[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-a-hobby-project-turns-railways-into-a-giant-flatbed-scanner":10,"sections":35},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":24,"tags":25,"sources":30,"feedback":34,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":34,"total_tokens":34},5643,"a-hobby-project-turns-railways-into-a-giant-flatbed-scanner","A Hobby Project Turns Railways Into a Giant Flatbed Scanner","Linecam treats the rail network as a giant flatbed scanner, capturing one continuous strip image per train journey.","A developer has turned the rail network into an accidental camera, one track mile at a time.\n\nThe project, called Linecam and published at philo.gay\u002Flinecam, points a camera out a train window and grabs a single narrow slice of the passing scenery over and over as the train rolls forward. Because the train moves at a steady pace along a fixed line, those slices stitch together into one unbroken image, the same way a flatbed scanner's sensor head crawls across a sheet of paper to build a picture line by line. Instead of a document, the subject is whatever track and countryside the train happens to pass. The post picked up 66 points and 12 comments on Hacker News, a solid showing for a project that is really just an old imaging trick applied somewhere nobody expected it.\n\nThe technique itself, known as line-scan or pushbroom imaging, is not new - it is how satellites and aerial mapping planes have captured long strips of terrain for decades. What is interesting here is the reframe: a commuter rail network already provides the steady, predictable motion that pushbroom imaging needs, for free, without any custom hardware beyond a camera and a window seat.\n\nIt is the same principle as a scanner you might have sitting under your desk, just swapping a moving sensor for several tons of steel and a timetable.","[\"photography\",\"trains\",\"line-scan-imaging\",\"diy-projects\"]","2026-08-18T12:43:54.000Z","2026-08-19T06:07:06.558Z","2026-08-19T06:07:18.485Z","published",null,[],"general",[26,27,28,29],"photography","trains","line-scan-imaging","diy-projects",[31],{"name":32,"url":33},"Hacker News","https:\u002F\u002Fphilo.gay\u002Flinecam\u002F",0,{"sections":36},[37,42,46,51,56,61,66,71,76,81,86,91,95,100],{"name":38,"slug":39,"count":40,"latest_published_at":41},"AI","ai",3293,"2026-08-20T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":43,"slug":44,"count":45,"latest_published_at":41},"Security","security",435,{"name":47,"slug":48,"count":49,"latest_published_at":50},"Policy","policy",210,"2026-08-19T09:32:27.000Z",{"name":52,"slug":53,"count":54,"latest_published_at":55},"Deals","deals",179,"2026-06-29T20:02:07.000Z",{"name":57,"slug":58,"count":59,"latest_published_at":60},"Hardware","hardware",140,"2026-08-19T18:25:42.000Z",{"name":62,"slug":63,"count":64,"latest_published_at":65},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",95,"2026-08-18T16:05:00.000Z",{"name":67,"slug":68,"count":69,"latest_published_at":70},"Science","science",90,"2026-08-19T18:41:02.000Z",{"name":72,"slug":73,"count":74,"latest_published_at":75},"Software","software",73,"2026-08-18T07:51:50.000Z",{"name":77,"slug":78,"count":79,"latest_published_at":80},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",69,"2026-08-18T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":82,"slug":83,"count":84,"latest_published_at":85},"Startups","startups",47,"2026-08-19T19:13:46.000Z",{"name":87,"slug":88,"count":89,"latest_published_at":90},"Gaming","gaming",41,"2026-07-09T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":92,"slug":24,"count":93,"latest_published_at":94},"General",33,"2026-08-18T22:18:13.000Z",{"name":96,"slug":97,"count":98,"latest_published_at":99},"Reviews","reviews",20,"2026-06-24T12:00:01.000Z",{"name":101,"slug":102,"count":103,"latest_published_at":104},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]