Homemade Digital Picture Frames?

kato writes: "I've been searching for months for the right parts to make a digital picture frame for my wall. I'm not trying to mount an entire PC in a frame, so I think an old laptop would be overkill. I've heard about devices such as the Audrey made by 3COM, the AOL Touchpad made by Gateway, the Cieva picture frame, and a few others, but each has its faults. Some are impossible to find, some require a service, and some aren't yet "hacked." I'd like the price to be cheap (under $100), the picture to be about 10" diagonally, and to be able to connect to the device (modem or network). Now that the MIT flea market is over, I'm stuck trying to find the parts online. I'm leaning towards the AOL Touchpad, which runs Mobile Linux, but no one has posted any attempts on how to get rid of AOL. Anyone have any ideas or success stories?" An earlier question pointed out this site, but I suppose buying one would take all the fun out of it. You also need to watch out for "subscription to our service required" frames...

Re:Buy a Color printer.

[trilucid]

You make a good point there. The price/performance ration isn't terribly good at the moment for this sort of thing in general.

The Gyricon system looks extremely cool! Of course, I'd want the "paper" to be re-writable more than a few thousand times (to allow for fun stuff like streaming MPEG movies, so I wouldn't burn out my display in a few seconds ;) ). Xerox has a history of backing up their "promises" with proof, so I'll eagerly wait in antici... PAtion (sorry, gratuitous movie reference).

Now, there is always the possibility of checking around with local hospital systems for "old hardware" that they're tossing out. A couple of years ago, I managed to secure two 21" monitors and a couple of decent PCs from a hospital that had decided the hardware was "obsolete". True, they really ought to have been giving the stuff away to charity of educational insititutions, but they were literally thowing the monitors in the dumpster. Now, I just need to carve up my wall with a saw...

Re:Buy a Color printer.

[Registered Coward v2]

Second, you lose the ability to cycle through pictures on the fly.

Well, you could put the pictures in page protectors, and then assemble a set in a three ring binder. Tape the binder to the wall, put all the pages at the top, and you'll cycle through the pictures. Adjusting the friction with some tape allows you to adjust the cycle speed. Benefits;

1. No external electrical power requirements
2. Puting pictures back to back in the page protectors allows 2 pics to be viewed at once.
3. When a picture of your ex scrolls throw that you forgot to pull, you can throw a dart at it w/o worrying about breaking an expensive LCD screen.

Re:Buy a Color printer.

[Weird Dave]

Shouldn't a grammar nazi know the difference between a ratio and a ration? Anyways, his comment seems to be bunk. A high quality photograph or print can be both very reflective and very absorbant (light-wise).

Besides, pictures look different on all of todays monitors because the colors and brightness of the phosphors (or LCD pixel) can vary a lot. I don't care to guess about the output of a cheap color printer, but I know that print shops can put out a much greater range of color than a computer screen.

Re:Buy a Color printer.

[Mike1024]

Hey,

I may just be a wierdo for thinking so, but a big advantage of the digital device would be the ability to incorporate it into some "instant room theming" system.

Yeah. You could have a touchscreen inside your front door, so if you bring a girl home, all your porn posters are replaced by tastful modern art. That'd be useful.

Well, it would be useful if any /.ers ever had girls visiting thier homes.

On a serious note, It'd be cool if you could hack your picture frames to show streaming media (some use Linux and ethernet, no?) then you could have a TV input card on a computer, and if you went to the kitchen to get a snack, you wouldn't have to miss the program.

Michael

Re:Wallpaper

[_ph1ux_]

great - just what we need goatse.cx plastered all over my enitre wall.

Re:Buy a Color printer.

[mmol_6453]

Not to mention that I use my CRT as a general light source at night...