By Raul Glasgow

Project Description
My project is called Hack the Elmo (Helmo). I stripped the fur of of my kids Elmo and discovered that it is nothing but motors and servos controlled by a board. My intention is to hack this Elmo and control it with my iPad. Using a simple patch in the Max program all that will be done is basically the closing of a few contacts. This trigger will allow the Elmo to do his pre-programmed actions.

I want to be ambitious and rewrite a new operating system but most likely all I will be doing is closing a few contacts on the trigger switches on the Elmo. I tried to make it walk but after analyzing the legs I realized that the legs will have to be modified in order to make it to walk. It would be nice to put a camera in the eyes and make a simple motion tracking system, where the head will turn to follow the subject.

Bio
Raul Glasgow is the founder of an IT company called Shortcircuited.net. The company provides IT support for dental and medical offices in the New York City area. Raul is a third year media major at Hunter College. His passions are web design, video production and IT support.