Thing-a-day.com

Jason and the Faerie play chess!

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Jasona and I play chess!

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i got behind because i didn’t have internet access while i was out of town (i highly recommend visiting the island of ocracoke on the outer banks of north carolina)

i finished editing my time lapse video, and it took parts of three days, but i’ll claim it as two, for saturday and sunday. here are some stills from it:

and you can watch the actual video RIGHT HERE. the song is “welcome, ghosts” by explosions in the sky.

please let me know what you think.

Today I’ve started my epic journey towards identifying and removing a camera’s unique digital noise signature. The first step involved taking a large sample of pictures of a black backdrop in a pitch black closet (actually, the real first step was making a time-lapse camera).

What it a digital noise signature?
It’s a unique digital fingerprint that the hardware in your camera unintentionally embeds in every picture you take.

Why identify it?
I need to be able to identify it in order to be sure that I am removing it from the image.

Why remove it?
The reason to remove it is simple; to keep an image from being traced back to a particular camera. Having an untraceable image could be useful in many contexts. For instance, it can be a very important tool for maintaining a free, impartial and (if necessary) anonymous press without the fear of persecution

Any which way… more on all of this to come.

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Today I made a time-lapse animation of my enthralling day at work using the time-lapse camera I made yesterday. I also made a song called “Work Work Work Work” about my days working for a user-generated content website. Sometimes it’s tiring dealing with lowest echelons of internet users all day long, but I have to just keep virtually smiling at them even if I’m just shifting in my seat waiting to go home.

(Sorry for the delay, my internet crapped out last night.)

Ever since my grandfather decided that his digital camera was broken because he kept chopping off people’s heads, I’ve had an extra digital camera. I’ve been wanting to turn it into a time-lapse camera for a while… and now I have.

The camera has a 2-pin socket installed in the side for easy connect/disconnect and is currently being controlled by an Arduino. It can be controlled by any old micro controller, but I am on a mission to figure out this Arduino thing. The only extra component needed is a 5V relay.

Check out the Instructable to make your own!

Code as follows:

/* Time-Lapse Camera Controller
* ——————
*
* Hits a camera shutter at a set interval
* for time-lapse photography. The rate of the
* delay can be manipulated for unique effects.
*
* Created 5 February 2008
* by Randy Sarafan
* http://www.randysarafan.com
*
*/

int camPin = 7; // sets the camera shutter pin
int stupidvar = 30000; // sets the delay between pictures

void setup()
{
pinMode(camPin, OUTPUT); // defines pin as an output
}

void loop()
{
digitalWrite(camPin, HIGH); // presses the button
delay(5000); // waits
digitalWrite(camPin, LOW); // release the button
delay(stupidvar); // delay between pictures

//stupidvar = stupidvar + 1000 // increments delay by one second for unique effect.

}