Staticfree Blog

I have been working on a design for a noon-at-the-top 24h analog clock. It is going to become a real clock for our kitchen, as soon as I buy the hardware for it and get the face printed.

For fun, I decided to animate the SVG source so that it displays the current time in your browser. You can see the smaller, live version of the clock that should work in quality browsers such as Firefox.

Of course, this is all released under an open-ish license (non-commercial), so feel free to hack away! See the project page for more details.

Update: I've updated the design to version 2.1 so that it works better across platforms. Apparently the text-on-path feature isn't reliable for spacing things out. This new version seems a bit more readable from a distance, too.

I just completed my first IR webcam mod, loosely following the simple directions found on this forum: open it up, scrape off the infrared filter from the lens with a screwdriver, add a visible light filter (in my case, a Wratten 87), and finally close again. This particular webcam (Intel CS-330) is nice for experimentation in that it has an adjustable lens for focusing close up on things.

I modified the directions slightly, so I could preserve as much image quality as I could manage. Instead of scraping off the old filter with a screwdriver, I opted for 600 grit sandpaper (use higher if you can find it) and a little veggie oil (I think you're supposed to use mineral oil, but this is all I had).

So far, it works! So far, I haven't had much to look at yet as almost all our apartment's lighting is compact fluorescent and emits little IR. The above photo was taken in my bathroom with the only remaining incandescent light bulbs. Of course, my shirt and hat are both black, despite them showing up as bright white and grey (respectively) in the photo.

Once I get some daylight, I'll be posting many more photos to this gallery. As I have a lot of the Wratten 87 filter left, I may mod a more portable camera as well for experimentation in the wild. I was able to see quite a bit with just the Wratten 87 filter held in front of my Nokia 6103's camera (that photo was taken during the day).