This Raspberry Pi project creates a floating image using a 150-year-old technique, and I love it

Rarely do we see any Raspberry Pi projects that combine new tech with the old. And by old, we mean really old—think stuff people were doing in the 1800s. This cool project is the result of using a Raspberry Pi to perform a miniature version of a classic illusion, and it still looks fab this side of the 21st century.

This Raspberry Pi project combines SBCs with the Pepper’s Ghost illusion

This cool visual trick was the idea of VEEB Projects on YouTube. It combines a Raspberry Pi, a display, a glass dome, and a mirror to create an illusion that looks like whatever you show on the display is “floating” in mid-air.

It’s a pretty amazing trick, and VEEB Projects does a great job breaking down the mathematics of this tried-and-true illusion. There’s also a bit of clever disguising going on, as the illusion wouldn’t look nearly as good if the viewer could see the screen projecting its image onto the mirror. As such, they used a privacy shield to make it so that people can’t see the screen at the bottom, but the image can still pass through and create the illusion. Very smart.

The creator named their invention the “Pepper Pi,” and you can see all the code and components used on the project’s GitHub page. However, if you want to make your own, you’ll need to find the perfect angle to tilt the mirror. As the creator notes in the above video, the position of the viewer matters a lot, so they made a calculator on their website that lets you work out the right angle without needing to do any trigonometry. And if this seems a bit too complex, why not try these Raspberry Pi projects you can do in an hour?