The flame changes shape, size, and tilt based on the collected data of network speeds, network latency, and latitude/longitude measured continuously with a cellphone while attending service at the Sacre Coeur Cathedral in Paris, France.
About the process:
Height fluctuations:
1. Data was collected for one hour using the Speedtest.net iphone application.
2. 9 points were plotted on top of an image of a prayer candle's flame.
3. Each point moved up and down an amount of pixels based upon each upload and download speed measurement (rounded to nearest 100th and then divided by 10).
4. 1 second of video contains 9 separate measurements.
5. A total of 81 measurements were made within one hour. 9 measurements create one second of video, so therefore the first video segment lasts 9 seconds.
Tilt fluctuations:
1. The collected Latency data for each measurement was used to change the tilt of the flame (note: this affects all 9 points)
2. Total latency for each set of 9 measurements were added. (=1 data set).
3. The average for the 9 data sets was calculated.
4. The difference between the average of all 9 sets and each set was calculated.
5. The first digit was used to determine the amount of tilt (in degrees). For example -47,933 was rounded to -5. Likewise, 8,890 was rounded to +9.
Size fluctuations:
1. The collected Latitude/Longitude information determines the overall size of the flame. This also affects the height fluctuations globally.
2. As each location of the measurement changes, the flame grows or shrinks by 20%. This corresponds to the 9 second timeline of the video.
Other alterations:
1. The speed of the burning flame was slowed to 120% bringing the total video segment time to 13 seconds.
2. The flame was then put into a palindrome loop and continues without end.
3. The artificially created flame is overlaid onto a still photograph of a prayer candle.
4. A small amount of arbitrary flicker was added to the candles in the background, for added believability.