Phillips Hue + Leap Motion Integration hack
Looking at the improvements in the home automation market, we wanted to take it a step furthur and make it truly automative and easier for users. Why require an app when we can just use gestures? That way no matter where you are in the house, you can control all the things around you. We initially wanted to do this with myo hardware (from Thalmic Labs), unfortunately the group before us in line got the last piece. So last minute, we decided to instead use the Leap Motion Controller instead to control Philips Hue. Unfortunately, we had to sacrifice the ability to go around the house (wirelessly) since we did not have access to the Myo, but we figured that the Leap Motion was sufficient in getting the idea across, and it was also the first time either of us had used/played/developed on Leap Motion and the Philips Hue. So that made it interesting and motivational for us, and inspired us to go along with the hack.
We encountered numerous issues with the hardware, and documentation. Some include:
-
The Leap Motion was quite inaccurate (we had older version) in getting responses (also contributed to the fact that there were 1000+ developers in the same building, and not to mention media, etc.)
-
We spent a big chunk of our time on setting up the Phillp Hue. Setting up Leap motion was simple, but the Phillip Hue required an actual router to work with the WiFi in the E5 building at the University of Waterloo. We tried connecting it to a Macbook 13" Retina by bridging the laptops wifi through the ethernet port, however that didn't work. We tried connecting everything to a hotstop from an iphone, and that also didn't seem to work. We asked around and no one seemed to get it to work. We contacted support online, and they mentioned it was an issue on some bridges. Interestingly enough, it finally worked when one of us took it home that night and tried it on their router back home. We then finished the API calls and got it functioning.
This Hackathon was successful in the sense that it prototyped an innovate idea that has not been hevaily promoted. Its something that makes home automation more seamless and parallel. Aside from the hack itself, we went to numerous booths and information sessions to learn more about whats going on in the world of computing. We also got to try out the HoloLens which was amazing! All in all, it was a great experience and we will definitely come back in the future.