But then I found an even simpler and less expensive option at SparkFun: a thumbnail-size gesture sensor ($15) built around Avago’s APDS-9960 chip. The Pi has a dedicated header on its logic board for a camera, and my first thought was to use that. Once OSMC was up and running, I tackled the problem of controlling the flow of images without a wireless mouse or keyboard. In the end I settled on OSMC, an open-source media center recently ported to the Pi. Of the many picture-display programs available for the Pi, none seemed to have all the capabilities I needed: the ability to loop through all the image files in a nested folder structure transition smoothly from one to the next after a customizable interval, scaling each image to fill the screen and importantly, the ability to accept input from a sensor connected to the Pi’s general-purpose input/output (GPIO) interface. The image-handling software was trickier. It took a little careful surgery with a Dremel tool on the monitor case to make room for the Pi’s power cable, but everything then fit nice and snug. I mounted the Pi inside an enclosure, hung it on two small bolts that I had screwed into the back of the monitor, and connected it to the display. Hanging on a $10 VideoSecu ultraslim wall mount, the back face of the flat panel is only 5 centimeters away from the wall-more than enough space for the computer that I chose to be the brains of the frame, a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B ($73, including a 32-gigabyte microSD card, power supply, and Wi-Fi dongle). I chose a Viewsonic VA2451M LED display which, for US $170, had all these features, plus downward-facing interface ports from its rear power supply and logic board. I needed an energy-efficient HD monitor of at least 24 inches with good color fidelity, high brightness, wall-mounting holes, and a thin, unobtrusive bezel. I wanted to control it without buttons or a mouse, and to load art onto it easily through a shared network folder. I also wanted a frame that could look nice on a wall without cables dangling from it. But I wanted something large enough to show the art at near-original size consumer digital picture frames have displays that top out at around 18 inches. Wayt Gibbs (2)īut then I remembered Gates: Why not display them all in a single “frame” and switch among them as I liked? Of course I could simply buy a digital photo frame designed for displaying family snapshots. Images were stored on and displayed by a Raspberry Pi (middle), which translated commands sent by a gesture sensor (bottom). Unlike 20 years ago, today good-quality, high-definition, flat-panel displays, such as this 24-inch Viewsonic (top), are available at a reasonable price. And I don’t have enough wall space to hang them. But it would cost thousands of dollars to have them all professionally framed. They are terrific I’d love to put them up. But as I was straightening up a closet this spring I found a portfolio full of prints and drawings she had given me years ago. Over the years I have framed and hung quite a few of her paintings. The impetus to build my own digital art frame came from my mother, Sylvia Gibbs, a professional artist. Recently I decided to find out whether that day has arrived. Gates predicted that the day would come when almost any middle-class American family could enjoy this kind of technology. Now that, I remember thinking, is something I would like. These digital art frames could even react as you walked past, no button pushing required. In his book The Road Ahead he described how large monitors in the house would display great works of art, changing every day. Some 20 years ago, Bill Gates was the king of computing, and not above boasting about his new high-tech house.
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