Sleigh Bells Ring, Are You Listening?

The Christmas season is upon us once again, and with it, children young and old are eager to catch even a quick glimpse of Santa Claus as he prepares for the big day. Practically speaking, children cannot be too careful this time of year. If Santa or one of his elves looks through their window in a moment of weakness, when they are stirring up trouble with their siblings or disobeying their parents, all could be lost. Forget about that Xbox or Switch — coal all around this year, kiddies!

But a child staying on their best behavior for the entire month of December is about as likely as an elf becoming a dentist. So the savvy child of today needs a better solution, so that they can be good when it counts, and drop the act when the coast is clear. For better or worse, Thomas Vikström (who is sure to make the naughty list when Santa finds out) built a technological solution that makes this possible. Vikström’s Santa detector keeps watch through a window, and when that jolly old elf appears, it jingles some bells to warn children that they need to get their act together, stat.

This may sound like a complex project — and it could be — but by choosing the right Particle and Useful Sensors hardware, it was as easy as decorating a sugar cookie. Vikström selected a Particle B524 SoM with an M.2 SoM Evaluation Board and a Useful Sensors Person Detector (now retired). When the mini computer vision module specifically recognizes Santa, the SoM springs into action to trigger a servo that rings some jingle bells. And if you want to be really sure you don’t miss the big event, text messages or other notifications can also be sent.

The tiny camera can be trained to recognize specific individuals with the press of a button, so showing it a few examples of Santa is enough to do the trick. The presence of detected individuals can then be transmitted to the Particle development board of your choice via a serial connection. A short program monitors this incoming data and initiates a pattern of servo motion that causes the bells to ring. If you want to additionally send a notification, Vikström’s project write-up shows how you can accomplish that with a Particle Webhook Integration with Twilio, Pushover, or a similar service provider.

To wrap things up, Vikström 3D-printed a merry little case for the hardware and set it up. It performed quite well when tested by one of Santa's helpers, although the big guy himself did not show up in person to assist with testing.

This is a fun little project, and I know of a lot of kids that would love to have a Santa detector. Given that the hardware only costs a few bucks and setup is pretty simple, it might make for a good stocking stuffer. And more importantly, building the Santa detector would give those rambunctious little tykes something to occupy their time while they wait for Christmas next year.