Floating Ghost:
Materials: indoor/outdoor holiday projector, sheet of transparency paper, window screening, scissors, string or rope.
Ok you ask how does one make it appear as if a ghost is floating in mid-air... well it's not as hard as you would think. No you don't need some fancy mirrors and a hologram projector. All you really need is some screen and a holiday projector.
The concept: Use the projector to project an image onto the screen. Why screen you ask? Well the screen will allow you to still see through it, there for when in the dark you won't be able to tell there is anything there other than a ghost in mid-air. If you were to project the image onto a solid fabric you would see a big black spot, but with the screen you see no spot, because you are looking through it and not at it. OK ok lets build this thing.
The first thing you will need to do is print out the ghost image below, or one of your own (make sure you have a black around your image to the size of the projector slide, or you risk white showing through). Once printed take one of the images that came with your projector and place it over yours to make sure you have printed the right size to fit in the viewing area. If not make adjustments to the size and print again. When you Have the proper size print it one 1 last time on the transparency paper. Then holding one of the images that the projector came over yours, trace around it, and cut yours out...there is your very own ghost slide. insert it into the projector just as you would one of the regular ones. Hang your piece of window screen across an open area of your yard/room. you can use whatever size section of screen you like, the bigger the piece the larger the ghost you can project. Now that you have your screen in place, set up your projector as seen below in diagram 1. Depending on how large you want your image to be adjust the distance between the screen and the projector (the farther away the projector is from the screen the larger the image). Once you have the size ghost you want, adjust the focus and you're all set. I recommend using this outside, only for the fact it tends to be darker and less likely that you would be able to see the screen. The closer you get to the projection the more visible the screen will be, so this effect is best at a distance of at least 10 ft or so.
<< Right click the image and click "Save Picture As", and save it to your desktop. Then open it in an image editing program (paint, photo shop..) to print it out. Do Not Print From Internet Explorer, it will not come out right.
Diagram 1.
Finished look:
The lights you see are from across the river (500ft away). I know this pic isn't the best, but it was hard to try to show the surrounding area with the ghost using a digital camera.
Ha Ha no laughing at my diagram.>>
