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Replace Your Windows With LCD Panels
hoagaboom writes "I had particularly ugly neighbors and a lot of LCD panels laying around, so why not build a
Virtual Window? I really wanted to do full motion video, but PCI bandwidth is standing in my way. So with multiple PCIE vid cards, any suggestions on how to split a full motion video stream in Linux?"
Should also have an eye tracking system to show the images from any angle, which might not be possible since you need a 3D model.. Also, what if more than one person sees through the window?
Certainly an impressive undertaking but somehow it just doesn't sit right. The image depth is what my mind would be questionning. I mean if you don't actually feel like it's really out there then it may as well just be a nice photograph that you've glued over your windowpanes.
This reminds me a lot of Farenheit 451 with the TV's on every wall in the living room. Scary thought...
This post has got to be influenced by the booming LCD market. Come on, unless you have ONE 15" window, there is no freaking way the average joe could afford to plaster say four windows averaging about 50" (in my TINY apt) with LCDs... and why would you want to, why not jus put up tin foil and look all fifties sci-fi like everyone else?!
...and it should be known by now
one problem: When was the last time a 'beautiful countryside' sounded like a freakin highway?
If you don't have any luck getting a single video playing on a multi-screen Xinerama display, you could use mplayer's crop function to play the relevant parts of the same video on each display, using separate instances of mplayer.
'man mplayer' has plenty of details, just search for 'crop'. The tricky part will be making all of them start at exactly the same time :-)
I dunno about you, but one of the main uses of my windows back at home is allowing the air to come in (and out) of my house.
I think that the perfect setup would be a LCD window, that can be opened (just as a regular one), and that can made translucent, ranging from a standard glass' window to a full opaque (like the virtual one presented here).
Just a side (OT) note, anyone else noticed that he masked his email address to avoid spam, leaving the mailto: target untouched?!?
--krahd
mod me up scottie!
Parent: From the article:...
OMG!
SHE READS SLASHDOT!
Well obviously you didn't read the article that closely, just below that picture: Boy, Julie was sorry to have said that she wanted to help solder. and at the bottom of the page: © 2004 Ryan Hoagland so I doubt it's a girl's site and most certainly not the girl in the picture.
Okay, 9 out of 10 for funny, but minus several million for taste.
Now *this* IMO is what Slashdot, News for Nerds is all about!
As there is no depth perception, the only practical benefit of this set-up over a photo pasted on the window is that you can change the picture more easily (recall that he can't use it for FMV). But that's not the point. It has immense geek karma, if there is such a thing.
Good for him.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Boy, Julie was sorry to have said that she wanted to help solder. [snip: picture of girl soldering]
/.ers that they really do have a girlfriend.
It's quite amazing the length geeks will go to in order to prove to other
I meant this as an estimate for a DIY project for people reading this. Besides, the LCD monitors would be the most expensive part of the project. Who has an extra LCD monitor laying around, let alone 8?!?!?! (well, besides this guy)
Another similar thing is using two layers of linearly-polarized glass. Hold one layer fixed, and rotate the other layer to go from almost full transparency to almost full opacity.
There is a company that sells airline windows like this, and it would be pretty trivial to wire a motor to turn the layer appropriately, or even automatically to keep room brightness constant.
make world, not war
My parents have an LCD window in their bathroom. Flip a switch and it goes in a blink of an eye from frosted to clear.
That was put in there five years ago, and I think its pretty common in high end homes these days.
Just look this pic
Fake windows with a fake view, next to a FAKE PLANT.
When I see these things, I feel so lucky to live in Finland, surrounded by thousands of acres of forests and lakes, where I can easily meet with all sorts of wild animals doing what they do. Reminds you that there's some real life in this world still. Who knows how many natural resources were destroyed to make those LEDs and the electric and computing power to make it all work. The real thing is cheaper and looks better.
Sigged!