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Replace Your Windows With LCD Panels 380

Posted by timothy from the but-how-do-the-local-burglars-look? dept.
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?"
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Replace Your Windows With LCD Panels More

Replace Your Windows With LCD Panels

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  • You could always (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:13PM (#10251064)
    Hook up a webcam and put it right outside.

    • Re:You could always (Score:5, Interesting)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) * on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:19PM (#10251107)
      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 (Score:5, Interesting)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:39PM (#10251261) Homepage Journal
        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 (Score:5, Funny)

          by ePhil_One ( 634771 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:42PM (#10251289) Journal
          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:Ob simpsons (Score:5, Funny)

            by RsG ( 809189 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @09:10PM (#10251859)
            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.

        • Re:You could always (Score:5, Informative)

          by jackbird ( 721605 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:58PM (#10251428)
          Imagine if your window were instead an LCD panel. Suddenly you could get a near-perfect blackout ...

          Expensive Solution [dmdisplay.com]

          Cheap Solution [google.com].

        • Re:You could always (Score:4, Interesting)

          by QuietGeek ( 717837 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @09:06PM (#10251840)
          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 [fullspectr...utions.com] 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 (Score:5, Interesting)

        by mikael ( 484 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @08:03PM (#10251460)
        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 (Score:5, Funny)

      by corian ( 34925 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @10:47PM (#10252522)
      Hook up a webcam and put it right outside. ...on a twelve-hour delay. Perfect way to amuse/confuse your houstguests.

  • Coralized Link (Score:5, Informative)

    by BobPaul ( 710574 ) * on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:14PM (#10251067) Journal
    Seeing as this was slow to load in the mysterious future, here's a coral cache of the link... [nyud.net]

  • Too late (Score:5, Funny)

    by mindriot ( 96208 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:14PM (#10251070)
    Sorry, I already replaced my Windows with Linux.

    SCNR

    • Re:Too late (Score:3, Funny)

      by einhverfr ( 238914 )
      Funny. This is exactly how I read the headline the first time....

      Now, it is talking about replacing your windows with Linux running LCD streeming video. But not your MS Windows....

      Slashdot just got Weird.....

  • People with glass windows (Score:5, Funny)

    by savagedome ( 742194 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:14PM (#10251072)
    I had particularly ugly neighbors

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

  • News For Nerds?? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:15PM (#10251081)
    This can't be right...TFA contains an article of a (presumably) real, live, breathing girl!

    What have you done with my Slashdot??

    /ducks

  • Absolutely Amazing (Score:3, Interesting)

    by erick99 ( 743982 ) <homerun@gmail.com> on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:16PM (#10251087)
    If nothing else, go look at this just to see the panels installed and "lit up." He does a good job explaining how he did this (it took about a year). The eight 15" LCD panels make two faux windows look stunning! I am impressed at folks that can imagine something like this and have the courage (and wallet) to see it through.

    Cheers,

    Erick

    • Re:Absolutely Amazing (Score:5, Funny)

      by pla ( 258480 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:28PM (#10251170) Journal
      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!

      • Re:Absolutely Amazing (Score:2, Informative)

        by xlv ( 125699 )

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


        It's not that complicated to find out... www.hoagy.org resolves as 208.184.121.21 which is is also 208.184.121.21.above.net so from that you should be able to figure out where it's hosted.

        Tools like http://samspade.org/ [samspade.org] are pretty useful for quickly finding more info on a host/IP address.

    • It looks like that the LCD panels were cast-offs from work. nVidia four DVI port Quadros aren't too expensive on eBay. Nothing else looks expensive.

  • I hope the headline is inaccurate (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    After all, you'll be the one having fun jumping through an LCD panel in an emergency.

    Of course, the person that originally thought this up knew that, which is why he added fake windows instead of real ones.

  • Cruel but awesome........ (Score:5, Funny)

    by ARRRLovin ( 807926 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:19PM (#10251108)
    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? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by davidc ( 91400 ) <cdpuff&gmail,com> on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:20PM (#10251116)
    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...
  • right now it's probably now very cost friendly for most people. In the future though, I can imagine city dwelling people, maybe someone in New York/L.A. etc, just outright boarding up all the windows. Replace them with an array of LCD's that have a live or recorded image of the beautiful countryside, or mountainous range of colorado.... moving from dusk to dawn, to give the sense of realtime scenery.

    I couldn't think of a better escape from the urban nightmare that I live in right now. If it were aff
    • one problem: When was the last time a 'beautiful countryside' sounded like a freakin highway?
    • right now it's probably now very cost friendly for most people

      If you could embed hardware into the frame (all firmware), and then have a USB port to load images/video, you could just hang it on the wall and update the screen by swapping out a USB key-chain sized drive.

      I think this idea has a market. College dorms, crappy apartments, etc.

  • Translucency? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mind21_98 ( 18647 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:22PM (#10251132) Homepage Journal
    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? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by wass ( 72082 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @08:32PM (#10251660)
      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? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Keighvin ( 166133 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @09:16PM (#10251883)
      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.
    • 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.

  • Replacing Neighbors (Score:5, Funny)

    by Snap E Tom ( 128447 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:22PM (#10251134)
    Now he can have some porn chick neighbors!
  • At the CEDIA Expo in Indianapolis last week, Sony actually had a booth like this where on the outside they had video screens that looked like Windows into the booth. Don't know what they used, though. I didn't even look close enough to see if they were LCDs or not.
  • Wasnt there a SDL demo of split video? As I recall most graphics packages use split video support as a dog and pony show. Heres hoping it doesnt look like a donky show!
  • 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?

  • Depth? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PreDefined ( 787636 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:26PM (#10251148)
    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.
    • Nevermind that your view won't pan around as you move around. Could be a bit disconcerting. Still kinda cool.

    • Re:Depth? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by bergeron76 ( 176351 ) * on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @08:40PM (#10251705) Homepage
      Be patient. This is only a first step. What do you want a NASA rendering?

      It will take a project like this to lead to a project where the image actually changes as a viewer passes (as you portend). On his website he clearly mentions that he's [going to be] working on a motion video version when the hardware is available. Using wireless tech and pioneers like this guy it's easy to think someday that will be possible.

      I think it's a fantastic project and a great hack; I'd be very thrilled if it was in my home.

  • Creative (Score:2, Funny)

    by comwiz56 ( 447651 )
    This has to be one of the most creative uses of technology I've seen on /. Great job!

    Now theres gotta be some really funny/interesting images you could put on those? How about a bunch of people peering in (add some speakers and you could really scare some houseguests)?

    Also, does the computer change brightness/images to match the time of day?

  • Windows Blue Screen? (Score:5, Funny)

    by MonkeyCookie ( 657433 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:27PM (#10251153)
    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.
    • Or even better... you can have the window play a video. A guest will be enjoying the sight of trees swaying in the wind or something, and some thug-looking guy will suddenly be looking in the window, scaring the crap out of them.

      Oh, the mischief you could make with those things!
  • ...is to put up a white sheet on your window and then aim a nice bright projector at it. This lets your neighbors enjoy your video (albeit inverted left-to-right) and works suprisingly well.

  • Cruise ship's inside cabins (Score:5, Interesting)

    by usefool ( 798755 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:27PM (#10251160) Homepage
    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.
  • The reason for two windows instead of one is simply because the best place for them in my house is on that wall and the fireplace limits things significantly

    He says the fireplace limits things significantly but I don't understand how it limits him to two windows instead of one. Was he going to make a huge window but the fireplace limited the space? Couldn't he have put it on another wall? It's a little odd having a window above a fireplace, that isn't looking directly inside of your chimney. Although

  • Disturbing... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by saturnino ( 304908 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:29PM (#10251172) Homepage
    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?!

  • X.ORG + Xinerama will let you do this. (Score:5, Informative)

    by reality-bytes ( 119275 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:29PM (#10251177) Homepage
    If you simply have multiple PCIE cards in the same system, X.ORG [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).
  • Can you imagine your parents visiting and you click on that porn video file by mistake. Your parents would be able to see the wild sex outside the window!!


  • "The only reason the cables are visible is becase the stupid fireplace is in the way and that wall isn't due to be remodeled for quite a while."

    What, he didn't notice the fireplace *before* he started the project?
  • I think I would probably loop "Mars Attacks" on them when my mother in law was over.
  • Who saw this and thought "Now wouldn't this be great for porn?"

  • Back to the Future (Score:3, Funny)

    by Zordak ( 123132 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:36PM (#10251232) Homepage Journal
    Am I the only one reminded of Back to the Future II, where they have this exact thing in the house (except its broken, 'cause Michael J. Fox's character is poor).

    A fun side project: Hook these up to a high-end SGI machine, install a digital camcorder to film the real view out your window, and replace your ugly neighbors with attractive digital characters in real time.

  • To those sweet 3D LCD screens once they become more commonplace. Think about how cool that would be!

    My bedroom doesn't have much in the way of windows, so this would be awesome. With the prices of LCD's dropping the way they are, anyone could do this.

    And if you used normal VGA/DVI screens, not weird custom signal ones like ones he has, it would be super easy to do.

    Good job!
  • Forget it. Wait another 5years of moores law and come again. Or buy a a SERIOUS sgi machine (the onyx 4 could do it, but only with 8+cpus) with a storage network that can deliver the needed 150MByte+ video datarate...

  • Here's a suggestion, follow electrical codes. (Score:5, Informative)

    by deathcow ( 455995 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:37PM (#10251246)

    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? (Score:5, Funny)

    by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) ( 613870 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:39PM (#10251259) Journal
    I ask because mirrors are fairly inexpensive.

  • Fantasy scapes? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by JThundley ( 631154 )
    I can't wait until this guy gets really creative and creates some "alternative" landscapes for the windows, such as:

    Space (orbiting planets, floating in space, flying through space)
    Hell
    Underwater
    Psychadelic
    Riots
    Sea
    Wild West

    damn, I ran out of ideas quicky :(

  • A suggestion (Score:3, Insightful)

    by 26199 ( 577806 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:45PM (#10251313) Homepage

    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 :-)

  • 15" LCD monitors (8x$275.95) - $2207.60
    Nvidia Quadro4 PCI video cards (2x$102.00) - $204.00
    Windows frames (2x$500?) - $1000.00
    Decent computer - $1500.00
    Misc. Parts(wires, brackets, etc) - $250.00
    Grand estimated total - $5161.60

    ...and this is probably a low estimate.

    Sheesh!! If I have some extra cash I can afford the "good" beer and only hope the view from my window looks better.... must be nice

    • It's more like this:
      15" LCD monitors (8x$0) - $0 Nvidia Quadro4 PCI video cards (2x$102.00) - $204.00 Windows frames (2x$20max) - $40.00 Decent computer - $600.00 Misc. Parts(wires, brackets, etc) - $250.00 Grand estimated total - $1094.00

      Even cheaper if he had the computer laying around. The window frames were just custom wood frames. Dirt cheap for materials.

  • Wardriving! (Score:5, Funny)

    by xsupergr0verx ( 758121 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:48PM (#10251343)
    I wish this technology was consumer and commonplace. Then you could wardrive someone's network and goatse all their LCD windows...

    • Re:Wardriving! (Score:4, Funny)

      by zulux ( 112259 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @08:10PM (#10251514) Homepage Journal
      Then you could wardrive someone's network and goatse all their LCD windows...

      That just great....Goatse.cx is now also a verb?

      I'll be sure to slip that into any ESL curriculum that I can:

      Verb: Goatsecx (Irregular)

      I goatse
      You goatsecx
      He/She goatsecx
      We goatsexes
      They goatseces

      Examples:

      Bob goatsexed the other day - and now has trouble sitting in a chair.
      The whole family spent a evening goatsecing - and now nobody can find the TV remote.
  • How about using the new video card now in the Apple PowerMac G5's to power the Apple 30" LCD Screen? I think it's the GForce 9800 or something but my number may be off. It has 2 dual DVI outputs, so you can probably do one window with it anyway.

  • Ugly Neighbors?! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Geburah ( 610977 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:50PM (#10251361)
    - 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 [mapquest.com] verifies this address is real

    - Terraserver [terraserver.com] 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. :)

  • Airflow... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by krahd ( 106540 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:51PM (#10251367) Homepage Journal
    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

  • old vcr trick (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Chuck Bucket ( 142633 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:55PM (#10251398) Homepage Journal
    this reminds me of the old VCR tapes, the ones you could get that were just of burning logs, or of a fish aquairum; it would look like you had something you didn't. of course back then the tech wasn't nearly what it was today, so a window of a strange outdoor scene could produce the needed 'wow' factor that previously was unattainable.

    CBLJKSDF

  • VLC will split (Score:5, Informative)

    by no_such_user ( 196771 ) <jd-slashdot-2007 ... ay.com minus bsd> on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @07:56PM (#10251407)
    I was playing with VideoLAN [videolan.org] 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!

  • Dude! (Score:3, Funny)

    by kvn ( 64836 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @08:01PM (#10251449)
    Apply for a patent! You could sell tons of these things! Your target market would be the people who use weather applets (or web pages) to see what the weather is like, rather than GOING/LOOKING OUTSIDE.

    After all, there are plenty of people with more money than sense.

    Super cool hardware hack, though...

  • Another impractical mod (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Trogre ( 513942 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @08:05PM (#10251477) Homepage
    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.

  • from the article.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by the-build-chicken ( 644253 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @08:05PM (#10251478)
    Boy, Julie was sorry to have said that she wanted to help solder. [snip: picture of girl soldering]

    It's quite amazing the length geeks will go to in order to prove to other /.ers that they really do have a girlfriend.

  • the video-whale project (Score:4, Interesting)

    by croddy ( 659025 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @08:54PM (#10251786)
    the video-whale project [freedesktop.org] [gstreamer.freedesktop.org]

  • But if he was a real geek (Score:5, Funny)

    by geekoid ( 135745 ) <dadinportlandNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @09:08PM (#10251850) Homepage Journal
    he would have something besides a sunset.Well maybe a sunset, but not one from Earth!

  • Distopian (Score:5, Insightful)

    by haggar ( 72771 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @09:31PM (#10251945) Homepage Journal
    Just look this pic [hoagy.org]

    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.

  • Apple cinema display? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by moosesocks ( 264553 ) on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @09:57PM (#10252118) Homepage
    Slightly off-topic, but the (partially assembled) LCD display under Step 1 is either an Apple Cinema Display or an Apple Studio Display. (With a transparent case -- to my knowledge, apple never made any monitors with a completely transparent bezel)

    Interesting -- a possible source of his LCD Panels :-)

  • One thing to be careful of... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Metasquares ( 555685 ) <slashdot.metasquared@com> on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @10:15PM (#10252276) Homepage
    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.

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