A robotic curtain that automatically blocks the view of passersby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKhbUjVyKIc

by adriand • 16 years ago

24 14 16 years ago

Annoying, self-starting video. From the guidelines:

    In Submissions

    ...

    If you submit a link to a video or pdf, please warn
    us by appending [video] or [pdf] to the title.

ADDED IN EDIT:

At the time of adding this edit, someone has downvoted the above comment. That's fine, and I don't mind. I continue to find it annoying that people downvote things without explaining why, but I guess someone thought it didn't belong here.

Let me explain why I think the guideline is a good one.

I have two monitors. Each has 12 virtual desktops. Each virtual desktop has between 10 and 40 windows, some of which are browsers. Each browser has 10 to 50 tabs. I've just counted.

I tend to launch a bunch of stuff quickly, then methodically track through them, skimming, launching, and closing as appropriate. When a video auto-starts I have to track through potentially hundreds of windows/tabs/whatever, to find the one that's giving me grief.

It's annoying, and I think it's rude not to follow a site's guidelines.

You may disagree, and I'd be interested in an enlightening debate.

ma2rten• 16 years ago

Holly crap ! Why do you need to many windows ?

RiderOfGiraffes3• 16 years ago

Rapid context switching. I honestly don't know how people manage with just a few.

J3L2404• 16 years ago

I love mechanical hacks like this. More practical, but less impressive, would be a system with vertical blinds with two states, open and closed.

savrajsingh• 16 years ago

Right on. Or just a full length curtain that sweeps closed whenever someone is outside. :)

nopal• 16 years ago

Here's the creator's site, which includes source and a non-auto-playing video: http://www.niklasroy.com/project/88/my-little-piece-of-priva...

RiderOfGiraffes3• 16 years ago

Thank you! I knew I'd seen it before, and your reference to the creator's site was enough to let me track it down:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1792567

Submitted several days ago to a resounding silence.

ojbyrne• 16 years ago

It's a nice hack, but didn't seem to work very well (slow reaction) and it's yet another surveillance camera.

DotSauce• 16 years ago

Needs bug fixes. Noticed several people walked away quickly when they saw the device was not very accurate.

Put this on a cylinder and slap an advertisement on it that follows the nearest person within 360 degrees.

dageroth• 16 years ago

it seems to draw more eyeballs than an unveiled window, but still, cool idea ;-)

njharman• 16 years ago

Color me unimpressed.

misterbwong• 16 years ago

Tangent: I've often wondered about using some type of (one-way?) curtain or partition to block the view of a cleared accident on the freeway. It seems to me much of the time lost when an accident occurs is during the aftermath when onlookers slow down to get a better look.

ax0n• 16 years ago

s/blocks the view of/distracts/

A robotic curtain that automatically blocks the view of passersby

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