Max van Leeuwen's "More Instant" Instant Camera Beams Its Pictures to an ePaper Frame
Powered by a linked pair of Raspberry Pis, this camera and frame combo is both instant and ephemeral.
Creative Max van Leeuwen has given an old instant camera an unusual upgrade: the ability to transmit its photos wirelessly to an ePaper photo frame for immediate display, no expensive film cartridges required.
"My grandpa gave me his Polaroid Land Camera," van Leeuwen explains of the project's origin. "It didn’t work any more, so I upgraded it," he continues — though the upgrade is, perhaps, more of a functionality side-grade, as the camera now takes ephemeral pictures, each one disappearing as the next is captured.
The secret: a wireless connection to a companion picture frame, based on an electrophoretic ePaper display. When the camera is triggered, it uses a Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ single-board computer and Camera Module hidden inside to snap a shot, digitize it, then transmit it over Wi-Fi to the frame for display. Whatever was there already is replaced — erasing the photo from existence to make room for the new one.
"The display is an e-paper screen, so it doesn’t emit any light," van Leeuwen notes. :This, combined with the granularity of the dots, makes it look a lot like real film! And just like instant photos, this takes a minute to draw (or 'develop') the picture.
"Taking a picture of a QR code connects the camera to a Wi-Fi network," van Leeuwen adds of the camera's configuration, which can connect to the frame over the internet even when the two devices are on separate networks. "The frame now lives in my grandma’s bookcase, so I can keep her posted."
An 18650 battery inside the camera, mounted to a Hardware Attached on Top (HAT) board to simplify the wiring, powers the Raspberry Pi for a full hour, van Leeuwen says, while the picture frame is connected to a USB power supply — with power only required while it's receiving and changing the picture, thanks to the always-on ePaper display.
More information on the build is available on van Leeuwen's website, with source code available on GitHub under the permissive MIT license.