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Control Lightshow Over Dublin Sky From A Webpage

Posted by Hemos on from the fun-with-CGI dept.

nev4 writes "Ireland is celebrating their EU presidency for 2004 with an interactive lightshow over Dublin. The project, Vectorial Elevation, allows people to control the 22 searchlights (154,000 watts, can be seen for a 15km radius) shining over Dublin by submitting a design on the project's website. The designs are queued and a new design is displayed every 14 seconds from dusk to dawn (GMT +1). You can see an aerial view of the city and the current design via live webcam or browse snapshots of previous designs. The tool for submitting deisgns also contains a 3D model of the city that you can pan around or "walk-through". Once you submit your design, you can opt to receive an e-mail when it is being displayed; when I submitted mine there was no one in the queue, so it was displayed immediately."

11 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. Doom on O'Connell Street!! by justinmc · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What is really cool is the 3D model at http://www4.alzado.net/edparticipar.html Could you set this up with Doom or some similar game? I could then reproduce a trip from the Burger King near O'Connell bridge across to the Centra - which I do on the occasional Friday night. Of course in this version I could shoot the person who grabs a taxi I flagged etc. Pow-Pow (Various Gun sounds!!)

  2. Tell them what you think! by infolib · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The Irish presidency is now handling the software patent issue. After the EU Commission proposal got blasted by the Parliament (thanks Parliament!), Ireland has now put forth a "compromise" that's even more pro-swpat than the original Commission one. So why not remind them of the main anti-software-patent organization and the 300'000 signatures by spelling "FFII" across the Dublin sky?

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.
  3. Screening for content? by Mechanik · · Score: 2, Interesting

    when I submitted mine there was no one in the queue, so it was displayed immediately

    Is it just me, or does it seem like they are opening themselves up to trouble by not having some sort of screening program in place for the designs? How long before a giant, vector graphic representation of the goatse.cx guy is seen floating over Dublin?

    Mechanik

  4. I'd rather be looking out for Comet Bradfield by alanxyzzy · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Shining searchlights into the sky is light pollution.
    http://www.darksky.org/
    http://spaceweather.com/
    If you have wake up before dawn this week for work or school, take a pair of binoculars outside and scan the eastern horizon. You might see Comet Bradfield. The comet, which had a close encounter with the sun on April 17th, is now emerging from the sun's glare. Although it's too dim to see with the unaided eye, at least for most people, by all accounts Comet Bradfield is a beautiful sight through binoculars, its long tail stretching 10 degrees above the rosy glow of the rising sun.
    1. Re:I'd rather be looking out for Comet Bradfield by SILIZIUMM · · Score: 0, Interesting

      Mod parent up please, this is an important issue to me...

  5. BlinkenLights by phlegmgem · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Isn't this similar to the blinkenlights project?

  6. Re:Campaign for Dark Skies by wickedj · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Not many people realize the effects of having too many lights in the sky. There are many animals out there that navigate using the night sky.

    I'm from South Carolina, USA, and we get a fair share of sea turtles. They lay their eggs on the beach. Once those eggs hatch, the babies head for the sea using starlight. Unfortunately, they mistook some hotel's parking lot lights as stars and went the wrong way. Many were killed by being run over or just being too far from the ocean. A lot of volunteers spent the night trying to turn the little buggers around. They did convince the hotel to turn off its lights but by then, it was too late for many of those turtles.

    I don't mind people having fun with lights. I just hope this isn't a permanent fixture. We aren't the only ones on the planet.

  7. Re:In other news... by pixelbeat · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Yep. The hacker emblem is the best I could come up with.
    I'll be in Dublin tonight, so I can have a look.

  8. Impressive by Gopher971 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have to admit it makes an impressive sight. My apartment is only 200 hundred yards from O'Connell St. The patterns have been getting more intricate in the last 2 nights as users have gotten more adventurous.

    Many are getting all the spotlights to shine on one narrow band of "The Spire". It then shines like a lighthouse right into the apartment.

    Expect some good viewing tonight as cloud cover is 100%.

    --
    Just you're average nitpicker.
  9. Re:Astronomy by cadelor · · Score: 2, Interesting
    > The local In-House Astronomer at Univ of Dublin must love this thing...

    Yea, us amateurs really love it too... some discussion, and a picture from my back garden about 10 miles away at the Irish federation of astronomical societies forumhttp://www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopi c.php?t=707

    And just when we were starting to make progress on light pollution... At least this is only going to be there for a couple of weeks.

    Cheers,
    ~Al
    Irish Light Pollution Awareness Campaign
    www.irishastronomy.org/ilpac

  10. Impression by dh5fbr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Walking home from the lab I found it looks quite good. 9MB *.mov at tcd.ie(if someone could mirror it, might be useful)

    Next step would be to take some consecutive slots and make some kind of movie.

    Have fun