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Show HN: We put an iPhone on the front wheel of a car
- binarymax 12y agoI have some serious sea legs and almost never get motion sickness. The fullscreen youtube vid got me. Great experiment.
- matt_morgan 12y agoI'm getting motion sickness just thinking about it. Haven't even watched yet.
- kp25 12y agoDo watch it, Great Experiment. Got Sick..
- lzlarryli 12y agoFor those who do suffer from motion sickness (like me), be aware that while the effect might not be severe (no vomit for me), the headache lingers quite a while (~30 min for me) after watching the video closely full-screen....... Still, a fun experiment.
- endijs 12y agoWhy on Earth you had to tell that? After reading your comment I had to go and check out video on my own... Will not do that anymore.
- larrys 12y agoSame happened and I didn't even watch full screen. Maybe this is a way to test those sea bands that I have that I think generally work. But now I do have motion sickness and felt it almost right away.
- NAFV_P 12y agoThe video did make me feel quite queasy, but it is not as bad as Descent [0]. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_(video_game) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_(video_game)
- ddt 12y agoOh man, so many memories of giving motion sickness to my friends and parents watching me play Descent.
- NaOH 12y agoI've never been a gamer. Except for Descent. And Descent II. I still have them and every few years play them on an old Mac. The queasiness kicks in every time I start playing them again.
- adamkittelson 12y agoOddly enough I had no problems with Descent / Descent II, but Doom and Doom II wrecked me. I think it may have been because Doom's camera bobbed as you moved to simulate taking steps but Descent's camera was smooth when you moved forward.
- lotharbot 12y agoYou can grab the newest mods, linked from http://descentchampions.org/new_player.php http://descentchampions.org/new_player.php , and find games with other people just about every day.
- msutherl 12y agoNot having heard of Descent, I was really hoping it was a game that consisted entirely of falling.
- akx 12y agoThat would be Das Uberleben. http://teknopants.com/games/uberleben/ http://teknopants.com/games/uberleben/
- pronoiac 12y agoIt looks like they don't account for the rolling shutter on the camera.
- thisjepisje 12y agoDrive faster god darnit!
- lewisflude 12y agoA really cool way of showing off Horizon. Good work guys!
- ekosnow 12y agooooohh!!! great experiment with great results!!
- bra1n 12y agoBetter title: "Show HN: We put an iPhone on the front wheel of a car and drove really slowly for less than 10 seconds at a time"
- universome 12y agoCool experiment, I just dont get, how that idea came to your mind? - "Oh, man, look, I have an iPhone. Guess what?" - "Yeah, we should certainly put it on a wheel of a car!"
- cgh 12y agoStarting from the second sentence in the article: "We all know by now that Horizon shoots perfect horizontal videos, even if you rotate your device while shooting! We wanted to stress Horizon’s capabilities by using it under extreme circumstances."
- fredsted 12y agoIt's so obvious which people commented without reading the article in this thread.
- stelabouras 12y agoThank you for the support! Here are 5 promo codes so you can try our app for free! http://codehookup.com/2291e14c http://codehookup.com/2291e14c
- rohith_14_04 12y agoMissed it :(
- BuildTheRobots 12y agoAbsolutely blown away with the demo video (centripetal issues aside) though annoyingly I'm one of those 'other' users, so I have to ask: Anything android related in the pipeline?
- moinnadeem 12y ago"This is one of the developers of the app. The Android version will be available in the following month. We are planning on running the experiment on Android devices too!" - OP.
- BuildTheRobots 12y agoAbsolutely immense -will keep my eyes peeled =D
- sek 12y agoWhy not a GoPro on a wheel? Edit: I just think I should've googled that first.
- S4M 12y ago...And it's interesting because?
- ctdonath 12y agoBecause the focus of the experiment is an app that records videos while compensating for tilt/rotation (it's not just "hold muh beer while I tape my iPhone to a car wheel!"). I have the app, and find it interesting for its ability to eliminate the inevitable angling of the video, despite being on such an unstable mount (my free-waving hand). By subjecting the app to extreme conditions of rapid rotation, subtle flaws in the compensation process are made apparent - specifically, that the iPhone's gravity sensor gets confused & skewed, that the progressive scanning of each frame means distorting the image (the top of the image shows a view 1/60th or so of a second different from the bottom), and the two together result in a bizarre/unexpected periodic warping of the image. Having this video, the experimenters can go back to the software lab and tweak their image processing algorithms to compensate for these errors and create an even more stable image. "So what?" you mumble. "It's so subtle nobody cares." Well, that's actually a big part of why VR failed when it was first introduced a couple decades ago, and why Carmack & Occulus are so successful with it now: they've analyzed the subtle nuances that you don't acknowledge but your brain processes & reacts to nonetheless. Horizon is applying the same attention to detail, and will produce a better product as a result (yes, I do notice those sub-frame distortions in various products almost daily, and would appreciate developers correcting them).
- zingermc 12y agoI poked around the website and their projects look awesome, exactly the kind of stuff I'd make if I were more talented. I wish I lived in Greece because I would find these guys and beg them to hire me.
- Goosey 12y agoI found this to be really incredible. That is some amazing video stabilization technology. If this app was available for android I think I would use it for every video capture I ever do.
- ProAm 12y agoI'd love to see them film something while doing this. Maybe a dog or person running next to the car in frame or something. Definitely cool stuff.
- petrakeas 12y agoThis is one of the developers of the app. The Android version will be available in the following month. We are planning on running the experiment on Android devices too!
- HorizonXP 12y agoI've done quite a bit of work doing stabilization on Android. I think you'll find the Camera APIs quite lacking. Are you doing image based stabilization or using sensors? The fact you mention the gravity sensor tells me you're using sensors. Let me know, I'll be glad to help how I can.
- Kayou 12y agoDid you see that it is only stabilizing rotation? If it looks so stable that's because the lens of the iPhone is at the exact center of the wheel. If you were to move your phone along a X or Y axis, I don't think those movements would be stabilized like you could get with a software stabilizer. I guess the main target of this app is people turning their device when shooting a video.
- lutorm 12y agoTranslation of the camera changes the perspective, i.e., the relative positions of different objects in the image. There is no way a piece of software can get rid of that, because the information isn't there in the first place.
- btbuildem 12y agoKudos to you guys for trying to solve the VVS problem! For your second experiment, may I recommend attaching the iphone to the disc of a variable-speed angle grinder? You'll get a much larger range of speeds, as well as the ability to aim the camera freely. You'll be able to test how your accelerometer algos handle pitch and yaw IN ADDITION to centrifugal force!
- petrakeas 12y agoDeveloper of the app here. One step ahead of you ;) http://imgur.com/tdnympM http://imgur.com/tdnympM
- askura 12y agoI can't wait to see what that's going to look like. Just be careful it doesn't fly off and injure you!
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- jacquesm 12y agoI hope you're joking. If you do plan on doing this then please do it in a suitably strong wire cage, power it on remotely, make sure it is tied down very solidly and make sure nothing you care about (including you, significant others, co-workers, children, pets, possessions etc) is in the plane of rotation because this will fail spectacularly. Keep in mind that if the grinder becomes dislodged or unbalanced that the plane of rotation may vary rapidly. Too rapid to get out of the way. The iphone will desintegrate due to the forces involved and the shrapnel will cause serious injury. Please do not do this unless you really know what you're messing with (and if you do then you won't). On second thought, simply please do not do this. Spinning an iPhone up to 10K rpm or higher is a very bad idea, the label reads 11K rpm max, 850W, those things don't usually have soft-start so it'll just fire up and start throwing things. Appeal to authority fallacy comes free of charge: I've had a pretty serious metal workshop and have seen several interesting interactions between angle-grinders and various objects in otherwise controlled circumstances, it is astounding how fast things can go wrong. Just having a grinder disc shatter on you can take you completely by surprise even if you know the danger, this is far more dangerous, it is Darwin award material.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- smallegan 12y agoBought the app, seems very laggy on my iPhone 5s. Is this to be expected? I wonder if it is doing the processing as the phone is recording or if it is capturing the accelerometer data and modifying the video after that fact?
- fruithunter 12y agoGreat post. Awesome app. Just purchased it :)
- p00b 12y agoVery cool experiment, and even cooler visual results! One thing though - the tilting of the scene from the phone's perceived variance of the gravity vector is not due to centrifugal force, but due to inertia. In other words, it's the same reason you're pushed back into your seat when you accelerate, and slam your head into the dashboard and spill hot coffee in your lap when you lock up the breaks.
- petrakeas 12y agoWe also did an experiment with this: http://imgur.com/tdnympM http://imgur.com/tdnympM The same problem existed. So it is not inertia in this case. However, inertia could also interfere with the gravity vector.
- click170 12y agoThey kept mentioning 'Horizon', took me a couple minutes to realize they weren't talking about the BBC Series heh.
- dested 12y agoNow this is viral marketing. Great job guys
- TheCraiggers 12y agoDoes anybody know of any software which can do this for videos which were already captured?
- mikeytown2 12y agohttp://www.guthspot.se/video/deshaker.htm http://www.guthspot.se/video/deshaker.htm http://avisynth.org.ru/depan/depan.html http://avisynth.org.ru/depan/depan.html
- spada 12y agowill there be an API for this?
- FollowSteph3 12y agoDo NOT load from an iphone. Almost impossible to regain control of your browser!!
- Goopplesoft 12y agoClick url bar... Theyre using the new fullscreen api on iOS which kinda sucks IMO.
- asciimo 12y agoThis looks like something that iOS will incorporate as a native feature. When they do this, do they usually buy the technology? Or the entire company?
- vernie 12y agoOr just clone it and put the company out of business.
- placeybordeaux 12y agoIs that really how apple has been working as of late? It's not like they innovate on the software front all the time.
- porterhaney 12y agoThis would be similar to this acquisition IMO: http://www.macworld.com/article/2083997/apple-acquires-snappycam-ios-camera-app-developer.html http://www.macworld.com/article/2083997/apple-acquires-snapp...
- return0 12y agoGreat job guys. Hope to see this integrated in the iPhone.
- martin_ 12y agoIt'd be really cool to see a side by side comparison with, and without Horizon active
- sb23 12y agoYou can if you go to their website - http://www.evilwindowdog.com/horizon/ http://www.evilwindowdog.com/horizon/
- cratermoon 12y agoThat's nausea-inducing.
- rodw 12y agoWhat would happen if you put the camera closer to the outer part of the wheel, rather than nearly centered on the hub? Could Horizon still create a stable-ish video out of that (where the position and rotation of the image are both changing rapidly), or does this require a relatively stable position to work this well? (I have no particular dog in this hunt, I'm just curious.) EDIT: I see that Kayou asked the same question, probably in a smarter way, here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7904992 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7904992 but I don't see a response from petrakeas or stelabouras yet, so I'll keep my question here even if it is a little redundant.
- stelabouras 12y agoHorizon corrects the wrong orientation regardless of the translation/position of the device. Small translation differences along the X or Y axis can be corrected by the stabilisation algorithm. Large translation deltas, however, cannot be corrected. So, if you put the iPhone on the outer part of the wheel you will most probably get a horizontal video that will end up showing your scene moving up-down, left-right.
- ar_turnbull 12y agoA roller coaster might be a good experiment if you're looking for an extreme environment that might appeal to more of a mass market. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_roller_coaster_rankings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_roller_coaster_rankings) Maybe skydiving or bungee jumping? Or you could go a different direction and attach a phone to a cat. I hear people love videos with cats ;)
- frozenport 12y agoPhones falling off a roller-coaster could be dangerous!