Bob The Skull (First Project)

Projects General Guidance
1

I'm pretty lost here. I'm not new to working with electronics, but I've never programmed anything before. I have some pre-production questions.

I want to make Bob from the Dresden Files novels.

I'm starting with an old "Talking Thru Boris" cheesy Halloween prop as my body (no pun intended). There are a couple of pictures here: Halloween Boris talking skull w/ microphone (animated, prop)

I'm gonna gut it completely but here's what I want him to do:

-Speak semi-random responses to various stimuli when turned on: talking, motion, light
-Replace the single red LEDs with orange/yellow LEDs in small arrays so his eyes can be animated. Looking at other objects, blinking, rolling when annoyed. And I would like them to flicker slightly, like candles.
-Limit the jaw movement to a couple of expressions
-Set up the stand and display to allow for him to swivel left and right on his shelf
-Respond to RFID chips placed in trashy romance novels with 2 or 3 different phrases each and follow the movement of the book with the swivel motion/eye animation
-Automatic shutdown or standby mode after a set period of time
-A few cosmetic changes

I'm not looking for specific programming or building help right now, I just want to know:

Is this project plausible? Which board(s) would I need? What kind of price point am I looking at?

Thanks for any advice anyone might be able to give me!

2

You should try to make a complete list of the sensors and actuators (motors LEDs etc) you want to use. That makes the choice much easier.

An UNO has typically 20 IO lines, a MEGA many more.

Think you should go for the Mega, as it also has more RAM you can program more "intelligence" in the head :slight_smile:

3

You will need a wave shield to make the sounds and an RFID reader. There are lots of diffrent readers look at the price of the tokens as well as the reader. You need some servo motors and an external power supply.