Time to get back to this blog. I got burnt out of blogging in the last quarter of 2010. But I saw a cache that I just had to post about. And this cache features something I might consider the WOW Factor. It's not a new concept, but the WOW Factor basically means a cache that makes your jaw drop. It's cool. It's creative. It's something you want to show your friends. It's the cache you don't forget. A previously featured cache, Dr. Who is an example of a WOW Factor cache. So is this one. By the way, I'm not providing the name or GC Code for this one as I haven't talked with the owner. But at the moment, it is an archived cache so you'll just have to do with drooling over what you missed.
Now, you might be asking yourself, "Why was THIS archived?" The exact answer hasn't been made public as far as I'm aware, but it wouldn't be hard to guess. The partial burial is partly to blame. If permission was obtained, burial would likely be allowed. This one probably doesn't have the permission of the property owner. At least, that's my guess. There are indications that if that is obtained, it might be unarchived. This one deserves to be seen. It's unfortunate that it got archived, but it's also a good example of why permission should be obtained before placement of a geocache, especially one of this caliber.
TripCyclone
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Geocaching...from your computer?
I am trying to stick to a bi-weekly posting on this site. Last weekend found me away from home from Saturday through Tuesday, and I forgot. So here is a quick post featuring an online friend of mine, ErikaJean. Erika has put together a rather interesting blog that combines several of her various interests, including geocaching. It's obvious to anyone reading her blog that the keyboard loves her. But today, we focus on a YouTube video she put together that definitely fits into the Creative Caches site. It's called Interactive Geocaching, but there's just one problem. There's no actual cache to find.
If you are a fan of computer games, you've probably played a game inspired by Myst. Myst was an graphic adventure game released in 1993, most notable for it's "Choose Your Own Adventure" like method of story telling. You were in control of how you played the game, with the ability to explore at your own free will. You clicked on a spot in the game and it would either move you in that direction, or you interacted with something in the game world.
Erika has created a YouTube video that plays out just like Myst. The collection of videos give you the opportunity to try and find a geocache from the comfort of your computer. Now while none of our readers will be able to claim a find from the video, I have an idea for how to turn this into an actual cache.
Required Materials
Now, pick a collection of different items within your view: bushes, trees, man-made structures, etc. You want a good collection of a least 10 different items. Try to make the items viable hiding locations for your container (this works best if you are using a micro or small container). Shoot a short introduction video of the scene with you speaking in the background. If your camera has the option, make sure to stop each time you shoot a scene so you have easy reference points for later editing.
Once you've shot the intro, begin shooting video of you walking towards the various objects you noted earlier. If your hand comes into view as you move things about in a fake search for a cache container then don't worry about it. Play it up a bit. Add commentary as you film. After you film the various objects, pick a couple of random points that may seem like obviously unlike locations, but film them anyway. It will provide more options for viewers.
Once you're done filming, and you have both the starting coords for the video and the final location's coords, head on home and go through the process of editing. You'll need a collection of short videos encompassing all of the random points people might choose, including the correct location. Edit them however you want, but in the clip that leads to the actual cache, post the coordinates for Waypoint A into the end of the video. This way, when people find the correct location in the video, they will get the coordinates for the video's starting location. Once they arrive on scene, they should see a view just like the video. They already know where the final is located at, so the find will be easy from that point on.
Now all you need to do is upload the videos. YouTube provides an easy, free option for doing so. Once they are uploaded, you'll need to add linked notes to the video. YouTube calls them "annotations" and they can be added by going to "My Videos" after logging in, finding the starting video, and clicking on "Annotations". When you do this, make sure you have a second tab open so you can get the URL's for each video. Pick the point in the starting video where you want to give people the option to pick their choices. Pause the video there and add a notation. Spread the annotation out over one of the areas people can choose, switch it to the "Notes" type (you can use "Speech Bubble" or "Spotlight" if you want), then click on the chain link icon to create an Annotation Link. This is where you paste the URL for the video that explores that particular spot. You'll have to be organized at this point so that all of the annotations link to the proper videos. Once done, you'll have a video much like Erika's.
Yes, it's an easy find for anyone who completes the video. But it will also be a fun find. Due to the nature of the design, it should probably be listed as a puzzle cache. This means that even cachers who don't like puzzles would be hard pressed to complain about this. And if they automatically ignore puzzles without even looking at them, this is a shining example of why that practice can backfire. This is also a kid friendly cache design that any geocachers with kids in your area will enjoy.
Enjoy,
TripCyclone
PS: And a thanks to ErikaJean for letting me highlight her video. The starting video is below:
If you are a fan of computer games, you've probably played a game inspired by Myst. Myst was an graphic adventure game released in 1993, most notable for it's "Choose Your Own Adventure" like method of story telling. You were in control of how you played the game, with the ability to explore at your own free will. You clicked on a spot in the game and it would either move you in that direction, or you interacted with something in the game world.
Erika has created a YouTube video that plays out just like Myst. The collection of videos give you the opportunity to try and find a geocache from the comfort of your computer. Now while none of our readers will be able to claim a find from the video, I have an idea for how to turn this into an actual cache.
Required Materials
- A micro or small geocache, ready to go
- A video camera
- A computer
Now, pick a collection of different items within your view: bushes, trees, man-made structures, etc. You want a good collection of a least 10 different items. Try to make the items viable hiding locations for your container (this works best if you are using a micro or small container). Shoot a short introduction video of the scene with you speaking in the background. If your camera has the option, make sure to stop each time you shoot a scene so you have easy reference points for later editing.
Once you've shot the intro, begin shooting video of you walking towards the various objects you noted earlier. If your hand comes into view as you move things about in a fake search for a cache container then don't worry about it. Play it up a bit. Add commentary as you film. After you film the various objects, pick a couple of random points that may seem like obviously unlike locations, but film them anyway. It will provide more options for viewers.
Once you're done filming, and you have both the starting coords for the video and the final location's coords, head on home and go through the process of editing. You'll need a collection of short videos encompassing all of the random points people might choose, including the correct location. Edit them however you want, but in the clip that leads to the actual cache, post the coordinates for Waypoint A into the end of the video. This way, when people find the correct location in the video, they will get the coordinates for the video's starting location. Once they arrive on scene, they should see a view just like the video. They already know where the final is located at, so the find will be easy from that point on.
Now all you need to do is upload the videos. YouTube provides an easy, free option for doing so. Once they are uploaded, you'll need to add linked notes to the video. YouTube calls them "annotations" and they can be added by going to "My Videos" after logging in, finding the starting video, and clicking on "Annotations". When you do this, make sure you have a second tab open so you can get the URL's for each video. Pick the point in the starting video where you want to give people the option to pick their choices. Pause the video there and add a notation. Spread the annotation out over one of the areas people can choose, switch it to the "Notes" type (you can use "Speech Bubble" or "Spotlight" if you want), then click on the chain link icon to create an Annotation Link. This is where you paste the URL for the video that explores that particular spot. You'll have to be organized at this point so that all of the annotations link to the proper videos. Once done, you'll have a video much like Erika's.
Yes, it's an easy find for anyone who completes the video. But it will also be a fun find. Due to the nature of the design, it should probably be listed as a puzzle cache. This means that even cachers who don't like puzzles would be hard pressed to complain about this. And if they automatically ignore puzzles without even looking at them, this is a shining example of why that practice can backfire. This is also a kid friendly cache design that any geocachers with kids in your area will enjoy.
Enjoy,
TripCyclone
PS: And a thanks to ErikaJean for letting me highlight her video. The starting video is below:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
A Picture Perfect Puzzle
On today's edition of Creative Caches & Containers, we come back to the category of puzzle caches. This time, we will look at a puzzle cache that not only can be made to fit ANY cache container you so desire, but can be solved by anyone.
For this puzzle, you will need a few things:
To solve the puzzle, geocachers have to use the photos to figure out where you were standing. Then, upon determining where you were at when you took the photos, they commence the cache finding operation. Voila, you have a puzzle cache.
Relatively simple in design, and simple in execution, there are a few things we want to look at. First of all is location. When finding a location for just this kind of cache, you need to make sure that there are visual landmarks nearby that can be matched up in photos. Topography, artwork, buildings, signs, poles, and even landscaping (in doses) can make good visual landmarks. On the other hand, placing this kind of cache out in the woods is torture. It doesn't mean it can't be done. You might be able to find some unique looking trees that really stand out from the surrounding trees, providing an easy landmark. But in general, it isn't going to have geocachers walking away in a happy mood.
The next thing to consider is the photos. You want the photos to be useful in identifying where you stood. There are two ways to do the photos. You can take a group of individual photos in different directions from where you stood. A cacher would print off the photos and upon arriving on site, would use compare the relative positions of objects in the photos to triangulate the cache location. But, you could also get more elaborate and produce a panoramic. I know that not all of you are familiar with making a panoramic, so let's look at how that is done. This is where the Creative Cache article turns into a Photography How-To article.
Panoramics are rather simple to make. In the simplest sense, it only takes two overlapping photos to make a panoramic. Ideally, you want to use a tripod to ensure horizontally level photos. For the purposes of this puzzle cache, you can easily shoot it handheld. You can shoot the photos two wide, three wide, or more. You can shoot two tall, three tall, or more. No matter how many photos make up your final image, there's just one thing you need to make sure you do. The photos need to overlap each other by about 1/4th to 1/3rd of the photos. I've provided an example of my own for you below. In this example, you'll see two images side by side. The section of the photo that is Black and White shows the section of the final image that overlaps. These were taken handheld.
Notice the tall tree in the overlapping section. When taking photos for a panoramic, it's important that SOMETHING is visible in that section of the photo. This provides points for software to match up when combining the images.
Combining photos would seem like a hard task. You have to individually go back and forth matching up specific points on both photos, then hoping the software can recognize those points and properly stitch together the images. But wait, there's more. After doing that, you will likely have to open the photo up in an image editor and fix any color differences to blend the images seamlessly. Yeah, not exactly something to look forward to. Thankfully, there is software out there that will drastically simplify the process. It's called AUTOSTITCH.
Once the software is on your computer, open it up. Before doing anything else, open the "Options" menu. In the upper left corner is an option for image size that will have 10% as the default value. Change that to 100%. You can play with other options if you want, but the only other thing I usually mess with is something in the lower left that says "Sigma gain". I usually push this to .3 instead of .1 before closing the options. Then, just load the images and the program will do the work for you. It isn't perfect, but most problems that I have ever run into are usually the result of a poor images and not the software. Here is an example of the above two images after running them through Autostitch:
Once the program is done stitching the photos, just open the photo up in a basic image editing program and crop out the black borders if desired. For posting on Groundspeak's site, you'll probably want to reduce the image size a bit. Most image editors have an option for that.
There you go. You have the images you need for producing this puzzle. But, I have one more trick up my sleeve. And for this one, I'm going to employ some help from Team Gamsci, a geocacher from De Sota, Iowa. Team Gamsci likes to take videos, which you can view on their YouTube Channel, which displays some of their Geocaching videos. In 2007, while thinking about videos, Team Gamsci came up with an idea very similar to the one I've described above, but with one difference. Instead of using a picture, they made a video while standing next to the cache. In fact, the tip about having identifiable landmarks came from Team Gamsci when I asked if he had any tips for someone interesting in using their idea. The cache they did this with is called Frames Per Second, and it is located West of Des Moines, Iowa right off of Interstate 80. I actually found this cache back in May of 2009 while on my way back to Kansas City from visiting the GPS Adventure Maze with WebScouter., one of my Geo-buddies.
This can be a fun puzzle for anyone of any age. The use of pictures or videos makes this a very visual puzzle that anyone can solve too. And everyone likes puzzles that anyone can solve.
TripCyclone
For this puzzle, you will need a few things:
- A cache container
- A logbook
- A computer
- A camera
To solve the puzzle, geocachers have to use the photos to figure out where you were standing. Then, upon determining where you were at when you took the photos, they commence the cache finding operation. Voila, you have a puzzle cache.
Relatively simple in design, and simple in execution, there are a few things we want to look at. First of all is location. When finding a location for just this kind of cache, you need to make sure that there are visual landmarks nearby that can be matched up in photos. Topography, artwork, buildings, signs, poles, and even landscaping (in doses) can make good visual landmarks. On the other hand, placing this kind of cache out in the woods is torture. It doesn't mean it can't be done. You might be able to find some unique looking trees that really stand out from the surrounding trees, providing an easy landmark. But in general, it isn't going to have geocachers walking away in a happy mood.
The next thing to consider is the photos. You want the photos to be useful in identifying where you stood. There are two ways to do the photos. You can take a group of individual photos in different directions from where you stood. A cacher would print off the photos and upon arriving on site, would use compare the relative positions of objects in the photos to triangulate the cache location. But, you could also get more elaborate and produce a panoramic. I know that not all of you are familiar with making a panoramic, so let's look at how that is done. This is where the Creative Cache article turns into a Photography How-To article.
Panoramics are rather simple to make. In the simplest sense, it only takes two overlapping photos to make a panoramic. Ideally, you want to use a tripod to ensure horizontally level photos. For the purposes of this puzzle cache, you can easily shoot it handheld. You can shoot the photos two wide, three wide, or more. You can shoot two tall, three tall, or more. No matter how many photos make up your final image, there's just one thing you need to make sure you do. The photos need to overlap each other by about 1/4th to 1/3rd of the photos. I've provided an example of my own for you below. In this example, you'll see two images side by side. The section of the photo that is Black and White shows the section of the final image that overlaps. These were taken handheld.
Notice the tall tree in the overlapping section. When taking photos for a panoramic, it's important that SOMETHING is visible in that section of the photo. This provides points for software to match up when combining the images.Combining photos would seem like a hard task. You have to individually go back and forth matching up specific points on both photos, then hoping the software can recognize those points and properly stitch together the images. But wait, there's more. After doing that, you will likely have to open the photo up in an image editor and fix any color differences to blend the images seamlessly. Yeah, not exactly something to look forward to. Thankfully, there is software out there that will drastically simplify the process. It's called AUTOSTITCH.
Once the software is on your computer, open it up. Before doing anything else, open the "Options" menu. In the upper left corner is an option for image size that will have 10% as the default value. Change that to 100%. You can play with other options if you want, but the only other thing I usually mess with is something in the lower left that says "Sigma gain". I usually push this to .3 instead of .1 before closing the options. Then, just load the images and the program will do the work for you. It isn't perfect, but most problems that I have ever run into are usually the result of a poor images and not the software. Here is an example of the above two images after running them through Autostitch:
Once the program is done stitching the photos, just open the photo up in a basic image editing program and crop out the black borders if desired. For posting on Groundspeak's site, you'll probably want to reduce the image size a bit. Most image editors have an option for that.
There you go. You have the images you need for producing this puzzle. But, I have one more trick up my sleeve. And for this one, I'm going to employ some help from Team Gamsci, a geocacher from De Sota, Iowa. Team Gamsci likes to take videos, which you can view on their YouTube Channel, which displays some of their Geocaching videos. In 2007, while thinking about videos, Team Gamsci came up with an idea very similar to the one I've described above, but with one difference. Instead of using a picture, they made a video while standing next to the cache. In fact, the tip about having identifiable landmarks came from Team Gamsci when I asked if he had any tips for someone interesting in using their idea. The cache they did this with is called Frames Per Second, and it is located West of Des Moines, Iowa right off of Interstate 80. I actually found this cache back in May of 2009 while on my way back to Kansas City from visiting the GPS Adventure Maze with WebScouter., one of my Geo-buddies.
This can be a fun puzzle for anyone of any age. The use of pictures or videos makes this a very visual puzzle that anyone can solve too. And everyone likes puzzles that anyone can solve.
TripCyclone
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