Animatronics : A Guide to Animated Holiday Displays

by Edwin Wise

Author Edwin Wise takes the reader inside his world of robotics in an innovative guide to designing, developing, and building animated displays centered around the holidays of Halloween and Christmas.

284 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2000

Reviews

[Tom Lee]

Seems like a good introduction -- although the depth with which certain topics are dealt with isn't always satisfactory (at times laboriously detailing the calculations for a not-that-interesting prop can grow tiresome; at others topics are just gestured toward), there's probably no way to perfectly square that circle. I haven't built any animatronics myself, so I'm perhaps not in much of a position to judge this book, but if I were to build a prop I think I'd have a better sense of where to start. An updated version would no doubt want to talk a bit more about Arduino than 555's and raw uC's, but this is a forgivable omission given when it was written. I'm honestly not sure if the other parts are outdated or not -- has pneumatic hobbyist technology advanced appreciably in the last couple of years? I'm guessing not, and would be surprised if any of the information -- except perhaps suppliers and specific parts -- has grown *too* stale.