top of page

Work in progress

Raspberry Pi Photo Booth

As part of my degree, I had to come up with a project to work on for my fourth year. I was finding it difficult to narrow down what I wanted to work on. That was until I stumbled across the amazing work that is being done by UX Designers. 

I went about brainstorming and researching what I could do. I have always been intrigued by Raspberry Pi. For such a small computer, you can make some truly great things from it such as a security system or an AI assistant. 

For my project, I decided to make a stop motion camera. As I had never used a Pi before, I had to learn a lot of new skills. I decided to use Python as my script but that was something I also had to learn from scratch. The whole idea behind my project was that I would be able to make my own stop motion camera using the Pi and to illustrate how this would work, I made a stop motion video. 

 

Stop

Motion

Camera

This stop motion piece was made using pieces of old computer hardware. My idea when making the video was to keep everything within the same theme as the Raspberry Pi; technology. In the end, we can see the computer pieces join up to make a stick person holding a camera. 
This whole piece was shot solely from just using the Raspberry Pi and a Pi camera module.
As my eight-semester began and after much brainstorming, I decided to transform my stop motion camera into a photo booth. This time there will be the added feature of a thermal printer and a screen connected to the Pi. 
The theme of the photo booth is 1970s disco and it is based on pseudoscience ideas, Kirlian Photography. 
Kirlian Photography suggests that if enough electrical current is applied to photo film and a conducting plate, we can take pictures of a person's aura. 
​
Kirlian_Photography_Cross_Section.png
Kirlian Photography setup

Photo

Booth

However, due to unforeseen circumstances, my idea had to change.  As I was working from home, I decided to do a screen-based version of the photobooth. To make this work, I used Processing. When you open the program it enables your webcam. From there, you click to take your picture which will then show the colour of your aura and then by pressing the 'a' button on your keyboard, it shows you what traits are associated with that colour. As I am transferring this project to being screen-based, I have been able to develop a whole new set of skills. These include scripting and HTML. 

Now

Screen

Based

Code.png
Here is an example of the code used
example.png
Here is an example of the program in action
bottom of page