karmeleon / ledbacklightpi

Syncs RGB LEDs to the current contents of the desktop using a Raspberry Pi

LEDBacklightPi

Syncs RGB LEDs to the current contents of the desktop using a Raspberry Pi. By default it uses a custom OpenCL-based algorithm, but it can optionally use a modified version of img_avg from ScreeonBloom, or fengsp's color-thief-py instead. It also hosts an (extremely simple) web control panel on port 1422 where you can switch between the aforementioned dynamic color behavior or simply setting the LEDs to a static color.

Requirements

• Python 3.x
• Pillow, colormath, pyopencl, and numpy installed on the host PC
• python-daemon and colormath installed on the RPi
• An OpenCL-capable GPU and PyOpenCL for the GPU mode
• I've only tested the client program on Windows 10 and macOS, but there's no reason Linux and older versions of Windows shouldn't work.

Instructions

Wire up the Pi to the LED strip as shown here, then run python3 main.py start on your Raspberry Pi from the /Pi directory and Client/main.py on your computer. Alternatively, load up (your RPi's IP):1422 to access the web control panel.

Caveats

• Does not work with exclusive fullscreen apps (i.e. games) because of how DirectX/OpenGL/Vulkan work. You'll have to run games in windowed or borderless windowed mode for the screen to be analyzed properly.
• Copy-protected video (e.g. Netflix) appears as a black box and will be analyzed by the color selection algorithm as such. Which makes sense, if you think about it. Non-protected media like YouTube and MPC-HC work perfectly fine.
• On multi-monitor setups, the program only looks at the primary monitor. This is intentional; it's intended to mirror the colors of your game or video, not your secondary screen.