Following on from the themes of cats and clocks in recent blog posts, prolific maker Becky Stern is back again with another fun project: modifying a Kit-Cat Klock so that its eyes follow you around the room. Is it timeless and cute, or creepy and menacing? That’s for you to decide.

Proudly American and originating in the 1930s, Kit-Cat Klock is the creation of founders who wanted to make families smile in times of turmoil. This iconic clock also features prominently in American pop culture. You can spot its big Cheshire Cat grin in the opening sequence of the film Back to the Future, where it hangs amongst the multitude of other clocks on the wall. For all the Swifties out there, you might recall it ticking along to Taylor’s singing in the video of We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. Old-school Disney Channel fans might remember it featuring in the theme song of Demi Lovato’s TV show, Sonny with a Chance.

Secret Santa 

Last Christmas, Becky wanted to give her friend, fellow maker Xyla Foxlin, a cat-themed gift. Unfortunately, Xyla is allergic to cats, which ruled out giving her an actual furry friend. “Cats? They are so cute but they are also trying to kill me at all times,” Xyla anguishes. The cat clock was thus a lovely hypoallergenic alternative. Becky took it one step further and livened it up using Raspberry Pi’s RP2040 chip.

Hardware

• Seeed Xiao RP2040 board
• Grove Vision AI Module
• Arducam OV2640 Camera Module with longer cable (at least 75mm)
• Kit-Cat Klock (cheaper alternatives are all over the internet but this is the official Kit-Cat Klock supplier)
• Two USB-C cables
• Micro servo motor

The process

The cat’s black nose is surgically removed and replaced with a tiny camera, while the rest of the electronics are hidden inside the head. The Xiao RP2040 board is running Grove AI Vision’s object recognition component, and the servo motors move the eyes to look in the right direction when the camera picks up where a person is standing. Becky wrote a little extra code to make the servo motors move the cat’s eyes more slowly, as they previously darted rather abruptly when the camera captured a person. I also like the titbit that the camera is secured in place with UV gel nail polish.

If you’d like to find out more about the ideas behind this all-seeing cat clock, you can read Becky’s article on Instructables. And you can find more neat RP2040-related stuff from our friends at Seeed, who are both a Raspberry Pi Approved Reseller and a Design Partner, on Seeed’s website.