How to 'techify' your Halloween

31st October 2016

Alice Matthews

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Gone are the days when a simple white sheet would suffice as a Halloween costume, in today’s modern world technology is rapidly becoming the way forward to achieve a sure-fire scare. Fear not, we have found some of the best options for tonight.

Ghost drones

Drone technology is no longer the preserve of the military, in the UK you can fly your own drone as long as it weighs less than 20kg and is not for commercial use. For this Halloween, you can purchase a drone from as little as £30 and then the rest is up to you. Across the pond, “ghost droning” has been popular for a few years, with drone owners draping their UAVs with fabric and flying them through the streets.

You’re guaranteed to scare the neighbours with this prank, however one must be careful in the UK because the law states that any unmanned surveillance aircraft must not fly within 50m of any person. Drone with caution!

Spooky laser lighting

For the more law-conscious Halloween fan, how about a laser light display projected on your house? Much quicker to set up than the usual myriad of traditional lights, the Laserworld garden lasers come in a waterproof (IP67) aluminium housing which means they can be used outdoors and near water features. Why not project a spooky water-witch rising from your pond or a pumpkin outside your window?

The power levels go from 60-250mW and they are currently available in the colours green, red-green and red-green-blue. You can choose between static laser effects and rotation and strobe effects which can be controlled via a remote control.

LED costumes

If you are heading trick or treating this evening, a LED costume could be the perfect way to acquire some extra sweets. For a mere $3,650 you can purchase a Pixel Video light costume which contains 350 controllable (and waterproof) LEDs. These can be configured to the position of your choosing, so a sparkling skeleton is definitely possible. However in order for the lights to work you must remain in a WiFi hotspot, so it’s worth asking your neighbours for their passwords before you head out. Alternatively, using the online software you can programme the LEDs to have scrolling text, so you could say “what’s the WiFi password?”

The future of Halloween

If these ideas aren’t enough for you, never fear. Telecommunications service provider Windstream has predicted how IoT and connected technology will further improve the future of Halloween. Click the infographic to enlarge: