Mikontalo Lights Project

Martin Brinkmann
Dec 9, 2007
Updated • May 21, 2018
Music and Video
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The Mikontalo Lights Project was created by the students of Tampere University of Technology in Finland. "The object of MIKONTALOLIGHTS was to create the world's physically largest colored graphics platform by using the windows of Mikontalo's D-staircase as light pixels.

The platform was used to play Tetris and other games and to present demos created by the students of Tampere University of Technology."

The technique used in this project sounds intriguing. Each window acts as an individual pixel substituted by LED lights that are controlled by computers. A total of 99 pixels are available to display static and moving content in different colors.

Mikontalo Lights Project

The games and demos are controlled using a mobile phone and either a Bluetooth or WLAN connection. Below are some amazing videos that show students playing Tetris and a Space Invader clone. Some demo movies - they actually held a demo competition - are shown at the end as well.

Update: The building was undergoing construction in December 2007 that is why it was selected by the students for the project as they had access to all rooms with windows of the building. Obviously, the height of the building played another important role as it would not have been as groundbreaking if the building was smaller in size.

Building construction continued for two more years and students who visit the Tampere university find affordable - for Scandinavia - apartments here. The close proximity to Tampere Technical University - less than a kilometer - makes it a desired location for students who go to that school. Apartments start at about 206 Euro per month if they are shared and go up to 536 Euro for family apartments that offer more living space but still only one bedroom.

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Mikontalo Lights Project
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Mikontalo Lights Project
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The Mikontalo Lights Project was created by the students of Tampere University of Technology in Finland.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Anonymous said on August 1, 2010 at 12:43 pm
    Reply

    Why not make use of the mplayer.conf?

  2. Mike J said on August 1, 2010 at 2:58 pm
    Reply

    Huh, I have never even seen this “font cache” pane; videos play at once for me, using VLC & XP SP3.

    1. Martin said on August 1, 2010 at 3:39 pm
      Reply

      Mike, in theory this should have only been displayed once to you, at the very first video that you played with VLC. The time this window is displayed depends largely on the number of fonts in your font directory.

      1. Mike J said on August 2, 2010 at 2:30 pm
        Reply

        huh, I lucked out for a change?? Amazing!!
        Apparently VLC keeps this info through version updates, but I didn’t see this message after a fresh OS install about 8 weeks ago, & a new VLC.

  3. myo said on August 1, 2010 at 5:52 pm
    Reply

    yes, yes, i have the same problem. sometimes, VLC crashes when it is playing .mov file.

  4. Kishore said on August 13, 2010 at 2:55 pm
    Reply

    Error:
    Buidling font Cache pop-up

    Solution:

    Open VLC player.

    On Menu Bar:

    Tools
    Preferences

    (at bottom – left side)
    Show settings — ALL

    Open: Video
    Click: Subtitles/OSD (This is now highlited, not opened)
    Text rendering module – change this to “Dummy font renderer function”

    Save
    Exit

    Re-open – done.
    Progam will no longer look outside self for fonts

    Source – WorthyTricks.co.cc

    1. Martin said on August 13, 2010 at 3:10 pm
      Reply

      Great tip, thanks a lot Kishore.

  5. javier said on August 14, 2010 at 1:50 pm
    Reply

    @Kishore, I’ll try your tips, but does this mean it will no longer show subtitles either?
    I do use subtitles, but the fontcache dialog box pops up (almost) everytime I play a file.

    Could this be related to the fonts I have installed? Or if I add/remove fonts to my system?

    I’ll try to do a fresh install also, if your tips does no work. I’ll post back here later…

    /thanks
    /j

  6. Kishore said on August 15, 2010 at 12:38 pm
    Reply

    @ Javier, The trick i posted will show up subtitles too. If not,

  7. Kishore said on August 15, 2010 at 12:39 pm
    Reply

    @ Javier, The trick i posted will show up subtitles too. If not,Dont worry, VLC is currently sorting out this issue and the next version will be out soon.

    No probs @ Martin !! Its my pleasure

  8. Ted said on October 22, 2010 at 3:57 am
    Reply

    Try running LC with administrator privileges. That seemed to fix it for me

  9. Evan said on December 8, 2013 at 1:48 am
    Reply

    I am using SMplayer 0.8.6 (64-bit) (Portable Edition) on Windows 7 x64. Even with the -nofontconfig parameter in place SMplayer still scans the fonts. Also, I have enabled normal subtitles and it is still scanning fonts before playing a video. Also, it does this every time the player opens a video after a system restart (only the fist video played).

  10. Mike Williams said on September 6, 2023 at 1:26 pm
    Reply

    Does that mean that only instrumental versions of songs will be available for non-paying users?

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