the Artist’s Studio With Hamsters
You’ve heard of hydroelectric power, but what about the “free energy” that the Illuminati don’t want you to know about? Yes, it’s hamsters. On average, hamsters run over 5 miles every night, and you’ve just been letting all of that go to waste.
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The Hamster Powered Hamster Drawing Machine harvests power from a hamster running on a wheel to draw a picture of…a hamster running on a wheel. The Raspberry Pi behind this contraption runs openFrameworks to send commands over Ethernet to an Applied Motion STM23IP-3EE motor.
The next time you read about clean energy in a textbook, you should question why they always conveniently forget to mention hamster power.
Just Be Yourself They Said
Do you ever play VRChat and wish that you could be your 100% authentic self online? You’re in luck because now you can! All you have to do is scan your entire body and upload it to the internet.
The Pi 3D Scanner is a 360-degree photo booth surrounded by Raspberry Pis and a hundred camera units. The cameras work together to take a photo of you from all angles simultaneously, and these images are stitched together to create a 3D model of your entire body.
Compared to what professional setups like this used to cost, buying this 3D scanner for 15,000 euros is a steal. Finally, a good reason to retire my Brony avatar.
Research Ghosts Scientifically
I find TV shows about ghost hunters quite ambitious. It’s already hard enough to convince viewers that spirits are real. But these shows also insist on making their investigations fit neatly into the scientific method, with tools like motion sensors and infrared scanners.
Check this: Don't buy a new SD card until your read this.
This next gadget contributes to scientific progress on this front. The Ghost Detector 9000 is a gun built from a Raspberry Pi Zero connected to two sensors. When you point the Ghost Detector 9000 at something, it detects electromagnetic fields and records the EMF levels.
OK, so there’s no proof that ghosts emit EMF. But record enough data with your Ghost Detector 9000, and you might be the first to publish a paper in Nature about it. Or not.
Identify Ninja Hand Seals
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If you’re not using the Raspberry Pi to learn ninja techniques, then I don’t know why you even bought one in the first place. Of course, I’m referring to the popular anime Naruto, in which the characters use hand signs to invoke their secret jutsu (ninja arts).
The Hand Seals Detection project automatically labels what hand signs have been made. To make it yourself, all you need is a Raspberry Pi with a Camera Module 3 or Raspberry Pi AI Camera—plus data from a trained AI model—and no jutsu can escape your eye.
The next time some edgy shinobi tries to use Desert Funeral on you, checkmate, you’ve copied their secret technique.
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Twitter-Activated Unicorn Candy Dispenser
Pablo Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” The makers behind Kids Invent Stuff agree, and they build ideas submitted by children. One suggestion from an 8-year-old has resulted in this miraculous, mythical beauty.
This ridable unicorn poos out jellybeans when activated by social media. This mission-critical task is carried out by a Raspberry Pi Zero W, which scans Twitter for mentions of @mythicalpoops.
By the way, Twitter has been renamed X, so maybe we can’t call it tweeting anymore. Instead, is posting now called X-ing? If so, what this unicorn does still makes perfect sense.
I hope these projects have shown you that with a Raspberry Pi, where there’s a will, there’s a way. There might not be a why, but that’s not necessary for flexing your inventive creativity. See you next time, mad genius!
Whenever you’re ready, here are other ways I can help you:
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The RaspberryTips Community: Need help or want to discuss your Raspberry Pi projects with others who actually get it? Join the RaspberryTips Community and get access to private forums, exclusive lessons, and direct help (try it for just $1).
Master your Raspberry Pi in 30 days: If you are looking for the best tips to become an expert on Raspberry Pi, this book is for you. Learn useful Linux skills and practice multiple projects with step-by-step guides.
Master Python on Raspberry Pi: Create, understand, and improve any Python script for your Raspberry Pi. Learn the essentials step-by-step without losing time understanding useless concepts.
You can also find all my recommendations for tools and hardware on this page.
