Control Your TV with “The Force”
Sudomod's wermy shows how to build a gesture-controlled remote using an Adafruit Feather M4 Express and APDS9960 sensor.
If you’ve watched any of the Star Wars movies, you’ve probably had the urge to reach your hand out and manipulate something from a distance using “The Force.” Unfortunately, this sort of telekinesis technique doesn’t work nearly as well in real life as in the movies. However, as shown in this project by wermy at sudomod, with the proper technology implementation you can at least control your TV.
The device is constructed with an Adafruit Feather M4 Express running CircuitPython, along with an IR emitter, receiver and APDS9960 gesture sensor. The unit is first programmed with a setup routine that reads codes from your normal TV remote using the IR receiver. These are saved, then input into a new piece of code that actually runs the TV interface.
When complete, it reads hand swipes in front of the sensor, and emits the proper signal via the IR LED. A nice 3D-printed case finishes off the build, creating a small box that allows for contactless TV swipe control!
It’s a neat device and the concepts outlined here could be implemented in a number of different ways. The APDS9960 is especially interesting, as it is not only able to sense gestures but can read proximity, light, and RGB values, and communicates via I2C. Perhaps you could program such a thing to change the channel based on what color is presented to it or even when the lights turn on or off!