Halloween is a great time of year to build projects that showcase something new and exciting, which is exactly what Dan Beaven who runs the Adventures in DIY Engineering blog set out to do. His project aims to create a spooky drawing system that utilizes invisible sound waves to draw shapes, text, and images onto a metal plate covered in baking soda with a human-like quality for an extra scary effect.

Wait, wait, what? The heartbeat straightjacket is a standard canvas straightjacket, with some fancy electronics, to create a sweet costume with remote wireless capabilities. To get the full effect, a person holds a special stethoscope to their heart, and they see their heartbeat displayed on the straightjacket that I am wearing. This tutorial is about my Halloween costume from 2007.

[Becky Stern] will help you out of your pet costume rut with the tutorial for her latest creation, laser dog goggles.

These are based on Doggles brand dog goggles and the Adafruit Trinket. The laser is mounted on a micro servo so that it pivots back and forth, allowing your dog to scan the ground like RoboCop or Terminator.

Wait, wait, what? The heartbeat straightjacket is a standard canvas straightjacket, with some fancy electronics, to create a sweet costume with remote wireless capabilities. To get the full effect, a person holds a special stethoscope to their heart, and they see their heartbeat displayed on the straightjacket that I am wearing. This tutorial is about my Halloween costume from 2007.

These attractions have sure come a long way from those back in the ’80s when I was growing up. Back then, kids used their imaginations as we ventured through the local haunted houses, which were usually erected in a shopping plaza’s parking lot.

Fast-forward to today’s multi-million dollar haunts, and the difference in technology is night and day. The pulleys and fishing line have been replaced with pneumatic actuators that allow finely-detailed monsters to move. Gone are the simple black lights — they’ve been replaced with IR (infrared) sensors and precision lasers that are able to detect movement and activate horrific props as patrons walk by.

All the technology these places feature (on a large scale) are controlled by a central hub or computer system, which controls everything from haunting sounds to incredibly realistic animatronic displays. For some of the bigger venues, fans are required to sign waivers as they proceed through the attraction, as well as required to wear an RFID bracelet that not only lets supervisors know your location, but are also used to trigger some of the displays themselves. Technology isn’t just centered on large attractions alone — home-brew haunted houses are taking advantage of it as well.

My Scary Door project is a prime example of how new technology is being implemented in at-home attractions. The door was designed using a 24-inch monitor that displays Halloween-themed videos embedded in a creepy sheet-metal laden door.

Give most suburban crafters a glue gun and the best you can hope for is a tangle of pipe cleaners with googly eyes glued on. But in the hands of Japanese artist Yasuaki Onishi, the humble craft tool becomes a magic wand that can reveal hidden spaces.