With a gorgeous view of the Italian seaside, we’re not surprised [Danilo Larizza] had a couple IP cameras set up to pull in real-time views. But using a Raspberry Pi, an environmental sensor, and some software trickery to overlay the current (and naturally, perfect) weather conditions over the images? Now he’s just teasing us.
Whatever his motives are, we have to admit that the end result is very nice. Especially when you find out that there’s no complex hardware or software at work here. An original Raspberry Pi is doing all the heavy lifting by pulling a frame from the external IP camera using ffmpeg, polling the I2C-connected BME280 temperature and humidity sensor with a Python script, and then producing a final snapshot with the environmental data laid over top using ImageMagick.
[Danilo] gives the exact commands he’s using for each step of the process, making it easy to follow along and see how everything comes together in the end. That also makes it much easier to adapt for your own purposes should you feel so inclined. Once you see how all the pieces fit together, where the data and images come from is up to you.
We’ve previously shown how some simple Python code can be used to turn your raw data into attractive images, and combining that with real-world photographs is an excellent way of turning a text file full of values into a display worth showing off.
Be more fun if you did it for somewhere where there’s not much chance of getting a live web feed…
“Welcome to Cydonia weather service, today’s forecast: Mostly dusty with outbreaks of weak sun, High -10, Wind E 50. 30% chance of CO2 pellets this evening…..”
I’m glad the humidity is displayed in its full glory with 13 digits of precision!
Heh, do we even trust any sensors to get within 1 sig fig of correct value?
I think the most accurate hygrometer I ever saw, apart from the wet bulb/dry bulb do the math type, was a piece of fabric soaked in a saturated salt solution, then dried, that changed color with humidity… forgot whether it was CuSO4 or Cobalt Chloride or what though.
yes, that is kinda funny. Even very expensive (relative to a BMP280 at least) Vaisala serial sensors report only XX.X% I love the overlay on the image- solar radiation, clouds, fog, precipitation, snow on the ground… just generally if it’s a nice day… it’s all in there!