ChatGPT Ouija Board

Ouija boards — basically an arrangement of letters and numbers — are supposedly used to contact spirits, though perhaps they act more as a method for one hand to surreptitiously guide the marker to the desired location. The Automated Ouija Board from Jack Hollingsworth, however, works a bit differently in that the marker requires no hands-on interaction whatsoever. It instead appears to move itself in response to text inputs.

The trick is a two-axis CNC machine housed below the board's surface. It's based on the Sisyphus Magic Sand coffee table mechanism, adding ChatGPT to generate text responses. Mechanically, the CNC structure beneath the board moves in the X and Y directions, pulling a Neodynium magnet under the surface. On the top side of the board — laser-engraved with letters and numbers — a magnetic marker follows the CNC device below, allowing it to spell out answers to an assortment of queries.

Electronics-wise, the device uses an Arduino Uno and a CNC shield to control the CNC’s X/Y gantry. A computer running a Python script allows for text input and interaction with ChatGPT. The board's response to a text query is show in the video below, along with a second embedded in the project writeup. While voice input is possible, as of now it’s bit buggy, so it isn’t shown.

Interestingly, Hollingsworth started this project in October 2022 and has less-than-stellar responses without GhatGPT. With this AI system available and enabled, he reports that “It can output concise, and oftentimes hilariously cynical, responses to most questions.” It’s nice when an idea and technology comes together to make something really interesting.