Technabob » time lapse

Minecraft Fyre Server Train Station: a Long Way from Digging Holes and Riding Carts

Lambert Varias — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:11:29 +0000

When I first saw Minecraft, I wasn’t really blown away by the game. Not even a slight metaphorical breeze hit me. Now at any given moment there are about 3.5 bajillion Minecraft players that are capable of vaporizing my skull with their creativity and passion. The mods are great, but for me nothing beats a good old construction project, like this massive train station by the folks at the Fyre Server.

The inhabitants of the Fyre Server modeled their train station after Penn Station in New York City, and used Minecraft forum member Doku’s retro texture packs. Unfortunately the folks didn’t share much else about their project, like exactly how many of them worked on it or the total number of (virtual and actual) days and nights they spent working on it. Fortunately they captured most of their construction on video:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Wow. Just wow. ~~I really wish we knew more about this project.~~ *UPDATE* As commenter Ryan pointed out below, the FyreUK team recently uploaded a video tour of the train station. I think it’s as fascinating as the one above, especially since we get to hear details about the project, delivered in the elegant English accent.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It also makes you think about how buildings and structures are made in real life doesn’t it? Check out Fyre Server’s website for more info and videos.

[via Dump]

Roombas Make Dazzling Time-Lapse Light Paintings

Technabob — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:43:45 +0000

Ever wonder what sort of stuff was running through the electronic brain of your Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner? These wonderful time-lapse photos should give you a pretty good idea of what your Roomba has been up to.

These amazing photographs were made by strapping a colored LED to the top of Roomba vacuums and then capturing extra-long exposure photos (known as “light paintings”). It’s sort of like looking at a neon Spirograph and spider web rolled into one. I’ve posted a few of my favorites in the gallery below…

You can check out the complete archive of Roomba light art over at the Roomba Art Flickr pool. My Hoover definitely can’t do this.

[via New World Geek via Make:]

Brinno Gardenwatchcam: Time-Lapse Digital Garden Camera Shoots Video Slightly More Interesting Than Watching Paint Dry

Technabob — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:50:58 +0000

Want to know if your green thumb is really green? This nifty garden gadget lets you keep watch over your budding plants 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from across the globe if you want.

The Brinno GardenWatchCam observes your flowers as they grow, taking time lapse digital photos at intervals ranging from 1 minute to 24 hours apart. Just set the camera in front of your plants, set the desired interval, and start capturing your garden as it takes shape. You can also include time and date stamps on your images if you want. Here’s an example video taken from the GardenWatchCam’s time lapse images.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The camera is designed to take 1.2 megapixel macro images from as little as 20-inches away from your subject, or can be set to a distance focus mode for plants more than 20 inches away. Images are captured in JPEG format and can be saved into an AVI video file, and you can store up to 2GB of pictures on any USB flash drive. The camera runs on 4-AA batteries and should be able to shoot images for 4 to 6 months depending on the interval you set.

Of course, you don’t have to use it to shoot time lapse videos of flowers. Pretty much anything that takes a long time to happen is a potential subject…

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

You can find the GardenWatchCam over at Amazon for $139.99 (USD). More example videos can be seen here.