I'm always asking for help with my issues on this forum, so I thought it'd be nice to share a project i'm working on instead, and I might start doing it more if anyone's interested (plus you all have 10x more experience than me, so pointers for better ways of doing something are always great).
So I decided to make a digital frame for the elderly, which links up to their grandchild's instagram (targeting grandparents of students/grandkids that are distant), and transitions through the photos in a typical way. The idea is that, to the grandparent, they don't even have to know that Instagram is involved, or even what it is - they will just see photos on a screen. It's not an idea I could ever see anyone buying, but i do think it solves a real world problem. My grandparents used to have photos all over their house, but barely anything recent, because people don't print many photos anymore.
In terms of the fun stuff (actually making it), i've made a lot of progress already, and i'd be interested in any input. Physically, i'm using a Raspberry Pi, and i'm going to try and get hold of a photo frame esque sized screen (7 inch ideally, but cost is a factor). Then i'm programming in python to develop two scripts, 1) a Rest API to access an Instagram users account, and download the 5 most recent images into a photos folder, and 2) a script using the tkinter library to open these images, and flick through them one by one, in full screen. I've sorted both of those scripts, and it's taking all my energy to not rant about how awful the new Instagram api is (privacy laws suck).
My main things to work on now are:
- Making the two scripts interact together, by having the Rest API script refresh the slideshow, so it doesn't give null references to the old photos
- Get a screen and make it look like a photo frame
- Add some form of user input - i'm currently sending ssh commands from my phone to tell it which user to target
- Make the Rest API run every day to check for more recent images
When I think on, I'll get a video of it working on my monitor to show you that it actually functions [emoji38]
So, thoughts/suggestions? Throw them at me!
Thanks very much for reading, still feel like i'm trying to find what I can offer on this forum, so I hope you find this interesting in some way [emoji813]
Edit: a video of it working on my monitor, just need to get a screen now
So I decided to make a digital frame for the elderly, which links up to their grandchild's instagram (targeting grandparents of students/grandkids that are distant), and transitions through the photos in a typical way. The idea is that, to the grandparent, they don't even have to know that Instagram is involved, or even what it is - they will just see photos on a screen. It's not an idea I could ever see anyone buying, but i do think it solves a real world problem. My grandparents used to have photos all over their house, but barely anything recent, because people don't print many photos anymore.
In terms of the fun stuff (actually making it), i've made a lot of progress already, and i'd be interested in any input. Physically, i'm using a Raspberry Pi, and i'm going to try and get hold of a photo frame esque sized screen (7 inch ideally, but cost is a factor). Then i'm programming in python to develop two scripts, 1) a Rest API to access an Instagram users account, and download the 5 most recent images into a photos folder, and 2) a script using the tkinter library to open these images, and flick through them one by one, in full screen. I've sorted both of those scripts, and it's taking all my energy to not rant about how awful the new Instagram api is (privacy laws suck).
My main things to work on now are:
- Making the two scripts interact together, by having the Rest API script refresh the slideshow, so it doesn't give null references to the old photos
- Get a screen and make it look like a photo frame
- Add some form of user input - i'm currently sending ssh commands from my phone to tell it which user to target
- Make the Rest API run every day to check for more recent images
When I think on, I'll get a video of it working on my monitor to show you that it actually functions [emoji38]
So, thoughts/suggestions? Throw them at me!
Thanks very much for reading, still feel like i'm trying to find what I can offer on this forum, so I hope you find this interesting in some way [emoji813]
Edit: a video of it working on my monitor, just need to get a screen now
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