Hisense CES Automated Lighting Demo
Hisense's 2024 CES booth featured a spotlight on its ConnectedLife ecosystem, which seamlessly integrates multiple devices. The display included a video demonstration highlighting real-time interactions within the connected cooking experience. To enhance audience engagement, synchronized lighting elements were strategically implemented, ensuring each device was highlighted at the optimal moment.
Design Phase
Grider Consulting was responsible for developing the entire system required to trigger a single start command from the video feed and visually animate the relevant appliances. The system architecture is illustrated in the diagram to the left. The microcontroller was programmed to process a series of event commands stored in a buffer, executing them in sync with the video playback initiated by the Linux computer. To ensure flexibility, the interface was delivered to the customer as a set of Python scripts to be run on the host computer, allowing for easy adjustments of the animations.
Hardware
The unit was housed in a large project box, featuring dedicated ports for each electrical interface. To ensure overcurrent protection, each LED strip was powered by an individual power supply. The system was designed for easy connections, with secured led strip connections as power supplied through a single 120V NEMA 5-15P connector and data transmitted via a USB-C port on the box. For speed of execution, this design was implemented without a PCB.
Software
The software was implemented on an RP2040 microcontroller, which functions as a virtual COM port over USB and processes ASCII commands. These commands are documented in an Interface Control Document (ICD), as shown below.
A typical user flow is as follows:
Configure multiple events by specifying parameters such as start and stop timing in milliseconds, animation type, color, and animation speed.
Once all desired animations have been set, execute the play command to initiate the sequence of events.
At any point, the host computer can pause, stop, or restart the animation sequence as needed.
The GitHub repositories for the code is linked below
Setup And Test
Initially, the plan was to hand off the hardware to Hisense for implementation at the booth. However, the event coordinators requested additional assistance with setup and system adjustments on-site. In response, I traveled to Las Vegas to support the final integration. The customer was highly satisfied with the outcome, as the system functioned exactly as envisioned.