Feedback request: Greenstone webcam videos

[Kelly]

Before I get too far in doing this, I welcome feedback on the videos in this YouTube playlist.

They are created from the webcam images from the Greenstone Ridge webcam.

[dcclark]

Wow, that's awesome -- nice work! March 11th was quite a day, too.

My main suggestion is (if it's feasible) to trim out more of the dark frames at the start and, to a lesser extent, end. I wondered if the first one I watched had something wrong with it, before I realized that it was just dark.

[Midwest Ed]

Excellent! These are very nice. Thank you for taking the time.

I agree with dcclark. I think Introduction and trailer times could be shortened. Three seconds is just a bit too long. The length of time allowed should depend upon what you are asking the viewer to read. It should be as short as possible. Of course that time still remains subjective. I hate it when the text disappears too soon (Maybe I read too slow?).

I see that you are staying pure to certain aspects by starting at midnight. Certain clear days that are closer to Spring Equinox could be interesting well as some nights wan the appropriately positioned full moon.

I’m assuming the YouTube display default rate is 30 FPS. I know the Park Service update rate for the camera is every 5 minutes throughout the day (they try to keep this up as they are dependent on solar power and various wireless communications. Your video has seems to have 2 captured frames for every output frame. Altering this repetition is the simplest way to regulate the viewing speed and time.

I might suggest, if possible for you, to cutout (or speed up) some of the darkness unless something interesting was happening. In that case slow down the put (whether in darkness or daytime.)

I am curious. You either have tremendous amounts of spare time or some computer skills to write and script or capture program, or acquired a nice capture program.

Do you have captures for all (or any of) the other days? I can remember a couple of days where wildlife were moving about. I wish the Park Service would record these and make them available. All the web cams at Michigan Tech offer this.

I’ve done something similar work except roughly one day per presentation frame was used. It was the old Mott Island camera location though.
Mott Island 2016 to 2018

If you add a bit of music, be careful since the song I picked got flag by YouTube as protected by the orchestra performing the piece even though the copyright has long passed. All is good, they simply told me I can never monetize it. No worries there, one needs 1000 subscribers to begin to qualify. I am working on ones for the new cameras. I’d like to discuss further offline.

[Kelly]

Noted, and sent!

[torpified]

they're very soothing! And I love watching the shadows swing round during the sunny parts!

[Kelly]

I've just put up March 17, 18, and 19. March 18 may be my favorite so far.

March 19 illustrates well something that the sharper-eyed among you may have already noticed: not every day has the same number of images available. That day had 104, while March 14 is composed of 274 images. The max we can expect is around 288. I've been told that power is the limiting factor, not storage.

[dcclark]

March 18th -- is that moon shadows at the start? The moon is just a sliver right now!

Edit: Immediate D'OH -- the moon was indeed full on March 18th. The moon is a sliver now... April 4th.

[Ingo]

Love it!

[Kelly]

Because this is an every day kind of thing, and my time is not unlimited, my goal for the process of getting these to YouTube is ten minutes or less. It takes about 8.5 minutes to do what I've been doing, and that feels sustainable.

There are still a couple of things rolling around:

• It would be nice to have another computer set up to capture images. There will be download failures on my end. The right computer will be on 24/7. The software is not hard to set up.

• Creating daily videos is but one thing that can be done with all of these images. Others can do something, and it would be helpful to sort out how to make those available to others. Probably won't worry about this until someone asks.

[fonixmunkee]

Kelly, this is so cool! I didn't even know there was a camera on the Greenstone ridge until now! And I'm pretty sure I've now watched all the videos that are on there. It's very soothing!

• It would be nice to have another computer set up to capture images. There will be download failures on my end. The right computer will be on 24/7. The software is not hard to set up.

Have you looked at a Raspberry Pi? They are powerful computers that don't cost much and use very little power. I've used them for a variety of projects with great success.

• Creating daily videos is but one thing that can be done with all of these images. Others can do something, and it would be helpful to sort out how
  to make those available to others. Probably won't worry about this until someone asks.

With your permission, I'd like to rename and pin this post to the top of the forums to see if anyone would be willing to help you out with automating this project. Is that something you'd be interested in?

This is an incredibly cool project; thank you for sharing.

[Kelly]

Uh, I've SEEN Raspberry Pis but am not myself inclined to figure them out in this context.

And yes--help is welcome! I'm glad you've enjoyed them.

[Kelly]

I've been downloading Mott Island Dock photos as well, and it wasn't until April 27 that there were more than a handful of photos available.

See results for April 28 here.

I estimate a 20% chance of keeping up with the Mott Island Dock videos.

[TopCarrot]

I know I’m a little late but I like em and would only want to see them slowed down a bit.

[Kelly]

I know I’m a little late but I like em and would only want to see them slowed down a bit.

I'm relying on viewers using YouTube settings to slow them down.

[sparky49931]

Great timelapse! Nice work putting those together.

Communications from the webcams are never 100%. Power availability is definitely a limiting factor for the quantity and reliability of images posted to the web. The system are pretty conservatively designed.. the equipment all has to run for 6 months at a time with no physical intervention if something goes wrong. The power systems have to run other critical system and equipment... "extra" power and communications bandwidth is used for the webcams. Lessons are being learned every year as to how to do it better.

The drastic change noted in number of images posted from Mott Island around the end of April every year is based on when NPS staff get out to the island and turn on the generators. With abundant power on hand, along with a more robust communications link, the camera produces many more images. I'm hopeful to be able to provide more images from Mott this Winter. We are in the process of upgrading the solar power system as we speak.

The Ojibway SW webcam was recently replaced with a new camera that has a much more natural appearing lens. This camera also has the ability to do long exposure time images in the dark.. up to 2 seconds. Eagle eyed camera viewers may notice some streaking in the stars when the wind is blowing... Camera is on the lookup tower about 80 feet up in the air and moves slightly in a strong wind. Bright lights now visible at the edges of the images are from the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan, over 50 miles away, and from the Canadian Shoreline South of Thunder Bay.

Some other changes and improvements are likely on the horizon.. if you're going to the webcams from a bookmark, I suggest you check our main page periodically so you don't miss any new stuff.

Public interest in the webcams is what motivates the park to invest time and resources to installing, maintaining, and operating them.