When you have a pair of formidable eyebrows like Alec Smecher’s father, it can probably get a bit tiring always having to raise them by yourself. What if there was a remote-control feature that could take of that for you? Well, this is exactly what the Maker decided to do as a birthday gift for his dad.
The simple circuit consists of an ATmega328 that runs a few 6V motors in response to IR signals, an L293D quad H-bridge for the power switching to the motor and a VS838 infrared receiver, all mounted to an old Petzl headlamp. Smecher then attached sewing bobbins to the motor spindles, and wound some thread around them.
“The eyebrows are attached by taping the thread to the skin just underneath — right above the eyelids — using a piece of band-aid adhesive. A little piece of toothpick tied to the end of the string helps prevent it from slipping out of the band-aid,” Smecher explains.
Be sure to watch ‘em in action below, then head over to his full writeup here. Want a pair of your own? Check out Smecher’s step-by-step tutorial on MAKE:.