Just because … a common turn of phrase for me. When I am curious about something, I figure "why not" and try it. In this case it was creating a time lapse video.

Most IP surveillance cams and software for webcam can grab a single picture either triggered by motion or some repeating interval. I used a TRENDnet SecurView Wireless Internet Camera (but I think the the image quality is much better from the Cisco/Linksys Wireless Internet Video Camera).

I set it up to FTP to my computer and then set the interval to be every 10 seconds. Once it had captured frames for about 5 hours (remember it takes 30 frames for one second of video so at one frame every 10 seconds, it takes 5 minutes to capture 1 second of video).

I used ffmpeg to combine the images. The only trick is the image names must be sequentially numbered. Then its the same command I used for my tomato pesto video.

The problem with this method is that the video quality is less than the image quality – which to me, makes no sense. I’ll keep noodling that problem.

I think Popcorn Hour shot themselves in the foot when they launched their next generation C-200 media player. For about $300 (US) you get a box that does what it does and nothing more, has not native disk storage, has a small but fervent following and is not hugely customizable.

On the other hand, for $330 (US) you can get the Acer Aspire Revo with the ATOM 330 (dual core), ION hardware accelerated video processing, 2GB RAM, 160GB drive (plus a cute and usable wireless keyboard and mouse) and for $0 and about 10 minutes with a very easy guide, you can have a great XBMC media player that can do just about anything you want because it is standard PC hardware in a tiny little box. (OK, so that was too much of a run on sentence, but you get the idea.) Oh, if $330 is too much, there is a $200 version that has the same graphics !

What surprised me was that the Revo came with Windows 7 64bit Home edition. What surprised me more was that the obvious way of using XBMC was not the fastest or the easiest.

I first tried installing XBMC for Windows and it looked to be working perfectly. Then I tried playing one of my HD TV shows (a 1.1GB h.264 MKV file) and it shuddered – badly.

Next I tried the special DSPlayer version of XBMC that is setup to use the ION graphics. After about 5 hours of messing around with guides and trial and error, I threw in the towel.

Finally, I downloaded XBMC Live and using a handy guide, spent less than 10 minutes to create a bootable SD card (could have as easily been a USB stick) and had the Revo flying along perfectly. I even tried an action scene in an HD movie (performance hit 8Mb/sec video stream) from my NAS and the Revo was not even breaking a sweat – CPU(s) were about 20%-25% load.

My final setup – all anyone sees is the TV and me using the iPhone as a remote …

• Acer Aspire Revo R3610-U9022 (hidden behind the TV)
• network connection (the Revo has wireless ‘N’ but I don’t)
• HD (1080p) flat panel TV connected to the Revo with a single HDMI cable
• wireless mouse and keyboard (bundled with the Revo) (hidden in a draw) for the occasional upgrade or new feature
• NAS for most of my video
• XBMC Live installed to the Revo’s hard drive
• iPhone XBMC Remote (collect3)

So, my advice ? Get the Revo. Get XBMC Live. Try it with the SD or USB instructions. If you like it, format the drive and install it for good. Later, if you want, you can follow other guides and install downloaders for podcast, streaming video, and more. Even if you don’t leverage the Revo for all of it’s idle time and other capabilities, it is still a great deal for a great media player.

I’ve been watching, and attempting to record, the defensive behavior of the common Barn Swallow. When they feel one of the nests is in danger, all of the swallows take to the air and dive and swoop and make noise. The goal is to confuse the predator and then to scare it away with "attacks" consisting of fast fly bys with screeches at the moment when the bird is closest to the predator.

The video captures a few of these dives and starting at 00:55s you can see a pass in slow motion. This is followed by another pass in slow motion and then still frames.

(note the bird song as it is slowed down)

I’m just starting to use more video in conferences. Like many, telephones, web conferences, and now even video are an integrated part of work. The catch phrase is “unified communications”.

Over the holidays, I installed a HUE webcam. It is getting more and more use with co-workers. My home office is not spectacular but I manage to keep it presentable. Not every does this. Perhaps they should check out www.webcamclothing.com !

In doing a little reasearch for my post of video conversion for the iPod, I came across the following picture. I reminded me of Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs – specificly, Rick Moranis‘ character, Dark Helmet.  

Toshiba?s ?360-degree? head mounted display

Toshiba has developed a giant full-faced helmet that weighs around three kilo and facilitates the wearer to see a full 360-degree view on a 40 cm dome-shaped fish-eye screen. The idea of full ?360-degree viewing is fabulous but do you guys think it?s really fabulous with that gigantic 3 kg helmet on your head? It could have been a ground-breaking gizmo if they had made it a bit small. …
Source: Coolbuzz

And clearly, I was not the first to make this association. The “Dark Helmet” search results contain the Toshiba HMD !