Stuff and Nonsense

I’m fortunate to have at my disposal a few iPhones that are broken in the GSM radio department so no good for making calls. WiFi works though as do all the other functions. Preparing for a long drive from Gloucestershire to Disneyland Paris and back recently I wanted to make sure that the kids’ favourite DVD movies were available on the iPhones. I thought it would be useful to list the software and process I’ve used since it’s all free and very easy. The result is typically an hour and a half movie on approx 200 to 300 mb so that’s a good number of movies on an 8GB device.

The results are also pretty impressive when the iphone is plugged into a modest hotel room tv via an apple component cable or projected via the super portable, focus free Microvision SHOWWX laser projector.

First, I decrypt the DVD using DVD Decrypter. Be sure to select the File mode of operation and it fills a folder discname/video_ts with various .ifo .bup and .vob files. These are the raw dvd files so can easily run to 4GB for single layer movies.

I used to use Videora but its advertising supported model, while reasonable, is implemented in a very clunky way and though the results are good and pretty fast it’s a PITA process.  So, recently I’ve downloaded Handbrake which is a self contained native windows app (also available on mac & Linux) and is open source. This works a treat and when told the folder mentioned above will detect the main title in the folder then you just choose the iPhone presets and away it goes.

30 to 40 minutes later you have the .m4v file which is mp4 format and can be dragged into iTunes and synced with the iphone easily.

So, I took delivery of a Microvision ShowWX today. Yes, it’s every bit as good as Microvision’s site makes out.

I’ve tried it from an iPod and iPhone which both worked a treat though annoyingly of course, without jailbreaking the iPhone only the iPod video functions actually output a picture. Such a silly limitation from Apple this one. It makes photo slideshow/video workarounds for presentations necessary that really shouldn’t be.

Anyway, I’ve come up with the following ideas so far, none of which I’m likely to have time to pursue but part of the fun is thinking these things up. I’ll edit this post as things occur.

• Fasten it under the seat of your bike and project an enormous red triangle or other graphic or message onto the road behind you so approaching motorists get that extra clue… anamorphic translations on the image (read all about anamorphosis) could come in useful as at some point the image would appear to stand upright from the driver’s POV. (for some drivers/road positions anyway).
• Combined with an iPhone 3GS – or indeed any computer/camera combination, though the iPhone+SHOWWX is a particularly elegant duo – it should be possible to display an image and film it on the camera simultaneously. With someone moving an arm/finger around  it should be possible to produce an effective “interactive whiteboard” type result.
• Shadow puppetry light source. Presumably because of the laser light source and scanning motion and lack of focussing lenses, when the image is obscured by a hand the shadow cast is pin sharp. No penumbral shadows at all regardless of distance from projection surface. Combined with some creative images to start with and shadow puppetry skills, shadow puppetry could take a leap appearing to interact with full color environments.
• Head up displays for cars etc. Easy one to try for myself to check it won’t dazzle passers by but you could easily I suspect project messages/footage onto the back windscreen (or on a strip of thin paper beneath it) and have a clearly readable image displayed at night. There are already many HUD apps for the iPhone. Projected via this thing you could have a HUD across your whole windscreen!
• Freaking out kids at Halloween. Movie running on a loop, projects ghostly images onto the wall/door/gate etc. Could be particularly useful combined with an anamorphic image to make the ghost look like it’s coming from a hole in the ground etc.
• In fact, its portability combined with a tripod and an app to apply anamorphic translations to images could be used to project onto the floor enabling the artistically challenged (like me) to cheat by projecting onto the pavement then doing a paint-by-numbers type job on it. Yes, it’s possible I’m becoming slightly obsessed by anamorphosis.
• 3D mapping. The methods are nothing new. Shine  a laser in a line while rotating the subject, capture the line deviations in a camera set at an angle an infer the subject’s profile from the way the line is warped. The SHOWWX essentially puts a laser in everyone’s hand at a fraction of the cost of usual solutions. Just project a picture with only one vertical line on it. Or, project a grid and do the same thing using a camera to record the deformation of the grid and thereby infer the contours of the subject.
• I wonder if it’s possible to get photo sensitive paints/inks that once exposed for a given time keep their arrived-at colour without recourse to developing chemicals? What a great way to do murals. Line up the image, black out the room, coat the wall, turn on the projector and leave for a while, allow it to cure and you have a “painted” mural.
• My kids have each got those glow in the dark wall hangings where you ‘paint’ on them using a light pen and they persists for a while. Great fun. I think I’l try projecting a line image tonight in a blacked out room and see whether the showwx puts enough light onto these things to leave an image.
• I wonder if a reflective dome on the floor and the showwx from above could give a home-made planetarium?
• Christmas message? shine it from inside to a window.

So many ideas, so little time… ah well. Am quite looking forward to the dead of night so I can try this thing in the garden and see just how big an image is actually visible on the side of the house. Also aiming to try it in the lounge tonight where I have an empty wall and see just how well it stacks up when the movie is 8 feet wide!