Slashdot Mirror
Fun With Transparent Screen Backgrounds
herberts writes "Looks like the amusement factor of 'transparent' screen background is getting bigger and bigger. The french Mac fan site Mac Bidouille opened up a dedicated part of their web site where fans can post shots of their transparent backgrounds." Other great transparent background shots can be found at Flickr.
Or something more techno-cool?
Would be a fun way to freak out the uninformed and techincally challanged.
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
For a CRT could you draw the electron gun and circuits.
Some of these people seem to have taken a snap of their background and made it their wallpaper, but others seem to be setting their background to white, and then removing the backshells and backlights from their screens. Either way, it looks neat.
What they need is a built-in webcam like Sony's Vaio TR3A, a flippable camera in the top centre of the monitor, and do a full screen live-feed.
Then you'll be able to move the laptop to anywhere and the screen will still look transparent.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
I did it on my linux machine too! It's nice and transparent, although I suck at perspective.
"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
I was gonna suggest the same thing.. it could be a webcam or a cheapo digicam of similar res to the screen itself. Well, you all heard it here first! So when Apple decides it deserves a design patent for "Technique to Create a Real-Time Illusion of a Transparent Monitor Screen" we can all point to the prior art. :-)
Man, I thought Apple had invented some sort of integrated webcam that allowed you to have video as your background. Did it really take people this long to think of this? What's next, taking a screenshot of the desktop and putting that as the background as a prank?
This, the Apple Easter Egg post, and the PSP post, signify a typical weekend of stories around here. Sigh.
Before the corporate buyout, Slashdot would have posted cool stories all the time no matter the day. But since OSTG took over, they save the good stories for weekdays just because they know they'll get more adviews on a Monday. Blah!
Here is my quick attempt. Some of the ones out there are really neat, especially the one has three screens overlapping on flickr. I thought it would be fun to do one of these, and then GIMP something into the image. Have my PowerBook looking out the window, and then GIMP a picture of the Eiffel Tower off in the distance. I'm too lazy, but someone else could do it :)
Or possibly a webcam/digital camera right in the back of the monitor that's hooked up to provide the backround updated realtime? I think they probably sell lenses that zoom out far enough to get that same effect. Someone will probably correct me if I'm wrong.
"For years, I struggled with reality... but I'm happy to say I finally won out over it." -- Elwood P. Dowd
I am more amused by putting a camera pointing at my screen over my shoulder and using that as my live wallpaper. That whole endless hall of mirror effect amuses me greatly.
:)
Usually I'm just happy to play the movie I'm watching on my desktop though. A DVD Jukebox effect that plays nonstop is a great root window IMO.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Many folks are claiming the easy routes:
A) Take a picture, and move the screen where the picture was.
The problem with this is perspective. lenses are not flat scans of the world, and you'll see (in fact in some of the shots you do see) some perspective distortion, especially with stuff like vertical lines.
B)Take picture with and without screen and photochop it.
Actually, the best non-cheating way to do this is:
C)
1) Set your camera up on a tripod, at the scene where you want your monitor.
2) Remove monitor.
3) Take picture.
4) replace montor.
5) Take another picture.
up to here this is the same as method B), the photochopping. But instead of pasting the background (And cheating), you crop the first photo to the dimensions of the monitor in the second photo.
6) Set the cropped picture as background.
7) Take the money shot.
8) Wait for the pulitzer folks to get back to you.
People taking photo of their computer screens reminds me of this project.
Infinite Cat Project
Some people have way to much time on their hands!
The thing is, I presume these background are just still shots. So they're not really that clever at all.
:-)
What if Apple embedded an actual webcam in the back of their laptops, and allowed a live background? Then you'd really have a truly transparent background
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
It'd be cool if the transparency showed the inside of the monitor!
Hell, it's not even like in the UK we had a 2am last night. My clock went straight from 1.59am GMT to 3am BST
-- Sorry, I can't think of anything funny to say here.
Back a few years, IBM sold a laptop where you could detach the back cover of the lid, exposing the screen so that it could be placed on an overhead projector. I worked with Ted Selker who invented it, so I had a homemade prototype version. When I presented at conferences and everyone else struggled with F7 and video formats, I just whipped the back off my Thinkpad and put it on top of the overhead projector. I don't think anyone listened to my talk because they were all craning their necks to see what I had done with the display. All of the questions afterward were about where to buy such a nifty device rather than anything about my talk!
The removable back was also useful for working outdoors. You could put a white reflective surface behind the screen and backlight with sunlight, making it usable no matter how bright it was.
Apparently he does it so people think he's working. Fooled me.
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
http://files.macbidouille.com/transparent/pages/ga llery_29767_11_13892.html
This Mac has an interesting skin...
Go Away! Not for Sale
It was built before overhead projectors were commonly used for showing the words of songs, so they didn't leave anywhere for a screen. Covering the back wall is a big wooden cross -- we used to project words onto the wall on one side of this, but it was cramped and could only be seen from one side.
But recently, someone had a bright idea. We now have a video projector, and a large screen which descends to cover the cross and surrounding design -- when it's not being used for words, they project a picture of what's underneath it. It's not perfect (the alignment and colour are very slightly out), but it's a good solution which allows everyone to see the words without getting rid of the focal point.
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
Not a laptop but a standalone transparent flat panel.
My own transparent screens.
sgis ddo ekil t'nod i
I'm sure that Magritte would have approved: http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~malek/Magrit6.html
For what it's worth, you can get it to very nearly work if you have a distant background, then the error would be minimal.
If you know the distance to the object, you can do a distortion effect (I think a "punch" effect would be right, squeeze the center out towards the sides). That'd only work if the objects stays at a fairly fixed distance, if you have a glass window to the hallway you should be able to see people walking by just as if it was transparent.
If you wanted to make a really advanced variety, you could measure the distance by e.g. IR pulses or something and dynamicly apply the effect with different settings. That should work until you get as close as the camera can see (the camera must see what you would've seen in the upper left corner).
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I had this virtual-pet thingy once which i got for free somewhere and when i removed the LCD it looked just like regular glass.
Is there anything preventing one from relocating the hardware at the back of an LCD monitor for the same effect?
Am I the only geek that expected to see backgrounds that showed the insides of the monitors? Hardware is much more exciting than the wall or shelves behind the computer. I can think of some good joke possibilities too along the lines of things or statements that would be funny or shocking if they had been hidden inside your monitor.
Just wait until OLED's are scaled up to a larger size and you will be able to have transparent backgrounds without the need for a digital camera.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
The process is soooo much easier than you just described.
- Position the camera (preferably using a tripod) so that the orthoganal line extending from the center of the screen intersects the lens of the camera.
- Zoom in so that the laptop screen fills the picture frame.
- Fold the laptop screen down.
- Take a picture.
- Open the laptop screen back up.
- Set that picture as your desktop background.
- Zoom out.
- Take another picture.
No photo editing required.i forget
It's a little disconcerting to see that no one has posted that Belgian surrealistic artist Rene Magritte did these type of images (painted canvas displaying background) back in the 1920s.
Don't you guys ever look through those big books of surrealistic art in bookstores and libraries? Much of the imagery that we consider 'weird' and 'futuristic' now was first conceived and painted back in the 1920s and 30s. Guys like Salvadore Dali, Yves Tanguy, Joan ('Ho-ahn') Miro, Max Ernst, and Rene Magritte created the modern fantasy landscape look.
Their work was a step beyond the inflamed, blood-soaked, passionate, and sex-obsessed imagery of the 19th century Decadent Romanticists like Gustave Moreau, Klimt, and DeVille. It was this over-stimulated buffoonery led to the disaster of the Great War. Surrealism was an attempt to invoke the primal mental forces that lay beneath duty, religion, and even consciousness.
Since you'all have broadband you can find this images and paintings easily on the web. They are definitely worth the trouble to find and view them.