One of these days I decided to recycle one of the pre-historic laptops waiting to be trashed in my company. I saw those digital frames that are appearing everywhere and thought how nice they would be as a gift for my parents in Portugal (I am in Switzerland). I always have a lot of new photos that I would like to share with them. But shortly the idea of the digital frame was dead since they all lack some features that would make them a perfect gift and even the smallest ones have outrageous price tags. So a few things had to be taken into consideration.

My parents are not tech geeks or even computer users and they are older than 72, so I had to avoid something like:
“Here’s a digital frame and a computer so you can connect to the internet and receive emails with new pictures and transfer them to this thing called SDcard and put it in the frame, after you read that book that tells how to use a computer and the internet…” and I can go on forever.

I decided to do something completely or near zero-maintenance. Basically it had to be simple to use, or rather not to use at all: instead you just plug it and connect it to a phone line. And that should be all. Here’s what I ended doing on the frame software side: The computer runs Windows ME. First step was to setup the Bios so it resumes to Power-ON if the power fails, and to turn on by itself at 7:00am. The software (and I should say version 1) is Flash based and just cycles trough photos in a folder in the hard drive, with a soft fade effect between each one. So far no big difference on how it works (visually) comparing with a normal digital frame. (click for bigger image)

Now the twists from a normal digital frame: At 7:00am, when it turns on windows (I changed the boot screens to complete black with a “please wait” message), it runs an application that dials up a free internet connection and connects to my FTP server to check if there are new pictures. If that’s the case, it downloads them and adds them to the local folder. There’s no card reader. Before closing, the program also checks for a new version of both the slideshow application and itself (transfer apllication).

If there are new versions they are downloaded and the slideshow player is overriden with the new. Last step, a detailed log is sent to the server so I can debug later in case there’s some issues. The program closes the connection here but I’ve set a timeout to really kill the connection after 15 minutes, just in case, since they still pay a local call for this. After this, the Slideshow application runs and its first task is to override the transfer application if a new one was downloaded on the previous step. After that it just shows the pictures one after each other until 1:00am, when the computer shuts down. Also, it beeps 3 times if there are new pictures, at breakfast and lunch time. The slideshow and transfer applications were done in Flash with Zinc commands (for FTP and system calls). I started doing it in Delphi but ended up going complete Flash/ActionScript/Zinc. All these tasks are done behind the scenes and for my parents, it’s just a frame that changes photos every minute. And sleeps at night.

Now, the server side. On the first stage and for testing, I just uploaded new picture files or the renamed applications to upgrade (executables) on a specific folder in my FTP server. And the system works fine when there’s new pictures and it gets them. I am working now on the interface for uploading and cropping the pictures, all web based (PHP/MySQL). Why this server side interface? Because that’s where I wanted a big difference from the usual frames. I am not their only son, I have 2 sisters. More important, there’s their grandkids (three of them) and other members of the family. So far I am doing it with different accounts, on for each, where they go and upload (auto crop and resize) their own photos, and get a preview of what will appear in the frame. I also have a control panel for the basic monitoring and technical stuff (and deleting pictures if needed). Even my nephew and nieces will use it with no problems. I will have a post with some screenshots of the interface soon.

I mentioned version 1 previously and created the auto-update feature so if there’s a problem I just fix it and replace the files remotely (well, they get replaced on next update). This was tested and retested by now and works fine. It’s also useful for upgrades. I already have ideas for the next versions. There’s a usb port for a mouse (included), because I want to progressively add simple features, one that will be a basic message system, kind of mini-email. If they see a blinking envelope icon in the top left corner, (or any other corner,) they just click anywhere on screen and the message will appear, identified with who sent it with a thumbnail (passport) picture. They click again and the message is gone and get back to the picture slideshow. If there’s another message(s), the process repeats. That will be eventually the next update. After that I have more ideas: a way to see previously discarded messages, a simple onscreen keyboard with all letters so they can reply to a message with no keyboard, possibility to manage and hide some pictures and the delay between each, picture labels, short voice messages and maybe video support. And I am sure I will come up with more stuff, but what I really don’t want is over complicate the gadget. The purpose is for them to have fresh pictures of all their family (and some news from them) with no effort from their side.

Ok, finally what have I done in the hardware side. I’ve chosen a Sony Vaio PCG-550FX. Not an extremely powerful machine, but more than enough for this. And the screen is very good, which is the strongest point in here. This one had problems with the battery, keyboard and touchpad, but since none of those would be needed at all for this project, it was perfect.

Step one, getting rid of the plastic casing, keyboard and any other redundant parts like the battery. Trying to keep the form factor to a minimum, as well as weight. In the end, there were two obvious parts, the screen and the motherboard (disk, processor, memory and other core components). I’ve chosen a simple aluminum frame, with a white “passe par tout” with a cutout slightly smaller than the screen. the TFT screen is inside the frame, where a picture would be. I had to choose a frame with some extra space inside, obviously. In the back, the brains (motherboard) of the frame. I made a back enclosing in wood painted in white, to make it a little bit less geekier (and nicer). While I was getting rid of a small metal piece in the back of the frame, it broke and jumped straight into my eye. Fortunately it stabbed in the white part of the eyeball or this post would be “How I got blind by making a digital frame for mom and dad”. Last picture of next series.

I did the vital tests and repeated them a few times before I locked everything as a one-piece frame. Some extra improvisation was needed to keep the usb, modem (pcmcia) and audio plugs accessible at the back. After that I tested the entire system with the daily dial-up and all, for several weeks, just in a corner in the living room. At least it didn’t set the house on fire.

I am giving it to them on my summer holiday visit, since if I send this by mail, with all the international security and terrorism paranoia going on at the moment, probably it will be suspected to be a bomb and taken apart and turned useless on customs or some mail station inspection. And yes, even if I tested it countless times to be an out-of-the-box user-friendly gadget, and I pre-configured it in the last tests for a Portuguese dial-up connection, and tested that trough an international phone call (and it worked), I don’t want the Murphy laws to get on the way and have a “Sorry son, the thing does not work!” moment. And I really want to give it to them personally. I just hope they like it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at 20:53 and is filed under Gadgets, Portfolio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.