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Dormitory Turned Into Huge Color Display

Posted by samzenpus on from the color-your-windows dept.

macson_g writes "Students from Wroclaw University of Technology (Poland) once again turned one of their dormitories into huge display. The project is called P.I.W.O. (B.E.E.R.). This time they converted a 10-story building into 4-color, 12x10 display. The business was used to display animations, and to play interactive games as well. On the project page (in Polish, Google translation here) you can watch an almost hour-long video, featuring music videos, a Tetris session, a dancing Michael Jackson, Duke Nukem and Mario."

69 comments

  1. But... by santax · · Score: 2, Funny

    When will Netbsd support it?

    1. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, where is the web interface so we can play online?

  2. Name of the first song on the video? by JustinRLynn · · Score: 1

    Nice! Does anyone know the name of the first song on the hour long video? That's a really nice chiptune.

    1. Re:Name of the first song on the video? by Zeussy · · Score: 5, Informative

      Nice! Does anyone know the name of the first song on the hour long video? That's a really nice chiptune.

      Well, it was driving me insane as I have been listening to Chiptune songs for the last 2-3weeks, and I knew I had heard it, so after a search through my play list, here it is:

      Mr. Spastic - Sloppy

      His album and many great others can be got for free (under creative commons) from 8bit Peoples

      --
      Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game
    2. Re:Name of the first song on the video? by JustinRLynn · · Score: 1

      Awesome! That's exactly right, thanks so much. :)

    3. Re:Name of the first song on the video? by genjix · · Score: 1

      awesome thx

  3. Re:Uh.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did you expect more from college students?

  4. Resolution? by pscott56 · · Score: 5, Funny

    What is the maximum resolution of a dorm these days? Not like those high end skyscrapers...

    1. Re:Resolution? by JustinRLynn · · Score: 1

      In this case, having a high dot pitch, while nice for a display, is a bad thing for people living in there.

  5. badass by BeaverCleaver · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A truly neat project. Are employers impressed by such feats? They should be. Does any body have more information of this? what sort of microcontrollers used, networking protocols...

    Also the social engineering is impressive. I wouldn't have had much success asking other residents to put banks of lightglobes in their windows where I went to university, but at my school we did have an inordinate number of whiny law student types.

    --
    sustainable living
    1. Re:badass by Zapotek · · Score: 1

      In my university the only thing you see on dorm windows is stacked bottles of beer. Seriously.

    2. Re:badass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Looks like a Atmel AVR in 32-pin TQFP, perhaps ATmega8? Network is wired (imagine cabling the 12 rooms X 10 floors!). I bet it's some serial protocol, perhaps all floors are huge shift registers (each controller has 2+ RJ connectors to create a chain)?

      As for the social engineering, you can use a lot of social lubricant (BEER) while hand-painting the bolbs (which they did).

      PIWO acronym translates loosely to Huge Indexed Window Displayer.

    3. Re:badass by BiggerIsBetter · · Score: 3, Funny

      In my university the only thing you see on dorm windows is stacked bottles of beer. Seriously.

      You went to the wrong school. At my university the dorm windows were full of stacked coeds. Seriously. :-P

      --
      Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
    4. Re:badass by mapkinase · · Score: 1, Troll

      I wonder what it would be to live in one of the dorms when you actually do not want your window to be a part of this "experiment" or the noise outside.

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    5. Re:badass by lewko · · Score: 4, Funny

      Admit it - You only know that because you read about it on IRC one Saturday night, when everyone else had gone out.

      --
      Do you or your partner snore? - Visit www.snoring.com.au
    6. Re:badass by MoonBuggy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I can't think of any reasons to have a problem with it other than the excessively contrived or the whining spoilsport types. It's a cool project, it took up a window for maybe a day, and there was a bit of noise outside for a few hours.

      To put it bluntly: lighten up a bit!

    7. Re:badass by billcopc · · Score: 1

      Maybe I'm just jaded, but it's not really impressive in 2009, when it's practically the 100th time people have done this and you can assemble a similar light show in a matter of hours with readily-available equipment and software.

      Ten years ago we were saying "Huh, neat!" at these setups, today it's more of a "Lern2hack" reaction.

      --
      -Billco, Fnarg.com
    8. Re:badass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      My brother stacks Yoghurt pots there.
      Yeah, he's a bit weird.

    9. Re:badass by LordRobin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I dunno, man. Watching this today, I thought it was incredibly cool. But when I was in college 20 years ago, I was a different person. It was a difficult time for me, socially, and my dorm room was the only place I could "get away" when I needed to. I think I might have been a little bitter if I was told I had to let someone in to wire up lights, and essentially be kicked out on show night ('cuz it's not like you could study or sleep in there when the show was on). I find it hard to believe that with as many as 240 students affected, there wasn't at least one poor schmuck who just wanted to be left alone.

      I guess I'm just saying that I hope this wasn't crammed down everyone's throats without giving them a choice.

      ------RM

    10. Re:badass by BeaverCleaver · · Score: 1

      Why the hell would you live in a dorm if you didn't want noise, light and disturbance?

      --
      sustainable living
    11. Re:badass by BeaverCleaver · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wow, really? You can read the manual on some "ready-available equipment and software" and assemble it the way the engineers intended?

      Just because a product already exists doesn't make it any less impressive to build your own from scratch. These guys designed their own serial network and used it to switch multiple big electrical loads and it was robust enough for other students to play with. They did all this on a limited budget and also persuaded the entire dorm to let them install the hardware.

      If they weren't doing cool hardware projects that interact with the real world, they would have been alone in the dorm playing WoW or doing lame quizzes on FaceBook.

      --
      sustainable living
    12. Re:badass by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      25 years ago we did not have many options. Hostel was the cheapest.

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    13. Re:badass by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      That was 25 years ago. I was "lighter" than my roommate who used to throw shoes at everyone at the throwable distance when his sleep was disturbed. He is the president of the company and I am not :-)

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
  6. In related news... by Seriousity · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The Slashdot news template is converted into an image display!

    No seriously, if you can insert an image into the summary why is it such a rarity?

    --
    This post was made in complete sincere seriousity; as such any attempts to derive humour are doomed to instant failure.
  7. bit porn by Zankarst · · Score: 2, Funny

    Excellent! I've always wanted to know what porn looks like in 4 colours on a screen that big!

  8. Huge? by orkysoft · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I don't think 12x10 pixels is huge by today's standards. My netbook has 1024x600 pixels!

    --

    I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
    1. Re:Huge? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are your netbook pixels the size of a ... window?

  9. Duke Nukem by andrewagill · · Score: 1

    Given the low resolution of the games and the other games they were playing, I was expecting the original Duke Nukem.

    1. Re:Duke Nukem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Around 22 minutes in the video duke nukem does in fact turn up.

  10. Amazing what you can do with 120 pixels by amirulbahr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Whilst technically not very interesting, it was good to watch nonetheless and no doubt would have been a quite a sight in person. What is more interesting though is just how much content they were able to squeeze into 12x10 4-colour pixels.

    1. Re:Amazing what you can do with 120 pixels by DigiShaman · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you thought that was amazing, you will be blown away at the professional version located in Shanghai.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    2. Re:Amazing what you can do with 120 pixels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      We have something similar on display each night in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. It's the KPN building, a Dutch telecom company. And yes, Tetris has been played on it. Resolution is higher too.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qcia4Ae7Jas

    3. Re:Amazing what you can do with 120 pixels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I would so love to hack that thing to GOATSE the whole city.

  11. fast too by bugs2squash · · Score: 1

    unless the film was sped up (unlikely given the sound I suppose), I was not expecting the W bulbs to be as quick to light and extinguish.

    --
    Nullius in verba
  12. lights on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    someone left the lights on on the 8th floor, good job!

  13. This has been done before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Almost a decade ago, Technology House at Brown University did a similar thing to the Sciences Library. The display was larger (in pixels) on a slightly taller building, but only monochrome.

    It also played Tetris.

    1. Re:This has been done before by legutierr · · Score: 0

      Whatever it's relative shortcomings (monochrome, no fancy animations), the tech-house installation had one thing that they didn't have in Poland: Steve Wozniac

    2. Re:This has been done before by AHuxley · · Score: 4, Funny

      Then get me his non-union Polish equivalent!

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  14. Light source ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So they are using lightbulbs for the colors ?
    Can they use just tcp/ip and computer monitors ?

  15. Blinkenlicht by knappe+duivel · · Score: 4, Informative

    Also done by Chaos Computer Club in Berlin in 2001, called Blinkenlicht. http://www.blinkenlights.net/

    1. Re:Blinkenlicht by sznupi · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Obviously.

      No, I'm beeing serious here - it's quite typical for PL computer, internet or, in this case, "social technical experiment/fun" areas to not even try coming up with anything new, just copying (usually poorly).

      What's worse, such things grab a hold on local market far too often, through some kind of ill conceived patriotism, and create a bit of a tech ghetto here.

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
    2. Re:Blinkenlicht by keeboo · · Score: 1

      No, I'm beeing serious here - it's quite typical for PL computer, internet or, in this case, "social technical experiment/fun" areas to not even try coming up with anything new, just copying (usually poorly).

      Sort like your nickname "Snoopy"? ;)

      Now, seriously... I've always felt that way too, yet I wonder why could that be so.
      More specifically in the IT field, there are lots and lots of (at least theoretically) qualified people (and many left PL to work abroad since there are no enough jobs). With so many people, why there's no real breakthrough happening there?

    3. Re:Blinkenlicht by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is like saying that noone should learn basic science -- it has been done millions of times, after all.

      I do agree that there may be perceived lack of imagination here, but that doesn't make it any less fun! Heck, I'd like to at least remotely help out with P.I.W.O. 4 -- even if it's "nothing new".

      As with anything else, the devil is in the details -- there's a lot of things that can be improved in the implementation of such a project.

      Just off the top of my head:

      1. using bulbs with smaller thermal mass,

      2. calibrating the pixel intensity using a digital camera to equalize the luminosity across the display,

      3. using micros with Ethernet at each light: presumably the dorm is already wired with Ethernet in each room, that way there'd be no need for extra cables

      4. optimizing the location and orientation of lights to maximize the output in say 0 to -75 degree fulcrum, no need to light up the sky, after all (0 - horizontal, negative angles - toward the ground)

      5. trying to do sub-pixel addressing - perhaps all it'd take is a simple wooden frame with some aluminum foil "divider" on the window, and well-thought "optics" on the light fixture to "project" the pixels on the walls (again, could be 2-3 layers of aluminum foil vacuum-shaped on a form).

      6. having multiple screens (why just one dorm?)

      Cheers, Kuba

    4. Re:Blinkenlicht by sznupi · · Score: 1

      Social realities (you really don't want me to get into factors that shape them...) at work, I guess. Few I could think of immediatelly:

      - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Sovieticus (don't limit this effect to failings of soviet block though - I'd say it's also cultivated by, still vast here, infuence of religious authorities...)

      - Poland has a background of unqestioned fascination with everything exotic (and at the same time trying to ignore good local stuff) spanning several centuries (noble caste from XVI to XVIII century was shaped by a bit comical combination of west and far (for that time) east influences; which might also relate to how first RP ended in XIX century - contrary to what most people would like to believe, it were internal factors), and it didn't go away at all.

      - about education system that you mention...vast majority of people simply care about getting a degree, others are almost shunned at. Nothing unique, but, what's worse, the system isn't geared at all towards individual path of education / creativity / choosing courses / etc.

      - Nepotism, close relative to corruption, is all spanning.

      - the formal side of running a company is anti-geared towards some small ambitiuos startups (luckily EU influence & direct support initiatives are changing that)

      - something which wraps all of the above - people who don't fit prefer to simply leave; it's not really a matter of lack of jobs in IT sector here, more a matter of not seeing interesting perspectives (not limited only to jobs). And it's not a new thing either - throughout most of XIX and XX century undesirables were quite "compelled" to live abroad, in some periods outright killed.

      PS. About my nickname - it's actually a name of pet rabbit belonging to my female friend of distant past; when I was finally making an account after few years of lurking, everything else that has a meaning, to me, and it's more sensible, was already taken ;P Hm, I think I didn't even realise about "Snoopy" thing...

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
  16. In Finland too, back in 2007 by Zarhan · · Score: 3, Informative

    The biggest apartment building in nordic countries, when undergoing renovation, was set up in a similar fashion...see http://www.mikontalolights.fi/en/

    Includes a video.

  17. Only four colours? by phyreskull · · Score: 1

    Would it be much more difficult to have a full-colour RGB display? Why restrict yourself to only five colours (including black), especially with so few pixels?

    1. Re:Only four colours? by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      Probablly not that much harder, as I see it there are two main issues

      1: getting bulbs the right colors for a good RGB mix. In particular you want quite high saturation colors (close to pure spectrals) which means more loss in the coloring.
      2: you would have to design the control boards to be able to dim rather than just switch (using commercial stage dimmer packs would probablly be probibitively expensive).

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  18. B.E.E.R.??? by harduser · · Score: 1

    P.I.W.O. stands for Potezny Indeksowany Wyswietlacz Oknowy which means Huge Indexed Window Display. How would you make B.E.E.R. out of it?

    1. Re:B.E.E.R.??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      "Piwo" as a word in Polish means beer.

    2. Re:B.E.E.R.??? by curmudgeon99 · · Score: 0, Redundant

      The Russian word for beer is 'PIVA' and Polish and Russian are quite close.

    3. Re:B.E.E.R.??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      piwo + google image search confirms this thorogughly. Also: nsfw

  19. easter egg at 7:00 by Kargoroth · · Score: 1

    heh... yeah im being immature i know

  20. I love this stuff!! by elkto · · Score: 1

    Sweet! I used to put things like that together for bands in my day.
    Incandescent lamps response times suck, I wonder if they biased them a little as it can help dramatically.
    What did they use SCR's, Triac's, MOSFET's? Looks like a bank of opto isolators to Triac's in the photos.
    Cool!

  21. Frank's 2000' TV by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Looks like Frank got his 2000' TV delivered.

  22. Originally from Hungary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, the Schonherz Dormitory on Budapest has been doing this since 2003... Although I don't know how far did they get with color display since then (it started out monochrome). My guess is that the Polish copied the idea. Of course I have to admit they did a splendid job. :-)
    The original idea wasn't even Hungarian: AFAIK the first building dot-matrix display was created on MIT in 1993.

  23. What a shock by kilodelta · · Score: 1

    This puts the students at Brown University turning the SciLi into a giant tetris game to shame.

  24. Already done in november 1995 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ok, done in black and white:
    http://www.etv.tudelft.nl/vereeniging/archief/lustrum/90/
    Select "Tetris Record" from the menu. It's still nice to see those projects.

  25. Maybe this will answer the great question... by AP31R0N · · Score: 1

    How many Polacks does it take to screw in a few hundred light bulbs and wire them into a computer?

    (joking aside... neat stuff)

    --
    Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
    1. Re:Maybe this will answer the great question... by Phoghat · · Score: 1

      Do you also use the words: kike,guinea,spic or that ever popular "N" word?

      --
      Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
  26. Operating System? by mathman47 · · Score: 1

    Details, I need details. Operating system. Hardware. Software language. Lines of code. Was it in English or Polish. Miles of cable. Google needs better a better translator; it is almost impossible to read; maybe it should count as a funny post. My cleaning lady comes Wednesday - should I ask her to redo this?

    --
    "There are good ships, and there are wood ships, the ships that sail the sea. But the best ships are friendships, and ma
  27. Should put to rest by Phoghat · · Score: 1

    As a third generation of of Polish descent, I hope this puts to rest at least some Dumb Polish Jokes. Thomas J. Sobieski II B.S. Pharm. D R. Ph.

    --
    Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
  28. Congradulations, you're 9 years late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This linux based installation was mid-2000. That required "custom circuit boards" - today you could simply do it with a zwave mesh.

    http://news.cnet.com/2100-1040-239433.html

    As pointed out, the installation in Berlin was 2001.