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General discussion

Digital Photobooth

Dec 8, 2004 6:40AM PST

I want to build a photobooth that operates like a real booth. I want to use digital equipment and would prefer to do this without a computer. Ideally, one touch of a button would cause the camera to take four pictures with a few seconds in between each one, then automatically send them to a printer like a dye sublimation type, then automatically print them out in a quadrant-like format. Is this possible without a computer running scripts, photoshop? Anyone?

Discussion is locked

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Re: Digital Photobooth (without a computer)
Dec 8, 2004 6:59AM PST

Write back when you can have a machine in the middle.

Bob

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Re: Digital Photobooth (without a computer)
Dec 9, 2004 1:04AM PST

Bob, ok I can add a computer if necessary. It appears I can't do what I want without it - eh? I'm guessing this can be done in Visual Basic or Windows using scripts, at least that's what another friend thought. I guess I am unsure how the interfaces will be done and addressed via a program. I know most cameras use USB cables and there are some printers that can be connected the same way. I would like the booth to have one button to push (simplify the process) and then four poses/pictures taken, with delays between poses/pictures (preferably a voice count down), then the four poses oriented onto one 4x6 picture (in quadrants) - automatically print after the last picture is taken. Then a reset for a new cycle....

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Re: Digital Photobooth (without a computer)
Dec 9, 2004 1:16AM PST

I run into this all the time. Some think some idea would be cheaper without the PC in the box. Tain't so.

Do yourself a favor. Go look at those Kodak and other self-service photoprinters and guess what's in the box.

Now consider this. What you want can be done in Linux. And I don't consider it to be hard at all. Bingo, no OS to purchase. Instead 100 to 300 buck savings.

Look at my profile, email me your address and I send you a PDF about a PC I demo'd for a simarly application. The prices are out of date, but it does have a camera in it.

Bob

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Please formward pdf to me
Jan 14, 2005 4:18AM PST

I would really appreciate it if you could forward that PDF to me as well. I couldn't find your email address. rhindo@tampabay.rr.com

Thanks

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photobooth
Mar 1, 2005 7:52PM PST

I just finished building a computer-based photobooth. Here's how I did it in outline form, you can email me for more details (wrybread@gmail.com):

Canon Powershots can be controlled by the computer. There's a program called PSRemote that lets you trigger the camera from command-line, which means a script can do it. I have a Powershot A40, but I don't recommend it since the flash takes too long to recharge (about 2 seconds too long between pics). I had an A80 for awhile, and it worked better. All are on ebay for cheap.

I wrote the script that controls everything in PHP. It could jsut as easily be Vbasic or perl or whatever. Here's teh flow of my script:

- tell psremote to take 4 pictures
- take those pictures and assemble them into a strip using Imagemagick (a command-line image editing utility). You could also do this with a Photoshop droplet.
- print them using irfanview command-line (e.g., "i_view32.exe c:\pic.jpg /print")
- save them locally so the webserver running on the photobooth computer can display the pics to other computers on my network
- upload them to the web
- archive all the old pics on the web as well

For triggering the script, I'm using a Winamp plugin called Com-port Winamp Control, which includes instructions on building external buttons, and it listens to the serial port for those buttons to be pressed, and allows you to execute a program when it receives a signal. Amazingly powerful program, and runs completely independently of winamp.

So the gist is there's a button in the booth, someone presses it, it takes 4 pictures with flash, then shows them on a computer screen that's outside the booth, and the prints finish about 30 seconds after they pressed the button.

For printer I'm using a CAnon Pixma IP4000, which I couldn't recommend any higher. It's printing on 4 x 6 glossy paper, so far I've printed about 300 strips and still havn't run out of ink.

It's not an easy project, took me a few days of pretty intense work. But most of the work was in figuring out what method to use for each step, so the above should be a huge start.

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URL with more detailed instructions
May 6, 2005 7:56PM PDT
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Photobooth building
Jan 10, 2005 3:40AM PST

jbrandti,

I'm sorry I don't have an answer for your question. Do you have any info on how to build a photobooth? Any reccommended sites would be much appreciated.

Brian

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While you were out
Mar 4, 2005 12:20PM PST

There is a show on TLC channel called while you were out. They surprise someone and make over a favorite room while they are out. They re-did a teachers room a bit ago and made a photo booth for the youngs kids. Don't remember at all how they did it but maybe contact the show or see if you can look up the episode. There is a message board for the show on the site.

http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/wywo/wywo.html