Update my own python audio and video time-lapse and motion capture apps and publish by dmair

Project Description

Many years ago, in my own time, I wrote a Qt python application to periodically capture frames from a V4L2 video device (e.g. a webcam) and used it to create daily weather timelapse videos from windows at my home. I have maintained it at home in my own time and this year have added motion detection making it a functional video security tool but with no guarantees. I also wrote a linux audio monitoring app in python using Qt in my own time that captures live signal strength along with 24 hour history of audio signal level/range and audio spectrum. I recently added background noise filtering to the app. In due course I aim to include voice detection, currently I'm assuming via Google's public audio interface. Neither of these is a professional home security app but between them they permit a user to freely monitor video and audio data from a home in a manageable way. Both projects are on github but out-of-date with personal work, I would like to organize and update the github versions of these projects.

Goal for this Hackweek

It would probably help to migrate all the v4l2py module based video code to linuxpy.video based code and that looks like a re-write of large areas of the video code. It would also be good to remove a lot of python lint that is several years old to improve the projects with the main goal being to push the recent changes with better organized code to github. If there is enough time I'd like to take the in-line Qt QSettings persistent state code used per-app and write a python class that encapsulates the Qt QSettings class in a value_of(name)/name=value manner for shared use in projects so that persistent state can be accessed read or write anywhere within the apps using a simple interface.

Resources

• Video time-lapse capture app
• Audio monitoring app

I'm not specifically looking for help but welcome other input.

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Create a DRM driver for VGA video cards by tdz

Yes, those VGA video cards. The goal of this project is to implement a DRM graphics driver for such devices. While actual hardware is hard to obtain or even run today, qemu emulates VGA output.

VGA has a number of limitations, which make this project interesting.

• There are only 640x480 pixels (or less) on the screen. That resolution is also a soft lower limit imposed by DRM. It's mostly a problem for desktop environments though.
• Desktop environments assume 16 million colors, but there are only 16 colors with VGA. VGA's 256 color palette is not available at 640x480. We can choose those 16 colors freely. The interesting part is how to choose them. We have to build a palette for the displayed frame and map each color to one of the palette's 16 entries. This is called dithering, and VGA's limitations are a good opportunity to learn about dithering algorithms.
• VGA has an interesting memory layout. Most graphics devices use linear framebuffers, which store the pixels byte by byte. VGA uses 4 bitplanes instead. Plane 0 holds all bits 0 of all pixels. Plane 1 holds all bits 1 of all pixels, and so on.

The driver will probably not be useful to many people. But, if finished, it can serve as test environment for low-level hardware. There's some interest in supporting old Amiga and Atari framebuffers in DRM. Those systems have similar limitations as VGA, but are harder to obtain and test with. With qemu, the VGA driver could fill this gap.

Apart from the Wikipedia entry, good resources on VGA are at osdev.net and FreeVGA

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New openSUSE-welcome by lkocman

Project Description

Let's revisit our existing openSUSE welcome app.

My goal was to show Leap 16 in a new coat. Welcome app adds to the first time use experience. We've recently added donation button to our existing welcome.

Some things that I recently wanted to address were EOL and possibly upgrade notification.

I've already done some experiments with mint welcome app, but not sure if it's better than the existing one.

There is also a PR to rework existing app https://github.com/openSUSE/openSUSE-welcome/pull/36 (this should be considered as an option too)

Goal for this Hackweek

New welcome app, possibly with EOL notification for Leap.

1) Welcome application(s) with (rebrand changes) maintained under github.com/openSUSE

2) Application is submitted to openSUSE:Factory && openSUSE:Leap:16.0

3) Updated needles in openQA (probably post hackweek)

Resources

Reddit discussion about the best welcome app out there.

Github repo for the current welcome app.

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Finish gfxprim application multiplexor (window manager) by metan

Project Description

I've implemented drivers for a few e-ink displays during the last hackweek and made sure that gfxprim widgets run nicely on e-ink as well. The missing piece to have a portable e-ink computer/reader/music player/... is a application that can switch between currently running applications and that can start new applications as well. Half of the solution is ready, there is a proxy gfxprim backend where applications render into a piece of a shared memory and input events (e.g. keyboard, mouse) can be multiplexed. What is missing is an interface (possibly touchscreen friendly as well) to make it user friendly.

Goal for this Hackweek

Make nekowm usable "window manager".

Resources

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Create DRM drivers for VESA and EFI framebuffers by tdz

Description

We already have simpledrm for firmware framebuffers. But the driver is originally for ARM boards, not PCs. It is already overloaded with code to support both use cases. At the same time it is missing possible features for VESA and EFI, such as palette modes or EDID support. We should have DRM drivers for VESA and EFI interfaces. The infrastructure exists already and initial drivers can be forked from simpledrm.

Goals

• Initially, a bare driver for VESA or EFI should be created. It can take functionality from simpledrm.
• Then we can begin to add additional features. The boot loader can provide EDID data. With VGA hardware, VESA can support paletted modes or color management. Example code exists in vesafb.

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