

Feed some real fish via this web app - aram
https://www.aquard.io/

======
dTal
TheNextWeb damn near killed my browser, and it's just an ad-laden article
about the fish-food thing instead of the fish-food thing itself, which can be
found at [https://www.aquard.io/](https://www.aquard.io/)

I'm not at all certain the fish are real either.

~~~
jerf
"I'm not at all certain the fish are real either."

This is 2014. Assuming a decent level of development skills, it is not like
this is _so amazing_ that it just _has_ to be faked. Hooking up webcams to the
internet and hooking up a few web buttons to some real equipment via an
Arduino is so easy I can't help but think it's actually easier to set this up
for real than convincingly fake it in front of an Internet audience!

Seriously, folks, turn the cynicism knob down a bit. And I'm a cynic myself.

~~~
dllthomas
It seems not just easier to really do it, but tremendously easier. If it's
fake, that's probably more impressive!

~~~
d23
Eh, I dunno, you could just put the feeder on a timer and not have to deal
with scaling issues of allowing thousands of people to manage one feeding
apparatus.

~~~
dllthomas
The control being faked is plenty plausible. The _fish_ being faked is what I
was responding to.

~~~
akumanara
Hello there, I am Thomas, one of the guys involved in the development of
aquard.io. The fish are real and the feeding is FCFS (first came - first
served) based. We designed the logic based on an estimate of ~50 concurent
users. So it does not work well (for interactions) when massive users are
online. 300 Users to One Physical Object :/. Feel free to ask me anything
related to the project and from the side of the team thanks for enjoying it!

~~~
dllthomas
It's a cool project! Don't take the above to mean I think the control part
_is_ faked.

~~~
akumanara
As i told before, the control part is not faked. We have a dedicated PC
communicating with an Arduino UNO via a Serial port (USB). PC gets (web)
requests forwards it to Arduino and then it controls the airpump and the
feeder.

~~~
dllthomas
Yeah, I said I _don 't_ believe it was faked.

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donquichotte
Nice! I recently thought of doing something similar, where you can shoot
different kinds of real guns over the web and observe the effects over a
webcam. Payment per shot would be in Dogecoin, naturally.

~~~
1337biz
You are coming almost 10 years to late for that idea:

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2005/05...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2005/05/07/AR2005050701270.html)

~~~
philtar
Maybe they were 10 years too early?

Maybe there's room for two?

Maybe negative feedback just isn't the right thing to provide.

~~~
pessimizer
Maybe it's not an original idea, and if someone wants to try it again, they
could learn from studying the last time its been tried. Maybe? Maybe?

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rohanprabhu
I am not trying to be dismissive, but I don't see how this "Solves the problem
of remembering to feed the fish". If it is entirely automated, it can just as
easily be automated and the fish be fed automatically. I do understand the
aesthetic value of this, but I believe that that is the only value proposition
that this setup has. Am I missing something over here?

~~~
Dirlewanger
Yes, you're missing netting fake Internet points to show off your visually
stunning but ultimately pointless web application.

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aestra
Many many years ago my brother found a site where you could operate real claw
crane games remotely.

These:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claw_crane](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claw_crane)

They had a bunch in like a warehouse and you'd control the claw to see if you
could get the toys. Once and a while you'd see someone slightly off camera
walking around the warehouse throwing the toys back in. My brother and I got
good at those games from that site. They also had an address where you could
send in toys to be put in the games. I remember there was a roll of toilet
paper in one of the games, and sometimes other weird things too but I don't
recall anything else specifically.

Way better than feeding fish.

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TeMPOraL
I wonder if this is real. It'd be easy to run this system for a few days
recording enough video data to be able to just play it back to people without
them noticing. It also solves nicely the scaling problem (if you and 1000
other users connect to the real aquarium at the same time, what are the
chances that _you_ 're going to feed the fish today?) and any potential
availability/maintenance issues (you can just flush the fish down the drain
and call it a day; no one will be any the wiser, and you save money on fish
food).

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fisherman
And here's the proof:
[https://www.aquard.io/img/ss1.png](https://www.aquard.io/img/ss1.png) Enjoy
www.Aquard.io everybody!

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Sae5waip
Great, now I'm hungry again.

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bhousel
Seriously, please don't waste your time this way. If you are really bored,
create something lasting by editing Wikipedia or OpenStreetMap instead.

~~~
codelap
It's unfortunate that you feel every second of your day need be used to be
productive. It's also unfortunate that you feel the need to manipulate others
through condescension in order to feel superior. If someone wants to feed some
real fish, virtual fish, or simply play a game when bored to blow off some
steam, then more power to them. How I choose to spend my time is both none of
your concern, and entirely up to me.

~~~
bnegreve
> It's also unfortunate that you feel the need to manipulate others through
> condescension in order to feel superior.

Chill out, he said please.

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chrisBob
Damn it HN! I am going to have to wait for this to hit page 3 before the queue
gets small enough again.

~~~
chrisBob
It has calmed down slightly. I got to release bubbles just now!

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fisherman
Hi everyone! I am Marios, one of the developers of www.aquard.io and just
wanted to let you know that the fish are live and broadcasted real-time. And
because seeing is believing in 5' stay tuned for a live message for your eyes
only! :)

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return0
Aren't they going to die of overfeeding? Oh well, first world fish problems.

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bluedino
One of LifeSize's internal video streams you could use for testing their video
conferencing product was a fishtank, it was pretty cool. Couldn't feed the
fish though.

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miahi
The messages on the right are really annoying. Too fast to actually read them
and no visible way to stop them.

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NAFV_P
The article inspired a spin-off idea in my head: "online crocodile feeding".
No machines are involved, instead a fearless human is hired to dangle those
raw, bloody wildebeest steaks in front of their noses.

