Mobile phones have taken over the world but i'm putting one above the world
As part of HTC's creatography campaign i was asked to use there phones in a project, now i do use my phone in projects already as a calculator,or to take pictures for this website and making notes and lists for future ideas but that would make for quite a dull video compared to most so having recently seen someone send a high altitude balloon and mini camera up to the edge of space i thought that looks like fun lets have ago at that.
On doing a bit of searching on the net theres a few projects like this with phones in space but very few use the phone to film they just film the phone but also they don't do anything they just film so i thought i'd make it a bit more exciting, a bit more FURZE
On doing a bit of searching on the net theres a few projects like this with phones in space but very few use the phone to film they just film the phone but also they don't do anything they just film so i thought i'd make it a bit more exciting, a bit more FURZE
So my plan is to send the phones up to plus 100,000 feet and somehow along the way set of some fireworks to keep the assent more interesting. Now usually i go into detail on here about how things are done but until the last video is out i would be giving things away as this turned out to be quite a project but ultimately very simple. One other thing i should remind of is every part of all 3 videos is filmed on the phones there is no other camera used in these videos.
As you can see the phones could withstand the cold quite well but they will be exposed to much lower temperatures than -22 so i could still have a problem. The biggest issue we could have is if the battery runs out before the memory on the phone is full as the video does not get saved and the whole trip will be for nothing so i need to either hope the phones stay warm or to minimise risk only have enough memory to film the journey with nothing spare. As for the fireworks looks like i'm sticking with rockets even though the cakes would give a better chance of me capturing a firework on camera as these don't have wide angle fish eye less like a GoPro the field of view is quite small and the balloons don't stay still they spin and sway around quite a bit i'm told so even capturing a firework could be a challenge in itself. Ok ready to go n set some balloons off, For reference in the uk you have to get clearance from the CAA, other countries have different rules and the country we did these flights in pretty much has no rules upto a package weight of 4kg so thats where we went.......but did it all work......of all the challenges i've undertaken this was one i have no idea if i will succeed or fail as once you let go of the balloon its down to chance........
YES i GOT PAID BY HTC BUT I'M GENUINELY IMPRESSED WITH THE IMAGES THE PHONES SHOT
So after 12 balloon launches and thousands of miles travelled picking them up i have made a video from above 100,000ft above the earth and this feels strange as when i look at this video it's hard for me to grasp that i set it up and its not some library footage, then added theres the fact this was filmed on a mobile phone. We take phones for granted these days but its a phone a slim piece of tech we slip in are pocket with a lens no bigger than a pencil and it captured the videos above, yes there are better cameras but they can not call your mates order food etc etc etc. But this was a tricky video not for the loverly earth shots as i got them on the 2nd attempt but the fireworks.
My plan after setting the fireworks off in bags of helium and off camera i did it in a box of argon to just incase was to get to the highest altitude the balloon would go set off a rocket and try n get a fire to go off in the black bit above the earth, but they just would not light. I tried different fuses with more oxidiser ,insulating the firework,sealing it from any moisture but still no ignition so my only conclusion is the low pressure is changing the flash point of either the fuse or the Ematch. With this in mind i had to go for a lower altitude but then once i had a height that it worked then was the next task of catching it on camera. As you see in the video the fireworks can just shoot out of shot and with the balloon swinging and spinning even with 4 phones one on each side off the box i would still miss the bang. So after i think 6 balloons i caught 2 fireworks (weather restricts when you can launch and i only had so much time in the country we were doing this) but thats the joy off the challenge
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With the firework aside the phones did great they coped with the cold and gave no problems at all and just became one of those things you don't think about, sliding them into the insulated box without swiping the screen and flipping it to the front camera nearly had me in rage a few times but other tis they did great. The rig i used where the then phone filmed a phone playing the video of me talking was a little different but the external phone only lasted about 30mins before getting to cold so hence why the footage off this is all at low altitude. Pictured below is the some of the different rigs and the GPS tracker i used. And as usual my interest in typing has ran out.....