In my previous post "Embedding Google Cardboard Camera VR Photosphere with A-Frame", I wrote that some talented programmer would probably create a better solution for embedding Google Cardboard camera photosphere using A-Frame.
I didn't know that Chris Car had already created a sophisticated solution for this problem. You can view it here on A-Frame blog.
You first might have to use Google Cardboard camera converter tool to make your Google Cardboard photosphere.
.Early this year I started looking into the VR (Virtual Reality) web applications. Web browsers now natively support VR applications using WebVR JavaScript API. We can now design virtual worlds using markup language and connect them to devices such as Oculus Rift and Leap motion controller using just a web browser.
To hit the ground running with WebVR. I started an experiment to capture Hackerspace Phnom Penh using Google Cardboard camera app and display it using A-Frame framework. The Google Cardboard camera photosphere is not supported by A-Frame. But the positive responses to my query encouraged me to try an hack using A-Frame Panorama component.
Is it possible to embed Google cardboard camera image capture in a @aframevr powered site?
— Arky (@playingwithsid) December 17, 2015
And it works. Almost I had to tweak the scale setting a bit to try get the perspective right but it does work. The ideal solution is to create a A-Frame custom component, that I leave it for more skilled people.
The markup needed for this demo is simple, you can achieve this with one line.
<a-scene>
<a-sky src="img/hackerspace.vr.jpg" radius="2400" scale="2 1 2"> </a-sky>
</a-scene>
You can see the demo on Youtube or visit this webpage in an compatible web browser.
Japanese artist Hidetaka Nakamura uses animation to bring about awareness about social issues in Cambodia. In this post, I talk about his Eco City project, he makes large screen projections of animations drawn by children on the wall of underground sewage plant. The children visit this underground sewage plant along the river front of Phnom Penh, they participate in pop quiz about environmental issues. The animated characters teach the children about recycling and garbage disposal.
This the second edition of the Eco city project in Cambodia. I'll be working with Hidetaka on the next projection mapping to bring real time animation of the drawings and immersive interaction of projection mapping next year. Stay tuned.
Recently we started a novel experiment at Hackerspace Phnom Penh to introduce 3D printing technology to kids. We organized a saturday afternoon workshop for the coding club members of local international school. The parents who brought the kids were just as excited about the 3D printing technology.
Photo Credit: Akira
The workshop started with Leo Jofeh walking the kids through the basics of 3D printing technology. The Makerbot Cupcake CNC was used to show various parts of 3D printing machine. The DIY model of the Cupcake CNC 3D printer makes it easy to see all the parts unlike the more recent models of the 3D printers.
Next we brought in the modern Lulzbot Mini 3D printer and did a quick test print of small object from Thingiverse.com to show the whole 3D printing process. The kids were already bubbling with ideas for building model tanks to full scale super hero characters. However we suggested something simpler that doesn't take hours of print time. The code club members were already familiar with the Google Sketchup program. So they quickly started creating drawing of comic characters and creating custom currency coins. With a Sketchup STL export plugin they could export the drawings into a 3D printable STL file.
Leo collected these STL files and added to them the Cura printing software with minor changes. The kids and the parents were totally engrossed all throughout the workshop. Indeed 3D printing unleashes your inner tool maker in everyone.
The workshop was a learning experience for us. Next we are going to expand the program to cover more schools and with few working templates that kids and the parents can work-together.
If you want to help or get involved please get in touch with us at facebook.com/groups/hackerspacepp.
Are you a Cambodian citizen? Are you interested in learning how to make amazing products using Industrial Design, 3D Printing, 3D Design, Electronics, and Engineering taught by four world class teachers from the UK, Australia, and Norway? Do you want to be part of a movement to make high quality, original products made for Cambodians by Cambodians!?
If this describes you, please email contact@archubpnh.com to get an application for a FREE scholarship to this 8 week training course now!
Few people asked for information about the time-lapse photography in my last blog post about 3D printing hamster castle. In this blog post, I'll share how to do time-lapse photography with Sony RX100 II camera.
The Sony RX100 MKII doesn't have a built-in intervalometer. So we'll use an Android device with Timelapse app to take photographs at regular intervals. Also we'll power the the camera and the Android device with a wall charger so that they don't run out of battery during the long time-lapse recording. The Sony RX100 MKII can be charged directly using a standard mini-USB power adapter. That means I don't have to replace the batteries during the long time-lapse.
First, let's turn off the power saving mode on the camera. This prevents the camera from going into sleep mode. To control the camera using a Android device, navigate to your cameras 'Control with Smartphone' menu option. Once selected, the screen will display camera's Wi-Fi SSID and password (Read the Sony documentation about Wi-Fi Direct here). Now go the WiFi settings on your Android device and connect to 'Direct-XXXXX' WiFi access point with the password displayed on your camera. Once connected, Open 'Timelapse' app and select 'RX100 mk2' from the camera model drop down menu. Next you can select the interval for your time-lapse (I used 10 secs for this time-lapse) and start your recording. Please make sure that the Android device is near to the camera to avoid losing the WiFi connection. The camera takes the pictures and saves them to SDCard. What's next? You can now use a video program of your choice to turn this time-lapse photographs into a video on your computer.
Please don't forget to share your experiences doing time-lapse photography.
They say there is no greater noble deed than 3D printing castles for homeless hamsters. Hackerspace Phnom Penh's Leo Jofeh set upon himself the noble task of designing and printing a Hamster Castle on Lulzbot Mini 3D printer. The project took over three hours to print the walls and another 2 hours for the roof and ramparts.
The following timelaspe video shows 3D printer in action. The timelapse was captured on Sony RX100 MKII in WiFi mode with TimeLapse Android app.
It looks great and the hamsters have made themselves at home!
Few months after moving to Phnom Penh, I started to read Milton Osborne's Phnom Penh: A Cultural History. The book really helped me appreciate the city as I walk through its numerous streets and alleyways.
Milton Osborne writes beautiful prose that takes one back to beginning of Cambodia's capital city and its troubled history. I would highly recommend this book to travelers visiting Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
As a one-time resident of Phnom Penh and an authority on Southeast Asia, Milton Osborne provides a colorful account of the troubled history and appealing culture of Cambodia's capital city. Osborne sheds light on Phnom Penh's early history, when first Iberian missionaries and freebooters and then French colonists held Cambodia's fate in their hands. The book examines one of the most intriguing rulers of the twentieth century, King Norodom Sihanouk, who ruled over a city of palaces, Buddhist temples, and transplanted French architecture, an exotic blend that remains to this day. Osborne also describes the terrible civil war, the Khmer Rouge's capture of the city, the defeat of Pol Pot in 1979, and Phnom Penh's slow reemergence as one of the most attractive cities in Southeast Asia.
Milton Osborne is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Asian Studies at the Australian National University, Canberra. He is the author of nine books on the history and politics of Southeast Asia.
Back in Cambodia this week to participate in Barcamp Phnom Penh 2014. It is great to experience the energy and openness of Phnom Penh and the Cambodian youth's insatiable zeal to learn all things tech. Over the past few years, the barcamps helped us build the Mozilla community in Cambodia.
Cambodia is a fast growing economy in the region. One survey notes significant increase in smart phone ownership from last year. And also increase in Khmer supported smart phones and feature phone in the market. At Barcamp Phnom Penh I presented a Firefox OS talk about the on-going Khmer Internationalization (i18n) work and invited the audience to contribute to Firefox OS. Planning to organize hackathons to work on Khmer keyboards with the Mozilla community here.
After my talk, Vannak of Mozilla Cambodia community talked briefly about Mozilla community to the audience. And we did a presentation about Mozilla Web Maker tools. I hope we'll organize more web literacy events in future. Keep watching this space for more news from Cambodia, the kingdom of wonder.
In my travels over the years people asked me 'Where are you from?'. It is a mundane, yet profound question. For a digital nomad, home is a transient concept. In my conversations with Dipika of Oranguntan Swing, I shared few ideas that inspired the 'Origin: talking about "Fromness' event. If you are based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Please join this conversation on July 23, 2014.
Last year we kick-started Mozilla Firefox Aurora Khmer localization effort at Barcamp Phnom Penh 4. Now a year later, Thanks to efforts of Mozilla Khmer L10N team and invaluable support of several people from various organizations. We have a successful release of Firefox Khmer.
Barcamp Phnom Penh is community organized two day un-conference held in the capital city of Cambodia. Walking around Barcamp Phnom Penh at University of Puthisastra in central Phnom Penh, you'll encounter young Cambodian's engaging in social media on latest smart phones and tablets everywhere. There are numerous booths advertising smart phones, right next English language schools, Media and NGO organizations.
At Barcamp Phnom Penh 5 this year there was marked improvement in quality of talks. The technology related talks were really in-depth and encouraged participation from audience. Cambodia has good English language penetration, learning English ensures better livelihood. In country where 50% of population live below the poverty line, the Cambodian youth have an insatiable thirst for learning and making a better life. This spirit attracts me to Cambodia time and again.
On the first day of Barcamp Phnom Penh, I talked Mozilla mission and future of Web, As a platform. The demo of development version of FirefoxOS phone was well received.
The next day Vannak ENG talked about the about Mozilla localization and walked the audience through various steps of translating Firefox. It was great to see people hanging out after the talk to interact with Vannak. Such interactions help us build a good contributor community and help keep the Firefox translations update-to-date every 6 weeks
At the end of Barcamp Phnom Penh, I gave lightening talk titled '6 kick-ass things you can do with your browser'. The talk provided a whirlwind tour of Mozilla Web API and their status.
I met Danh Hong, the creator Khmer Web Fonts and we talked about the font rendering issues in Firefox Mobile(Bug 793474) running on Android Jelly Bean (4.x). These issues are now resolved in new HarfBuzz update (Bug 780409)
Few other issues in Khmer language support remain. Android Jelly Bean (4.1) supports Khmer rendering well, but Khmer fonts are not shipped with Android. You need to use third party app to install them.
On Desktop computers, though high quality Khmer fonts are available for various operating systems. There is lack of proper documentation about the installation process and the license are not very clear.
The barcamp camp team deserves a pat on the back for organizing yet another fantastic event. Next year they are organizing five Barcamps all over Cambodia.
Perhaps I'll try organize a hands-on workshop on web technologies at Hacker Space Phnom Penh or Small World Phnom Penh. If you are interested, get in touch with me.
Barcamp Phnom Penh 4 event is mentioned on this weeks Mozilla Contributor Engagement Video. You can find photos and presentation from Barcamp Phnom Penh 4 in this blog post.
You can view this video on Youtube. Don't forget to subscribe to Mozillians Youtube channel.
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| Mozilla Khmer Localization Sprint |
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| Vennak (Mozilla Khmer L10n Team) |
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| Khmer Localization Using Narro |
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| Barcampers Enjoy Khmer Food |
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| Barcamps are great! |
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| Khmer Translation Talk |
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| Google App Engine talk by Guy Flysher (Google) |
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| Localization of 'Open Data' Cambodia by John Weeks |
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| KhmerOS's Norbert Klein makes a point |
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| Khmer Unicode on Android by Stephen Gibberd (finder.com.kh) |
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| Mobile Learning with iPad by Adrian Tan (Square Crumbs) |
