Live data from Hacker News

A camera that snaps a GIF and ejects a cartridge that displays it

imgur.com

181–190 of 311 posts

Re: A camera that snaps a GIF and ejects a cartridge that displays it

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first thought would have been to connect the two PIs with a serial interface. Sure, that's another two pins to connect between camera and cartridge, but on the surface it still sounds easier than setting up a reliable ad-hock wifi. The fact that it would use magnitudes less energy is a bonus. Of course it might be that OP evaluated that and decided against it for good reasons.

Serial? No, connect them via the USB and configure one of them to appear as a USB Network Interface. Point-to-point connection established. Plenty of HOWTO's available.

Yes, but again this adds complexity. If you use USB you can also emulate one as an MMC device. But overall wifi is simple and guaranteed to work. If this was a product then going the SD card or a "proprietary" protocol is the way to go. But if you are using Ethernet then wifi or wire is simpler. In this case it's also less to worry about electro-mechanical connections.

Re: A camera that snaps a GIF and ejects a cartridge that displays it

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then you need to worry about other things and it's also likely much slower. Ethernet just works it's an established protocol and there aren't that many easy ways to transfer files other than it today that work out of the box and with any combination of hardware and software.

> you need to worry about other things Serial I/O is common Hello World example for Raspberry Pi. I think you have to worry about less things than adhoc wifi networks. > likely much slower It's slower, but not much slower. The baud rate can be set up to 4,000,000, where a megabyte would transfer in 2 seconds. These "gifs" don't seem to be more than 10 seconds long, so they should be less than 1 MB, judging from rando…

Is common yes but not as easy you can't easily setup file transfer over serial, in this case a simple FTP to a pre determined folder that the screen grabs the gifs from is a heck of a lot easier to setup than sending a binary file over serial.

Re: A camera that snaps a GIF and ejects a cartridge that displays it

#184
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've long imagined something like that: a card-sized (including thickness) full-color display devoted to displaying, say, an entire movie. Given ultra-thin displays like OLED, dirt cheap storage, and "free" dedicated processing, you could hand out videos like sales brochures or cheap paperbacks. Amazing how technology has advanced.

Yeah except that would create massive amounts of electronics litter..

And a new recycling waste stream.

Re: A camera that snaps a GIF and ejects a cartridge that displays it

#185
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone know if there any other initiatives beside PixelQi and e-ink displays for producing (modern) displays that can be used with passive light? It would be fantastic to be able to bring my laptop into the sunlight for work. And with the expectation of greatly improved battery life. Edit: Ooh, I found Liquavista: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6tzaIgZKs0 Edit2: And Electrowetting as well: https://www.youtube.…

There is demand for it. There are lots of people trying to buy them, find them, and even make them DIY style, so why no one is making them is a mystery. Could there possibly be reverse pressure because of the market for other screens?

Reliability, generally. Consistency, afterward. Cost, third.

OLED was hung up for years because the blue pixels had 1/100 to 1/10 the lifetime of the red and green one.

In addition, you would be stunned at just how good our visual system is at picking out imperfections. Anything less than perfect (especially involving green) will produce complaints.

After both of those, you can talk about cost and efficiency.

Re: A camera that snaps a GIF and ejects a cartridge that displays it

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me it describes excessive concern with minor details and rules. but thats none of my business tho

I think the problem is "what words actually mean" has become a minor detail to some people. My high school English teacher would not have accepted "language evolves" as an excuse for things like confusing "then" and "than" and not knowing the meaning of the word "literally".

Using literally to mean figuratively is just fine. They're being ironic, or hyperbolic. Then and than mean different things. To a lay person, a gif is a short, looping, soundless video. I'm not sure what is being lost by not distinguishing between this and a short mp4 file with no sound on loop.

Re: A camera that snaps a GIF and ejects a cartridge that displays it

#187
post #163
post #97

This is one of those projects that at first, is easy to dismiss as "silly" or "useless". On the surface, sure. But looking at the imgur album and reading the comments (and I would imagine going to the website, etc - which I haven't done), it becomes clear (and the author even says so on the album) that this project ultimately served a larger purpose: From start to finish, this project has helped the person develop a…

I would pay money for said course. I'm trying to piece together my own homegrown manufacturing curriculum through a combination of books, googling, diy projects, and YouTube. I don't expect to create world class engineering marvels on my own, but to be able to develop such a polished finished product as OP would be incredible. Any tips on where to start as far as 3D modeling and enclosure design goes?

OpenSCAD! http://www.openscad.org/documentation.html

It might not be where you end, but it's a great place to start. (fwiw, I do all my 3D design with OpenSCAD. Been using it since 2011.)

Re: A camera that snaps a GIF and ejects a cartridge that displays it

#188

Hi guys, I am the creator of this camera! happy to answer any questions.. didn't know it was doing so well here on HN :)

What about printing little flip books? :) Cool project in any case.

would have to invent a high speed mini printer for that.. next project perhaps :)
Post reply on HN