Who needs a physical light switch when you can use an augmented-reality one? Armed with a smartphone and a Raspberry Pi, you can control Phillips Hue lights with the power of AR, highlighting a virtual on/off button that appears as if it's in your living room. This project was created and shared on Reddit by a maker known as Toernblom who was kind enough to give all of the build details.
After watching a video showcasing an AR headset that allowed the wearer to control lights in the real world, Toernblom decided to take on the concept himself. In this project, a Raspberry Pi is used to receive input from an AR smartphone app to toggle Phillips Hue lights on and off. The code will also work on a PC.
Toernblom has a complete breakdown of the project on his website, where he explains more about the setup. The Raspberry Pi relies on a while loop to check for triggers from the AR app. When it detects a change, it sends a signal to the Phillips Hue gateway to change the light value.
This project looks really fun, especially if you're quarantined at home. Be sure to follow Toernblom on Reddit for more updates. You can also check out the Toernblom website for a detailed review of this awesome AR Pi project.
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Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.
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bit_user The Raspberry Pi relies on a while loop to check for triggers from the AR app. When it detects a change, it sends a signal to the Phillips Hue gateway to change the light value.
When described at that level, it's not clear why the AR app couldn't just signal the gateway, directly.
It certainly doesn't sound like the Pi, itself, is doing anything that could be construed a AR. It's just acting as glue. Unless I'm missing something, the headline is is definitely misleading.