The MagPi - July 2018

raspberrypi.org/magpi July 2018 37

PROJECT MYHOUSE Projects

Above A Raspberry

Pi 3 reads the

gestures and

controls all the

electronic devices

in the house

recognise gestures and respond
accordingly. Having done a great
deal of research into gesture
recognition, “trial and error went
into choosing what gestures
perform best across individuals
while remaining intuitive to most
people,” says Maks. “We read a
lot of research papers on gesture
recognition and then came up with
our own gestures that worked with
over 90 percent accuracy.”
In total, seven gestures –
pre-trained using machine
learning – are stored in the
system, and the Raspberry Pi
reads the information from
the PlayStation Move and then
determines if the gesture is
similar to one of the stored ones.

As Maks explains, if the gesture
is recognised, “various functional
items in the dollhouse can be
activated or deactivated using
these pre-trained gestures: TV,
lights, fan, and shutters.”

>STEP-01

Plywood structure

After constructing a cardboard

prototype, the doll’s house was

built from laser-cut plywood

pieces which snap together.

>STEP-02

NeoPixel letters

The laser-cut M and Y letters are each

fitted with a strip of NeoPixel LEDs.

Servos are used to rotate the ceiling

fan and open the shutters.

>STEP-03

Gesture training

Maks and Yi Fan researched the most

intuitive gestures to use. Each gesture

was trained using a neural network, which

involved taking around 20 samples.

BUILDING A CLEVER DOLL’S HOUSE

The machine learning aspect of

the project also presented certain

challenges, as Maks recalls: “We

ran into trouble selecting the

most intuitive gestures and had

to do quite a bit of trial and error

to refine the experience. It takes

about 20 samples per gesture

to train the neural network,

which is doable in a matter

of a few minutes.”

Possibilities of Pi

Maks was keen to use a

Raspberry Pi in this project as

he is enthusiastic about the

possibilities it presents: “I am

interested in pushing the Pi to its

limits.” He also has plans for the

future, currently working with

the Processing Foundation as a

part of Google Summer of Code

initiative to reduce barriers in

using the Processing language on

the Raspberry Pi. “My plan is to

create a comprehensive resource

that teaches people of all ages

how to use the Raspberry Pi

and Processing together, taking

advantage of all connectivity and

interactivity available on the Pi.”

If the idea of an interactive doll’s

house appeals, the open-source

nature of the code that Maks has

created means that this is a build

that anyone can attempt, as long

as they possess some coding skills

and the necessary components.

“We haven’t released the building

plans for the dollhouse yet but if

somebody’s interested, I can share

those as well,” says Maks.

I am interested in pushing

the Pi to its limits