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?"

Comments

You could always

[Anonymous Coward]

Hook up a webcam and put it right outside.

Re:You could always

[jellomizer]

While this is a funny post. I can actually see a practical use for this. I live a block away from the Hudson River in Upstate NY. Which is rather pritty to look at but where my house is located there is a house and a bunch of trees in the way. So If I took a digitial camcorder and zoomed in a little It would be like my house was right on the river.

Re:You could always

[dgatwood]

I've been thinking about doing this for years, but for a very different reason, and using only monochrome LCD panels. Every morning, the sun wakes me up, whether I want it to do so or not. Imagine if your window were instead an LCD panel. Suddenly you could get a near-perfect blackout of the sunlight until a more convenient time of day, then slowly raise the level of sunlight (by changing black/white pixel percentages in a repeating pattern) for a comfortable wakeup. Once the panel is fully "lit", it should basically be clear, or at least that's the goal.

Three years ago, I could handle the amount of sunlight that came through the upper windows above my main windows. A year ago, I couldn't, so I put in mini-blinds on those. Now even that is bright enough to bother me (even at night, just from the moonlight), hence the line of thinking. Maybe it's just me.

Re:You could always

[ePhil_One]

Three years ago, I could handle the amount of sunlight that came through the upper windows above my main windows. A year ago, I couldn't, so I put in mini-blinds on those. Now even that is bright enough to bother me (even at night, just from the moonlight), hence the line of thinking. Maybe it's just me.

Dude, you're either turning into a vampire or have a serious medical problem. Either way I suggest a doctors visit...

Re:You could always

[jackbird]

Imagine if your window were instead an LCD panel. Suddenly you could get a near-perfect blackout ...

Expensive Solution

Cheap Solution.

Re:You could always

[mikael]

Talking of water, could this be used to cure sea-sickness? I've travelled in ferries where the main passenger sections were enclosed by walls with no windows, and passengers became ill very easily. Could a video wall of LCD's displaying a scene moving in sychronisation with the motion of the ship be used to help remedy this?

Re:You could always

[DarkVader]

This company would seem to differ with you a bit.

They don't talk price on their site, so it's a fair bet that it's expensive, but from the other things I've seen about it, it's a real product, and really for sale.

Re:You could always

[mikewas]

Too late, it's been done. It happenned right after we found the results of unsynchronized images in a flight simulator.

It wasn't pretty.

Re:You could always

[QuietGeek]

Dude! Interesting idea, however not entirely new. There are devices called "dawn simulators" that you can buy. Normally folks with SAD (Seasonal Anxiety Disorder - not enought sunlight in winter) get them, but I got one for the every reasons you state. I bought some blackout curtains, a dawn simulator and 4 tracklights. Mount the lights about the bed and Voila! I have never woken up so nicely in my life! The lights come up over 45 mintues and I just gradually wake up. No jarring beep/ring/buzz from alarmclocks. pure heaven. Here's where I got my dawn simulator: http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com/dawnsimulator .htm If you have the spare LCDs and the time, your idea sounds pretty cool, but even at $200, this is a pretty cheap way to go.....

Re:You could always

[corian]

Hook up a webcam and put it right outside. ...on a twelve-hour delay. Perfect way to amuse/confuse your houstguests.

Coralized Link

[BobPaul]

Seeing as this was slow to load in the mysterious future, here's a coral cache of the link...

Too late

[mindriot]

Sorry, I already replaced my Windows with Linux.

SCNR

People with glass windows

[savagedome]

I had particularly ugly neighbors

The neighbor's response: "I had particularly ugly neighbors too"

News For Nerds??

[Anonymous Coward]

This can't be right...TFA contains an article of a (presumably) real, live, breathing girl!

What have you done with my Slashdot??

/ducks

Cruel but awesome........

[ARRRLovin]

I want to see the same concept executed using 30" Apple Cinema displays and have video of birds smashing into the "glass", like you're looking out of a skyscraper window.

Slow Glass?

[davidc]

This reminds me very much of the Bob Shaw story Other Days, Other Eyes where someone invents "Slow Glass". This substance slowed down the passage of light through it (a lot) and there evolved a market for panes of Slow Glass that had been sited near a spectacular view, for instance, and were subsequently installed as people's window panes. The lucky recipient thought s/he was looking out the window onto the original scene.
Given that we don't have Slow Glass readily available, the LCD idea rather appeals...

Re:Slow Glass?

[nygeek]

"Other Days, Other Eyes" (1972) is based on his earlier short story "Light of Other Days" (1966).

Translucency?

[mind21_98]

Are there any LCD panels out there that are translucent? That would be the next logical step. Imagine being able to change the brightness of a window by sending certain signals to the LCD. Plus this would produce the natural light everyone needs.

Re:Translucency?

[wass]

LCD's 'shutters' exist that do this.

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.

Re:Translucency?

[Keighvin]

All LCD panels are translucent, elsewhise the backlight would be entirely ineffective.

They work like this:

1. Plasma backlight source provides whitish illumination.
2. Red, Green, and Blue subpixel LCDs sandwiched between two layers of glass selectively obstruct this light to either pass through easily at one of these colors (the three together perceived as white) or block it out.
3. User perceives cohesive image.

This is grossly oversimplified, others (or googling or howstuffworks) can expound on the details.

Now, if the backlight and its reflectors were removed, you'd only be seeing light coming through from whatever sources lay beyond it; overlaid on a window the natural light would be used, though probably inefficiently (normal LCDs depend on polarization for crisp presentation, some natural bleed would probably result from other sources).

I'm probably wrong. But I'm also done.

Replacing Neighbors

[Snap E Tom]

Now he can have some porn chick neighbors!

Depth?

[PreDefined]

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.

Windows Blue Screen?

[MonkeyCookie]

I could just imagine the shock of the guy's grandma coming over, looking out the window, and suddenly seeing the Windows BSOD appear in the window.

Cruise ship's inside cabins

[usefool]

Most inside cabins in cruise ships have fake windows, i.e. a picture that looks like a window that looks like you're looking at the sea.

So this "invention" might be a good way to relay actual sea views in those cabins.

Re:Absolutely Amazing

[pla]

If nothing else, go look at this just to see the panels installed and "lit up."

Whoah!

Simply Amazing!

34 posts, and a person's personal site hasn't gone up in flames yet?

The hell with the LCD panels, I want to know his ISP!

X.ORG + Xinerama will let you do this.

[reality-bytes]

If you simply have multiple PCIE cards in the same system, X.ORG and Xinerama will allow you to do this by building a 'desktop' of four screens - you can then playback 'fullscreen' video across all four.

The dual-head functionality of some cards could let you get away with just 2 cards as well.

One drawback is that as far as I know, OpenGL is not implemented in Xinerama yet (not such a worry for video tho).

Re:X.ORG + Xinerama will let you do this.

[rtcmedic]

Video Lan Client(VLC) http://www.videolan.org/ has a video filter called Wall (Found under preferences, modules, video filter 1). You can specify the number of rows and columns, and it will break a stream up into blocks. I use two monitors using the TwinView option for X. I can place each 'video block' anywhere on the desktop. Just one of the MANY way cool features of VLC. Enjoy!

Here's a suggestion, follow electrical codes.

[deathcow]

Dont burn your house down by rigging this up in a way where 120V power cords are running inside your walls. (I realize the page author does not have this.) If you use 120V wiring inside a wall that is not in an NEC approved manner, and your house burns down, you might be liable.

This includes not being able to have an outlet mounted inside a wall nearby the frame, in a permanently inaccessible location. No, the fact that you can remove drywall to access it does not make it accessible. Now, maybe if the entire frame swung open on recessed hinges to a finished space with a normally mounted outlet, OK. But best ask the inspector.

Many people will say "Ahh but this is low voltage power wiring" so, there isn't much danger. True, for DVI video signalling, but what about powering the backlighting?

But when the voltage is low, the current is high, and the potential is still there to create heat.

For example. You've probably got some big-ass wires carrying 100 amp or 200 amp service into your house. But if you go out to the power pole, you'll see the transformer which feeds your big wires has a extremely tiny wire getting it's power from the overhead lines. At the high voltages of transmission lines, small wires easily carry the small currents. At the low voltages going into your house, big wires carry the larger currents. Whats the same? The amount of power being carried.

So never assume stuffing 12V cords through a wall is safe just because the voltage is so low. How much power is involved?

Are your neighbors uglier than you?

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

I ask because mirrors are fairly inexpensive.

This guy is my hero.

[sTalking_Goat]

8 15" LCD panels just laying around? Hot chicks helping him solder? ...solder?

Who are you and how can I have your life?

Wardriving!

[xsupergr0verx]

I wish this technology was consumer and commonplace. Then you could wardrive someone's network and goatse all their LCD windows...

Ugly Neighbors?!

[Geburah]

- Author of this story = Hoagaboom

- Hoagaboom's slashdot ID link leads to www.hoagy.org

- whois on www.hoagy.org leads to:

Ryan Hoagland
1 Infinite loop
Cupertino, CA 95014 US

- Map quest verifies this address is real

- Terraserver verifys what appears to be a corporate plaza

- A Google search on this address reveals that this is "Apple Corporate Headquarters"

- Crap. Dead end. Hoagaboom is a liar. :)

My goal was to find out where he lived, systematically pinpoint his neighbors residence, obtain their contact information, then notify them by phone that their neighbor Ryan thinks they are ugly, then post the recorded phone conversation for you all to listen to. Oh well. I tried. :)

VLC will split

[no_such_user]

I was playing with VideoLAN a week ago, and noticed it has a video filter module called "wall" (this is under WinXP, FWIW) which will split your stream into as many multiple windows as your machine can handle. So, split your video stream into four windows, move each one to its own display, and full-screen them. I haven't played with VLC under Linux, but I'm guessing it has the same options.

Great project, BTW! I've been thinking of doing something like this for a while. Good luck!

REWARD For Stolen Equipment

[Nautica]

The company I work for recently had the theft of 8 15 inch LCD monitors. If you have any information regarding this crime that leads to an arrest, we shall reward you $1000 dollars.

But if he was a real geek

[geekoid]

he would have something besides a sunset.Well maybe a sunset, but not one from Earth!

Re:Ob simpsons

[RsG]

Grandpa: (with stake and mallet) We have to kill the boy!
Lisa: How did you know that Barts a vampire?
Grandpa: He's a vampire?! (drops stake/mallet) AHHHHH (runs away)

(later)

Lisa: You must drive this stake through his heart.
Homer: DIE YOU INHUMAN MONSTER!!!! (pounds stake into Burns)
Lisa: Uh, dad that's his crotch.

Distopian

[haggar]

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.

One thing to be careful of...

[Metasquares]

I just found out that LCDs are capable of burn-in (the hard way). If you plan on displaying a static image on the window for long periods of time, you might want to blank the screen every so often.