Originally published at Daniel Spisak on Technology. You can comment here or there.
r built-in camera to the Internet, live, while receiving feedback in real-time from viewers on the Qik website. Qik also enables users to easily share and upload their videos to other video-centric websites like YouTube, Seesmic, and Mogulus while offering integration and notification to Pownce, Twitter, and Blogger.
Think about that for a moment there. Live video to the web, with viewer feedback. Real-time.
Video taken from RSA 2008 keynote using Qik and Nokia N82, handheld
This is the kind of use for advanced technology that allows one to talk about enabling citizen journalism on a massive scale without getting laughed out of a room full of journalism majors, or worse, broadcasters. However, one point that established media types will bring up is the concept of GIGO. Garbage in, garbage out. People used to watching news on major broadcast networks have a very high expectation of quality when it comes the the finished video product. Conversely, people who go to video websites like YouTube have a much lower expectation of quality because they don't see it as competing with television or other traditional broadcast networks.
What does this mean for something like Qik however? It means that if people are going to use this application for something more serious then the more trendy lifecasting applications there has to be a concerned effort to work at improving the quality of the video output to Qik both in content and in raw video quality also. Improving the content of Qik videos is something that is outside of the scope of this article, but improving the raw video quality from Qik is not.
The biggest problem with getting good video out of these phones comes from the fact that they are, in essence, phones. There are camcorders that take better video, cameras which shoot better quality pictures, in essence these phones are technological compromises albeit getting less compromised with each revision. One of the biggest complaints about video quality however arises from Jerky-Cam(tm) a.k.a hand-holding the phone and not holding it steady enough. This has a two-fold effect on the video due to compression being done on the video. First, the video becomes more and more garbled as the codec struggles to keep the output video within the boundaries of the bandwidth limits its settings. Secondly, this additional movement causes the codec to spend more bits encoding movement leaving less bits available for detail in the scene.
The easiest way to combat shaky-cam is to mount the camera onto a tripod, yet this introduces some issues that are unique to the mobile video world I suspect. Chief among these is portability, after all we are talking about taking a small phone and now having to lug around a tripod that is many times the size and weight of the phone itself. More important however is the fact that the phone manufactures havent seen fit to add a standard 1/4" screw thread mount point to their cameraphones, making use on photographic or video tripods more problematic then it should be.
Partially extended Manfrotto 682B monopod
After looking around the market for solutions to this problem I had a brainstorm and came up with the following solution that I think is a good first step towards getting better video out of Qik and other video applications on the cameraphone in the future. Manfrotto is a well known and respected manufacturer of tripods, monopods, and other gear for photo and video professionals. As it turns out they make a self-standing monopod, the 682B, that lets you have a free-standing monopod. While this is not as stable a platform as a traditional tripod would be it is significantly lighter, smaller, and more portable then others. Using this as a platform for a Nokia N82 for use in Qik is a good compromise between size, weight, and stiffness. However, even using the monopod we still need a way to mount the cameraphone on. This is where the Nokia DT-22 universal tabletop tripod comes in. It comes with a screw-tight clamp that fits most all N series phones and easily detaches from the tabletop tripod and will screw onto a standard 1/4" camera screw. If you wish to point the camera at various angles you will want to invest in an inexpensive ball mount for the monopod like the Manfrotto 484RC2 mini-ball head with quick-release plate mount.
View of N82 from the front of the Monopod
However, we still have some other issues to address that are more difficult to handle with a mobile phone device. These devices are not equipped with the kinds of designs or battery life that enable them to take video for long periods of time, say and hour or more. Most of these phones would be bricks within the inside of an hour of doing live streaming video to the Internet. Because of this we also need a portable power supply to help augment our phones internal battery. This is where the PPC Techs Lil'Sync USB battery power supply comes in. It's a 4400mah rated Li-Ion battery and it charges via mini-USB and can charge one device via a regular USB port. Combine this with a Nokia CA-100 USB to DC charging cable for your N series Nokia phone and you now have a way to keep the battery lasting longer f
or video recording.
Velcro backing to hold Lil'Sync to Nokia DT-22 clamp
Now once you have assembled all these parts you may still have one important hurdle left to jump over if you live in the United States like I do, bandwidth. Unless you are using a Nokia N95-3 or N95-4 model designated for North American usage you will have imported a European GSM phone that has support for 3G networks only on European GSM frequencies and at best will only have access to an EDGE class network for streaming your video over. This means that any attempt to stream video, even if on lower quality settings and a 320x240 resolution in Qik will result in instant building delay between what users on Qik.com see verses what you are seeing in real-time with your phone. It also means getting user feedback will be greatly delayed or nonexistent as well. Short of having an N95 with support for North American 3G networks you will have to rely on WiFi networks for streaming. This works in fixed known locations, but not on the road in random places. For these situations there
is a final part to this solution made by a company called Cradlepoint.
Cradlepoint makes EVDO to WiFi bridge routers, specifically the PHS300 or Personal Hotspot. The PHS300 has a built-in Li-Ion battery for 2-3 hours of use without having to be plugged into an outlet. Using an EVDO USB adapter or a EVDO ExpressCard/34 combined with an ExpressCard/34 to USB adapter along with a subscription to a subsequent EVDO unlimited data plan you can provide a WiFi signal to your Nokia with sufficent upstream bandwidth to support full real-time video streaming.
Nokia N82 with Lil'Sync and CA-100 USB Charge Cable
At this stage I have assembled all of the parts mentioned in here except for the Cradlepoint PHS300 which is my next step. I may have to machine a custom mounting plate to hold the PHS300 and the Lil'Sync onto the camera ball-head mount. I will report back once I have acquired the unit and looked into integrating it into the monopod.
Ultimately however, there are still some issues with the phone as a streaming video platform. Namely, when someone calls you! When using Qik, if you get an incoming phone call your video will stop streaming and you wont be able to restart your video stream until after you get off of the phone, unless you are using WiFi for your streaming connection from what I have seen. The Qik client itself is also undergoing frequent changes and the company and its main coders are rather open to suggestions and enhancements to the program which is great.
Originally published at Daniel Spisak on Technology. You can comment here or there.
r built-in camera to the Internet, live, while receiving feedback in real-time from viewers on the Qik website. Qik also enables users to easily share and upload their videos to other video-centric websites like YouTube, Seesmic, and Mogulus while offering integration and notification to Pownce, Twitter, and Blogger.
Think about that for a moment there. Live video to the web, with viewer feedback. Real-time.
Video taken from RSA 2008 keynote using Qik and Nokia N82, handheld
This is the kind of use for advanced technology that allows one to talk about enabling citizen journalism on a massive scale without getting laughed out of a room full of journalism majors, or worse, broadcasters. However, one point that established media types will bring up is the concept of GIGO. Garbage in, garbage out. People used to watching news on major broadcast networks have a very high expectation of quality when it comes the the finished video product. Conversely, people who go to video websites like YouTube have a much lower expectation of quality because they don't see it as competing with television or other traditional broadcast networks.
What does this mean for something like Qik however? It means that if people are going to use this application for something more serious then the more trendy lifecasting applications there has to be a concerned effort to work at improving the quality of the video output to Qik both in content and in raw video quality also. Improving the content of Qik videos is something that is outside of the scope of this article, but improving the raw video quality from Qik is not.
The biggest problem with getting good video out of these phones comes from the fact that they are, in essence, phones. There are camcorders that take better video, cameras which shoot better quality pictures, in essence these phones are technological compromises albeit getting less compromised with each revision. One of the biggest complaints about video quality however arises from Jerky-Cam(tm) a.k.a hand-holding the phone and not holding it steady enough. This has a two-fold effect on the video due to compression being done on the video. First, the video becomes more and more garbled as the codec struggles to keep the output video within the boundaries of the bandwidth limits its settings. Secondly, this additional movement causes the codec to spend more bits encoding movement leaving less bits available for detail in the scene.
The easiest way to combat shaky-cam is to mount the camera onto a tripod, yet this introduces some issues that are unique to the mobile video world I suspect. Chief among these is portability, after all we are talking about taking a small phone and now having to lug around a tripod that is many times the size and weight of the phone itself. More important however is the fact that the phone manufactures havent seen fit to add a standard 1/4" screw thread mount point to their cameraphones, making use on photographic or video tripods more problematic then it should be.
Partially extended Manfrotto 682B monopod
After looking around the market for solutions to this problem I had a brainstorm and came up with the following solution that I think is a good first step towards getting better video out of Qik and other video applications on the cameraphone in the future. Manfrotto is a well known and respected manufacturer of tripods, monopods, and other gear for photo and video professionals. As it turns out they make a self-standing monopod, the 682B, that lets you have a free-standing monopod. While this is not as stable a platform as a traditional tripod would be it is significantly lighter, smaller, and more portable then others. Using this as a platform for a Nokia N82 for use in Qik is a good compromise between size, weight, and stiffness. However, even using the monopod we still need a way to mount the cameraphone on. This is where the Nokia DT-22 universal tabletop tripod comes in. It comes with a screw-tight clamp that fits most all N series phones and easily detaches from the tabletop tripod and will screw onto a standard 1/4" camera screw. If you wish to point the camera at various angles you will want to invest in an inexpensive ball mount for the monopod like the Manfrotto 484RC2 mini-ball head with quick-release plate mount.
View of N82 from the front of the Monopod
However, we still have some other issues to address that are more difficult to handle with a mobile phone device. These devices are not equipped with the kinds of designs or battery life that enable them to take video for long periods of time, say and hour or more. Most of these phones would be bricks within the inside of an hour of doing live streaming video to the Internet. Because of this we also need a portable power supply to help augment our phones internal battery. This is where the PPC Techs Lil'Sync USB battery power supply comes in. It's a 4400mah rated Li-Ion battery and it charges via mini-USB and can charge one device via a regular USB port. Combine this with a Nokia CA-100 USB to DC charging cable for your N series Nokia phone and you now have a way to keep the battery lasting longer f
or video recording.
Velcro backing to hold Lil'Sync to Nokia DT-22 clamp
Now once you have assembled all these parts you may still have one important hurdle left to jump over if you live in the United States like I do, bandwidth. Unless you are using a Nokia N95-3 or N95-4 model designated for North American usage you will have imported a European GSM phone that has support for 3G networks only on European GSM frequencies and at best will only have access to an EDGE class network for streaming your video over. This means that any attempt to stream video, even if on lower quality settings and a 320x240 resolution in Qik will result in instant building delay between what users on Qik.com see verses what you are seeing in real-time with your phone. It also means getting user feedback will be greatly delayed or nonexistent as well. Short of having an N95 with support for North American 3G networks you will have to rely on WiFi networks for streaming. This works in fixed known locations, but not on the road in random places. For these situations there
is a final part to this solution made by a company called Cradlepoint.
Cradlepoint makes EVDO to WiFi bridge routers, specifically the PHS300 or Personal Hotspot. The PHS300 has a built-in Li-Ion battery for 2-3 hours of use without having to be plugged into an outlet. Using an EVDO USB adapter or a EVDO ExpressCard/34 combined with an ExpressCard/34 to USB adapter along with a subscription to a subsequent EVDO unlimited data plan you can provide a WiFi signal to your Nokia with sufficent upstream bandwidth to support full real-time video streaming.
Nokia N82 with Lil'Sync and CA-100 USB Charge Cable
At this stage I have assembled all of the parts mentioned in here except for the Cradlepoint PHS300 which is my next step. I may have to machine a custom mounting plate to hold the PHS300 and the Lil'Sync onto the camera ball-head mount. I will report back once I have acquired the unit and looked into integrating it into the monopod.
Originally published at Daniel Spisak on Technology. You can comment here or there.
http://www.nonmundane.org/gallery2/v/jasons_30th_bday/
My 31st birthday:
http://www.nonmundane.org/gallery2/v/dans_31st_bday/
Downright @ DiPiazza's 4-14-07:
http://www.nonmundane.org/gallery2/v/downright_show_4-14-07/
Originally published at Daniel Spisak on Technology. You can comment here or there.
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Matt-Stone-And-Trey-Parker-s-
Universal-Training-Video-3625.html
Next up, fucking hilarious country singer patriotic song, lyrics are NOT safe for work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cAChVVVZaM
Did you know that AIDS can save you weight?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7935064058166993925&hl=en
Finally, we have probably the most disturbing gay thing I've ever seen. This video is not safe for work necessarily. Hell, I'm not even sure its safe for anyone. It just really defies all reason and thought. Nothing explicit is shown, its just massive WTF material.
Originally published at Daniel Spisak on Technology. You can comment here or there.
As I write this right now the photos from the three previous events are being uploaded to my photo gallery website and I will provide links here for all to see once they are done uploading.
I want to thank everyone who made it to my birthday party, it was a total blast and I had a lot of fun! In the future I think I will just tell people to show up at 9PM however since no one was there at 7:30PM, but I more or less expected that to happen. I know some people were not able to make it for various reasons but its all cool, people let me know in advance so there wasn't any big surprises there. Jason's birthday party at Dave & Buster's the previous night was a blast also and it was good to get to see him again. Not that I dont see him usually but this quarter is just sort of working out that during the weekdays I have very little time in the evenings to do anything not related to school.
In other news I went up to Hollywood last night for my friend Annette's 34th birthday bash at The Cat Club off of Sunset. I got to meet some of her other friends from LJ and her roommate as well. Everyone was pretty much totally awesome. I almost didn't make the trip up there however since it wasnt supposed to start until 11:30PM, but I told her I'd go and I decided I didn't want to be one of those people who flakes so I made myself go up there even though I knew my money situation was crappy, but better then the last time I talked about it on here.
So after parking ($10, ugh) and getting into the front door ($10, blargh, well at least it wasn't $20) I was confronted with an absolutely PACKED club. As it turns out Glamnation was up on the stage that night playing their final performance. They ROCKED! Did I mention they did a cover of ABBA's "SOS"? It ruled. Later in the evening Jimmy Fallon from SNL got up on the stage and started doing his Jim Morrison impression, singing a Doors song or two. I forget which it was by this point, but he was pretty damn good at it. Afterwards they got Annette up onto the stage with the band and had her blow out her birthday cheesecake (which was sinfully awesomely delicious I might add). By this point it was not far from closing and everyone said goodbye as it started to rain outside.
Amazingly enough, on the way back to my car as I was walking I found a $50 bill on the ground. Nobody was around so it must have fallen earlier in the night so I grabbed it and counted my lucky stars, every buck helps after all. Of course, awesome karma like that has to be followed up by something not so awesome. As I was driving south on La Cienega to get to the 10 freeway I was stopped at the light at Wilshire and some drunk-ass bitch in a VW Jetta managed to bump into the rear of my car. Luckily I saw her coming and noticed she didnt seem to be slowing down enough so I was able to move forward just enough that all she did was tap the bumper lightly. Annoying, but no harm done. She even waved to me from her car in that kind of "Sorry I'm a drunk jackass" kind of way. I didn't bother to pull over or ask for insurance because I really didnt care and the bump barely registered so no harm no foul in my book.
Anyways, that some of what I have been up to lately. Now I have to go finish my laundry so I can get up to Matt, Trina, and Steve's apartment to hang out for the weekend.
Originally published at Daniel Spisak on Technology. You can comment here or there.
IR Remote Control for my Nikon D50
Clear Lightsphere II (Size P1) for my Nikon SB-800 Flash
Netgear WG311T PCI WiFi card (for Aircrack-ng use)
D-Link DWL-G122 Revision B1 USB WiFi adapter (for Aircrack-ng use, ONLY B1 rev)
Babylon 5: Season 5 DVD Box Set
Anyways, just throwing it out there in case anyone was curious or wondering. Back to your regularly scheduled nuttiness.
Originally published at Daniel Spisak on Technology. You can comment here or there.
Federal Income Tax: $590 (Yes, I've done every deduction I have receipts for. Getting almost 16k worth of 1099-MISC is a bitch even when you're a student. )
Books for Spring 2007 Quarter: $281.75 (And thats if I can get all my books used)
Parking Permit Spring 2007: $138
Discover Card: $75
T-Mobile: $138.15
Seeing as I just sent out an invoice for $220 worth of work, that still leaves me with a hell of a lot of ground to catch up on. That being said, it looks like I need to try and sell the old laptop to make some money. So here is the deal:
12" PowerBook G4 laptop
12" 1024x768 resolution matte LCD screen
32MB Geforce4 420 Go video card
867 Mhz G4 Processor
1,152MB of RAM installed
40GB HD
Superdrive (only reads CD/DVDs, no burning, costs about 100 for a new drive to fix)
802.11b Airport card installed
Bluetooth 1.1
56k v.92 Modem
10/100 Ethernet
2 USB 1.1 ports
1 Firewire 400 port
Has new battery (old one was part of the battery recall)
Bottom of case has some scratches/blemishes
Top lid has two blemishes
Screen latch is broken, this was common on this model of laptop
3rd party AC adapter with taped connector (this is why Apple switched to the new magnetic power connector)
Comes with OS X 10.4 and iLife 06 installed
Asking $350
Basically this is a great laptop for writing, web browsing and classwork in general. The laptop's video card is able to play World of Warcraft if you run it with lower detail settings. I've also done work on it in Pro Apps like DVD Studio Pro and Final Cut Pro and it does a decent job in them. The laptop is lightweight at only 4.6 lbs and will come with a carrying sleeve for it. If you are interested in the laptop or know someone who might be, please have them email me at timelord@gmail.com or call me at 562-331-1603.
Originally published at Daniel Spisak on Technology. You can comment here or there.
Federal Income Tax: $590 (Yes, I've done every deduction I have receipts for. Getting                                       almost 16k worth of 1099-MISC is a bitch even when                                              you're a student. )
Books for Spring 2007 Quarter:Â $281.75 (And thats if I can get all my books used)
Parking Permit Spring 2007: $138
Discover Card: $75
T-Mobile: $138.15
Seeing as I just sent out an invoice for $220 worth of work, that still leaves me with a hell of a lot of ground to catch up on. That being said, it looks like I need to try and sell the old laptop to make some money. So here is the deal:
12" PowerBook G4 laptop
12" 1024x768 resolution matte LCD screen
32MB Geforce4 420 Go video card
867 Mhz G4 Processor
1,152MB of RAM installed
40GB HD
Superdrive (only reads CD/DVDs, no burning, costs about 100 for a new drive to fix)
802.11b Airport card installed
Bluetooth 1.1
56k v.92 Modem
10/100 Ethernet
2 USB 1.1 ports
1 Firewire 400 port
Has new battery (old one was part of the battery recall)
Bottom of case has some scratches/blemishes
Top lid has two blemishes
Screen latch is broken, this was common on this model of laptop
3rd party AC adapter with taped connector (this is why Apple switched to the new magnetic power connector)
Comes with OS X 10.4 and iLife 06 installed
Asking $350
Basically this is a great laptop for writing, web browsing and classwork in general. The laptop's video card is able to play World of Warcraft if you run it with lower detail settings. I've also done work on it in Pro Apps like DVD Studio Pro and Final Cut Pro and it does a decent job in them. The laptop is lightweight at only 4.6 lbs and will come with a carrying sleeve for it. If you are interested in the laptop or know someone who might be, please have them email me at timelord@gmail.com or call me at 562-331-1603.
Originally published at Daniel Spisak on Technology. You can comment here or there.
What can I say? I'm a year older and perhaps wiser too! If you can see this, it means your invited. You don't have to bring presents unless you want to! Seeing as we demolished Aaron's stock of booze last party please try to BYOB or something to add to the party in general. So if you show up, try to be adults and have fun and save the stabbing of people until after the party. Thanks! I hope to see you all there.
When: Friday Apr 13, 2007 at 7:30 PM
Where: 10626 La Rosa Ln.
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
If you get lost of need directions, call me on my cellphone 562-331-1603.
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
Recent Comments
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Dan the Man said:
[this is good]Sure, the phone costs a lot. I'm not going to pretend it doesn't. But when non-tech oriented 60+ year old... read more
on Predictions about the iPhone -
Chris said:
Cost: The price point hurts! It's $499 for for 4G and $599 for 8G. So as not to be stupid... read more
on Predictions about the iPhone
Consumer market first. I say upper level tech consumer. You're average person won't want this especially with all the troubleshooting... read more
on Predictions about the iPhone