This Halloween, I decided to venture beyond the traditional jack-o’-lanterns and candy bowls. Social media had been flooded with these incredible window displays where people projected spooky videos to create the illusion of ghosts and zombies wandering through their homes. While setting up my own window projection, I found myself wondering: could I push the Halloween magic even further?
During my research, I stumbled upon videos designed to be projected onto real pumpkins, making them appear to sing. Pretty cool concept, but the short, repetitive loops left me wanting more. That’s when inspiration struck – why not create a pumpkin that could actually interact with trick-or-treaters?
Enter ‘Pumpkin’, my magical talking jack-o’-lantern with a surprisingly sassy personality! Using GPT-3.5 for natural conversation and Azure AI services to synchronize the mouth movements in real-time, I managed to bring this charming character to life. The result? A carved pumpkin that doesn’t just sit there looking spooky – it chats, jokes, and sometimes even throws a bit of playful shade at passersby.
The technical setup might sound complex, but it’s essentially a marriage of AI language models and animation technology. GPT-3.5 handles the conversational heavy lifting, while Azure’s AI services translate those words into perfectly timed mouth movements projected onto a real pumpkin.
What makes Pumpkin special isn’t just the technology – it’s the personality that emerged. Whether it’s cracking jokes about being “harvested too early” or commenting on costume choices, each interaction is unique and unexpected. It’s exactly the kind of magical Halloween moment I hoped to create for our community, blending traditional holiday spookiness with modern technology in a way that brings smiles to both kids and adults.
Technical Details
Source code is on github!
