Mini Post No. 7 – Using a Raspberry Pi to watch a handbag decay

So a while back I posted an image of one of the plastic handbags we have here in the Conservation Science Dept. We use these non-museum objects as sacrificial lambs in the aid of heritage science. We have a second handbag that has started to dramatically decay. As we will use any excuse here in the lab to play with new toys “science equipment” we got out a Raspberry Pi. The new camera module for the pi along with a little computer code to set up a time-lapse  is a perfect way to track the rate of decay. We are hoping to let this run for about six months, so come back at Christmas time to see (hopefully) a great video of decaying plastics!