For my final piece I decided to create an installation.
Whilst out shopping I purchased a large red button. After leaving it out accidentally in the sixth form cafe, I noticed the great amount of attention that it attracted, with people walking up to it and pressing it intrigued to know what was going to happen.
After brainstorming the concept I decided to build a retro / bodge job style Photo Booth using a monitor, an old pc and the big red button. I decided that I’d then install it in the main atrium of the school’s adt building.
To create this I had to use a variety of different software packages.
To capture the video source from my DSLR and create a virtual webcam I used digicam control. I had to host two different servers on the pc, one for JS Breakout, a library that enabled me to create a physical link to the keyboard. The other server I had to host was a php web server, this enabled me to run the php scripts that I had written that were necessary to take the photos, store them and then display them in the run through as well as compile the gif images at the end of the day.
I deliberately chose to not show back the photographs instantly, Is I wanted to fool the users into thinking that the system was not working, therefore blindly encouraging them to take more photos by pressing the big red button.
I’m really pleased with how this concept came out. Though some of the issues that I have incurred would include the battery life on the camera; I did not want to spend an additional £30 on a constant power supply for the one time use in a installation, as I’m a student and do not have an endless supply of money.
A demo of the photobooth display can be viewed at hglyde.com/photobooth
Code is below:
index.php (The display on the Photo Booth Screen)
camera.php (Runs in the background taking a photograph when the red button is pressed.)
