I have not written a blog for some time. I do have a lot to say about life, the world, and society. But more recently when I decided to work on personal projects of mine, including my website I also noticed that not very many images of me appear when I do a Google image search.
So I decided to start uploading photos to Picasa Web Albums which has been acquired by Google, and is part of my Google+ profile. The hope is that these photos will appear in the Google image search results. My YouTube videos already appear in the Google search results (since Google owns YouTube).
I'm not a narcissist, but when someone Googles,"Darryl Learie" I want Darryl Learie to come up, especially when its an image search its only fitting that images of me show up.
Unfortunately when working with Picasa Web Albums there appears to be 2 interfaces; one through one's Google+ profile and the other through Picasa Web Albums (as Google is still integrating Picasa under its own functionality). So one has to switch between the 2 interfaces depending on which functions one wishes to use. Sadly neither interface is user friendly.
For the purposes of image SEO (Search Image Optimization), I still have yet to find a way to tag myself in my own photos. It appears that other people have to tag me (that needs to change)? But Ive tried filling in whatever empty fields like 'captions' and 'tags' to,"Darryl Learie" so the Google search engines may be able to find me with their web crawlers.
However when checking the links behind those photos of me that do show up under Googles image search, I noticed they're images that have been posted either on my blog, website or shared to another website.
So I will post those images I wish most to show up on Googles image search onto this blog. I'll also share the links to my specific Picasa Web Albums (fingers crossed). As an added bonus every picture I uploaded of myself has,"Photo of Darryl Learie" water marked upon it - so if any of the pictures do show up in the searches, people will know it is me and not someone else (or that I'm at least in the picture).
Darryl Learie - 1973 12 06
Darryl Learie - 1974
Darryl Learie (center) - 1974 (left - Irenee Vastamaa (mother), right - Wayne Wellington Learie (father))
Time for a happier post. I am the type who likes to push my limits and break records in all categories - and technology is no exception. More recently I wanted to push the limits on YouTube videos. I set out to create the shortest HD (1280 X 720 Pixels) YouTube Video.
I chose the category of shortest HD video because the shortest YouTube video had already been done.
What is the shortest YouTube video possible? When you upload a video unto YouTube that video is converted into YouTube's own format (most likely an MP4 format) at a standard frame rate of 30 frames per second. That means that each frame plays for 0.03 seconds or 1/30 of a second.
However, a single frame does not qualify as video because by definition video is a series of slightly different pictures depicting motion. A single frame is no more than a picture with a very short duration embedded in a video format without motion and thus cannot be considered true video.
So the shortest possible YouTube video would be at least 2 frames playing consecutively at 30 frames per second. Thus the shortest true YouTube video would last 0.06 seconds or 1/15 of a second.
The shortest HD YouTube video I successfully uploaded to YouTube was 0.366 seconds long and consisted of 9 frames at 25 frames per second. The video format uploaded was WMV 9 video with a bitrate of 7,000 kbps at 1280 X 720 pixels.
I had tried uploading videos with fewer frames but the upload kept failing. I had even tried uploading shorter videos in FLV, Mpeg, MP4, and AVI video formats but the upload kept failing. I had even tried uploading shorter videos using the suggested H.264 codec (The most recommended codec for YouTube) but the upload kept failing. I even tried an uncompressed AVI using virtual dub.
I searched for the shortest video on YouTube and found one titled,"Shortest Video Ever On YouTube!" The video had 2,164,917 views and was uploaded by charlestrippy.
Now I don't know if this is truly the shortest video on YouTube or if he was the first to do the shortest video on YouTube (sadly there are no official YouTube records) but it does seem to play just 2 frames.
So I downloaded the video file with my FireFox browser using a plugin named,"Download Helper," and the video format was an FLV. If I remember right the FLV was just 48 kb.
So FLV video format must be part of the key to uploading the shortest YouTube video. Either way, Ill keep trying, I did however register my claim of the shortest HD YouTube Video with RecordSetter.
As a note, YouTube will soon be allowing a maximum frame rate of 60 frames per second. When this occurs, the shortest possible YouTube video will be 1/30 of a second or 0.03 seconds (with at least 2 frames).
2014 10 26
Aside from trying to create the shortest HD YouTube Video, I wanted to do something that had never been done before in video. I created 2 videos in 1 video.
Normally when we watch video each frame played is somewhat similar to the frame before it and these frames are part of the same scene. What I did was alternate the frames from 2 different videos. Therefore, the first frame was from video 1, the second frame was from video 2, the third frame was from video 1, and so on.
The over-all video played at a frame rate of 30 frames per second, and half of those frames were from video 1, and the other half of the frames were from video 2. Therefore, video 1, and 2 were playing at 15 frames per second each.
Its a really interesting video to watch, it would seem that the human brain perceives 2 translucent videos playing at once. And I do not know of anyone who has tried this before.
I used virtual dub to export each frame as a picture from video 1, and 2 into 2 different folders. From folder 1, I used a bulk rename utility to name each frame by odd numbers. From Folder 2, I named each frame by even numbers. I than added the contents of folder 1, and 2 into folder 3. And from Folder 3 I loaded the pictures into virtual dub, and set the frame rate at 30 frames per second to produce my final video.
2014 10 27
I wanted to push the technology of my Iphone 5c, and attempt to record a 4 K (3840 X 2160 pixels) video to upload to YouTube. As you know the Iphone 5c can only record a maximum HD resolution of (1920 X 1080 Pixels).
However, The Iphone can take 8 MP pictures with its camera (each picture is 3264 X 2448 pixels). I simply took 30 pictures, and loaded them into virtual dub to produce an uncompressed AVI video at 30 frames per second. The resulting 1 second video was 685 MB, which took well over an hour to upload.
It is my highest resolution video at 3264 X 2448 pixels, and within the YouTube video settings you can watch it at 4K resolution.
4 K is 4 times the resolution of HD video and is the highest resolution you can upload to YouTube.
2014 10 31
The lowest resolution you can upload to YouTube is 144 pixels (theoretically 12 X 12 pixels). The video made up of the fewest pixels that I could successfully upload was 16 X 24 pixels (384 pixels). I had tried uploading YouTube videos with fewer pixels but the YouTube uploader kept failing.
I had also submitted my record breaking claim to RecordSetter.com.
I wanted to create the fastest picture slide show on YouTube. I simply loaded all of my 10,392 pictures into virtual dub and set the frame rate at 30 frames per second. The Uncompressed AVI video plays for 5 minutes, 46 seconds. Every frame that makes up the video is a completely different picture. That is to say the video plays 30 pictures per second.
I submitted my record breaking claim to RecordSetter.com.
I also learned that the maximum duration YouTube will now allow is 11 hours. So I may attempt the longest HD YouTube Video but I am sure it would take days to upload.
