Since July, I’ve started to get involved with the Eideticker project, which aims to measure response times and frame rates for both Firefox for Android and Firefox OS. I’ve mostly been involved with the Firefox OS work, which involves pointing a camera at a mobile device while tests run, and then processing the captured video.
One of the frustrating challenges is setting up the device and camera so they’re suitably positioned for the capture. The camera has a standard tripod mount, so we’ve been using the awesome Gorillapod, but the devices we’re using don’t have many compatible stands. So, seeing as I am a bit of a LEGO fanatic, I decided to see if I could build a suitable harness in my spare time.
An initial prototype for holding the phone didn’t take me too long to put together – and worked really well – so I decided to use LEGO’s Pick-A-Brick service to order all the parts I needed to build it without using parts from my own supply.
Other than unexpectedly finding two tiny white cupboard drawers(!) in my Pick-A-Brick order, the new case was perfect! A prototype for holding the PointGrey camera in place also didn’t take too long to put together once I’d worked out the ideal distance from the phone and height.
Once again I used the Lego Digital Designer to create a more polished version, and went to the Pick-A-Brick service to order the parts. These arrived just today, so I put together the final version. As you may notice from the photo of the complete prototype I had been using blu-tack to fix the camera in place, however for the final version I glued a 2×2 flat tile to the tripod mount that came with the camera.
This was the only irreversible part of the build, so I was a little nervous about doing it. I first sanded the surface of the tile so had more surface area, applied a small amount of glue to the tripod mount, and pressed the tile into place. Of course if it had gone wrong, I would only have needed to order a new tripod mount – obviously I would not recommend gluing anything directly to the camera!
If you’re interested in seeing Eideticker in action and you happen to be attending the Mozilla Summit in Brussels then I will be taking the harness with me for demonstrations. If you’re interested in building the harness for yourself, the following resources will be helpful:
- Lego Digital Designer model for Inari Pocket
- Building instructions for Inari Pocket
- Lego Digital Designer model for PointGrey Mount
- Building instructions for PointGrey Mount
Also, here’s a few more photos and screenshots of the Lego Digital Designer creations. All photos were taken with my ZTE Open running Firefox OS:
