LMCE Photobooth

[krys]

Alright guys I need some help.
I am trying to figure out the best way to implement an idea that I have. I am throwing a huge party a few months from now and I want to turn one of my spare rooms into a "Photo Booth". Maybe have a cool background and what not, I want this whole deal to be fully automated so I dont need to mess with anything during my party. Here is what I want it to do.

1. Some sort of High Res camera on a tripod (web cam, usb cam, firewire cam etc)
2. LCD screen either right below or above camera (LCD screen will be the "viewfinder" facing the sujects so they can preview)
3. button on the LCD screen that starts a timer for maybe a 5 sec countdown till the system captures the picture
4. save the photos that are taken into the photo slideshow folder and marked to view on the slideshow

So effectively my guests can walk into the room, click the start button, pose for the picture, picture snaps, and shows up on all my photo slideshows throughout the house.

[tschak909]

_That's_ creative.

-Thom

[sambuca]

ooh, I like that idea..

I'll assume you will use a PC of some sorts to take the pictures and show the preview, although you don't mention that specifically.

Regarding 1. to 3. I suppose it might be possible to patch something together using various linux programs, but other might be able to give you more pointers.
I think 4. would easily be accomplished by having the pictures folder mounted to the computer, and using MessageSend or SQL directly to make the files with "use as screensaver". Perhaps create a add_to_screensaver.sh script that is called when the picture has been taken.

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out.

br,
sambuca

[krys]

Yes I didnt mention that I have an extra MD that I will be using to control the photobooth. I would like to have a solution that is integrated into LMCE, but would also be willing just to run something off of KDE if need be.

[colinjones]

cool idea!

[donpaul]

You could probably use a linux or winblows laptop with a webcam and snapshot software - set the save directory to the public LinuxMCE samba or NFS share. I am sure a developer could give you a command to run on the console to add a picture to pluto's screensaver (rather than having to go through the web admin). You could then set up cron to run that command every 30 seconds or so. I think it could be done pretty easily.

And I agree, a very creative idea!

[jimmejames]

Did you get this working?  I would like to do a similar thing, but for a wedding reception.

[krys]

No i got side tracked and didn't have a chance to get it working.