Topic

Building Smart Home Devices using Python
Date: Jan. 9, 2025, 6 p.m.

I have a lamp—I love my lamp. I’ve placed it in the perfect spot, but the on/off switch is so remote that I have to crawl over my couch just to reach it. Wouldn't it be nice if I could simply gesture to my lamp and turn it on? That's exactly what I set out to do. Before long, I was elbow-deep in experiments with MediaPipe for hand tracking, Python for prototyping, NumPy for data crunching, and GPIO for bridging the digital and physical worlds. Little by little, that wild idea took shape, transforming into a live system that lets you wave goodbye to remotes forever.

Join me at ChiPy, where I’ll share how this gesture-recognition project grew from a late-night epiphany into a fully functional smart home solution. We’ll explore how combining computer vision and IoT opens up new ways to interact with our environment—no more clunky remotes or app-hopping. Get ready for a glimpse into the future of home automation, driven by intuitive gestures and powered by Python.