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  • in Updates
  • 3 min read

50% OFF on ALL Merchandise – Only This Black Friday! Show Your Support for Open Source!

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Hey dear Openterface folks,

Exciting news—we’ve launched a new clothing line at Openterface! Our collection features T-shirts and hoodies that embody the spirit of our community. They’re not just clothes; they’re a celebration of our shared values and the Openterface ethos.

What makes these designs even more special? Both the T-shirt and hoodie proudly feature the technical line art of our Openterface mini-KVM, which looks incredibly cool. Plus, we’ve highlighted our mini-KVM’s “Developer Mode” text in the design—an idea we think is absolutely brilliant. When you put on our T-shirt or hoodie, it’s not just about staying warm this winter; it’s about stepping into super developer mode for all your coding and hacking sessions.

OP-Hoodie-Zip-Up

And if you’re wondering how these look in real life, check out how our team’s been wearing them in action! From staying cosy in Developer Mode while coding (see tweet), to a fun photoshoot with David Groom from MAKE: Magazine at the Shenzhen Maker Faire (view photo), we’ve been proudly showcasing our gear. We even got inspired by a talk from the legendary Eric Migicovsky of Pebble fame (see post) while demoing the Openterface Mini-KVM and connecting with tech friends (see more, and here). These aren’t just clothes—they’re conversation starters and a way to celebrate our community wherever we go!

And for this dull winter, why not give our vibrant orange data cable a chance? It’s a perfect way to brighten your workspace while ensuring fast and reliable data transfer.

To sweeten the deal, we’re offering a 🔥 SPECIAL 50% DISCOUNT 🔥 on all items for the next five days for this 2024 Black Friday, starting from the moment you see this message until December 1st. It’s our way of saying thanks for being part of our journey.

Have a browse through our store here: https://shop.techxartisan.com. Check out our new apparel and snag a piece at half price—don’t miss this limited-time offer!

Openterface Merch

openterface merch

Openterface Accessories

openterface accessories

Thank you for being with us through this adventure. Your support means the world to us, and we’re grateful for every conversation, every idea, and every interaction we’ve had.

Warm regards,

Billy Wang
Product Manager
Openterface Team | TechxArtisan

P.S. Got any thoughts or feedback? We’re all ears! Join the conversation on Reddit or Discord, or feel free to drop us an email at info@techxartisan.com ✉️.

  • in Updates
  • 5 min read

The Ship Has Sailed & Extra Cables Added for the Toolkit. What’s Next?

Hello, Openterface community!

We’re thrilled to announce that our Openterface products have officially shipped. They’re currently at the port in Shenzhen, ready to board a cargo ship bound for the US!

cardboard boxs to Crowdsupply product packing

Here’s what’s new:

Fulfillment Preparations: Quality Checks and Packing

Before packing and shipping, we thoroughly tested each unit to ensure the highest quality, as we mentioned in previouse update: DIY Challenge, Cool Prizes, and Production Nears the Finish Line!. Every cable was scrutinised for signal transmission stability using our Mini-KVM.

Now, let’s talk about the news—both the bad and the good.

BAD News: Some Orange Cables Didn’t Meet Expectations Under Tough Conditions

Our Mini-KVM transmits video, audio, mouse/keyboard control, and USB data via a single Type-C cable. The cable’s performance is critical for data stability, especially in challenging environments.

To simulate real-world interference, we wrapped the orange Type-C cable around an electric fan motor while running multiple computers nearby. This created a high level of electromagnetic interference (EMI), to evaluate our cables’ data transmission stability.

Testing Setup A budget-friendly yet effective testing method.

Check out our video tweet showcasing one of our performance tests for comparison.

Under these conditions, some orange cables struggled with signal loss, raising concerns about their reliability in complex environments such as data centres or during critical IT operations.

To address this, Kevin Peng, our tech director, developed a bespoke testing programme. This tool, allowing you to test the quality of your own USB cables, will soon be open-sourced with more updates later.

Testing programme interface Our programme makes cable testing a breeze.

While our orange cables, with its soft, silicone-like texture and attractive appearance, are great and are perfect for everyday use like fast charging and regular data transmits, they fall short in a heavy transmits work in tough conditions, like high EMI.

GOOD News: Our Solution is Here

We’ve immediately sourced high-quality nylon USB 3.2 cables to include as an extra in the Toolkit version—at no additional cost to you. These durable cables come in three lengths in grey color: 1M (3.2 ft), 1.5M (4.9 ft), and 2M (6.5 ft). You’ll receive one randomly selected cable from these length options in your Toolkit version, ensuring you have a robust and reliable connection for your Mini-KVM.

New Grey Nylon Type-C cables

In future Mini-KVM Toolkit versions, our orange cable for connecting to the host side of Mini-KVM will be upgraded to the nylon Type-C 3.2 cable, combining functionality, stability, and style.

Custom Nylon Type-C cables

We hope you appreciate this decision and continue to rely on Openterface during critical moments on your tech frontlines.

Shipping Schedule

When can you expect your Mini-KVM? If everything goes smoothly with our shippment, our products should arrive at Crowd Supply’s Mouser warehouse by mid-December, then they will get our Openterface shipped out according to each orders accordingly.

  • For backers in the US: there’s a small chance for delivery before Christmas, but this isn’t guaranteed, since everything tends to slow down as the holiday gets closer.

  • For backers outside the US: Delivery times will vary. Our best estimate is mid-January.

Here’s hoping for a smooth journey for our Openterface products—no seasickness, carsickness, or jet lag! 😃

Cool Openterface T-Shirts and Hoodies

We’ll be at the Shenzhen Maker Fair this weekend (16–17 Nov). To gear up, we’ve designed team apparel, including T-shirt, zip-up and pullover hoodie.

Take a look and let us know what you think: Openterface T-shirt and Hoodie

Support Our Development

If you’d like to support our open-source development further, may also check out our TechxArtisan Shop. You can purchase cables, T-shirts, and hoodies—all while helping us financially continue to innovate. Every purchase counts and supports the open-source community spirit.

What’s Next: Host App Updates

Now that shipping is underway, our focus will shift back to refining our host apps. We’re working on getting them verified across various app stores to ensure a seamless experience as you get started with Openterface.

App stores

What’s Next: Join Our USB DIY Contest

Why not join our USB KVM DIY Challenge 2024 once you’ve got your Openterface Mini-KVM in hand? It’s a great opportunity to contribute to our open-source development and even win a prize——including two special editions Openterface Mini-KVM and more! For more details, check out the Crowd Supply's contest page.

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Wrapping It Up

Thank you for being an integral part of our journey. Your support and feedback keep us moving forward. If you have any questions or ideas, we’d love to hear from you! Join the conversation in our community on Reddit and Discord.

With gratitude,
Billy Wang
Product Manager
Openterface Team | TechxArtisan

The Joys of Colour, Technology and Light - Part 1: Story Behind the Artwork

Welcome to TechxArtisan, a creative technology studio based in Guangzhou! Back in January 2021, we found ourselves stepping deeper into the New Media Art scene, collaborating with artists who were doing some truly exciting work. These collaborations introduced us to technologies like machine learning, computer vision, and 3D printing—tech that was being explored in educational institutions across China.

It was still the first year of the pandemic, and many exhibitions were being cancelled. Despite the challenges, this unexpected downtime gave us a chance to experiment with new ideas, like LED control and object detection. But the real turning point came when I came across Dave Bramston’s work.

Dave had been creating lighting artworks from waste plastic to promote a zero-waste lifestyle in Guangzhou, and I saw a few of his posts on WeChat (the most popular platform here in China). I was immediately hooked. I reached out, and our conversation on WeChat was the beginning of a truly rewarding collaboration.

Dave Bramston’s artworks

Dave Bramston’s artworks.

Before the pandemic, Dave was already well-known for his work—having delivered over 100 design workshops and creative lectures in China. His studio, Bramston Studio, focuses on fostering original thinking and creative inspiration. It was clear to me that this was the perfect person to team up with for a new project.

One of several video meetings with Dave Bramston

One of several video meetings with Dave Bramston.

Even though international travel was off the table, we didn’t let that stop us. Our teams met via video calls, and the brainstorming began. We were excited about how we could merge interactive technology with Dave’s artistic vision, and that’s how ‘Coloured Towers’ came to life. This piece was designed to detect the colours of people’s clothing and respond by changing the LED colours, creating a vibrant and interactive light display.

The draft of the concept design

The draft of the concept design.

Originally, Dave wanted the towers to respond to people’s hats. But after some thought, I tweaked the algorithm to focus on detecting the colours of people’s clothing instead. Hats are a bit out of fashion these days—or maybe they’re still big in England? Perhaps in a Downton Abbey kind of way?

We soon began building the equipment in China, carefully designing and assembling the LED strips and controllers. After a bit of testing, we shipped everything off to the UK.

LED Controllers have our specially designed, UK-flag-shaped, 3D-printed cover case.

LED Controllers with our specially designed, UK-flag-shaped, 3D-printed cover case.

With the tech side handled, Dave worked his magic with fabrics, transforming these electrical components into beautiful light-based artworks.

Pictures of light stands in development

Pictures of light stands in development.

As the project evolved, Dave decided to scale it up for an exhibition he was curating at The Bowes Museum in the summer of 2022. Our studio couldn’t have been more thrilled! We envisioned these towering LED installations—each around 5 metres tall—lighting up the museum in stunning displays of colour.

Light Tower Design

After a month of building and testing in China, we sent everything over to the UK in March 2022. Here’s a sneak peek of some final testing at our studio before shipment:

LED-install-1 LED-install-2

A final test at TechxArtisan studio, China, before shipment to the UK.

Once everything arrived safely in the UK, Dave and his team, along with the staff at The Bowes Museum, got to work installing the lights. Seeing the collaboration come to life from afar was such a fulfilling experience.

LED-install-3

Meeting with the Bramston Studio and Bowes Museum teams remotely to kick off the installation.

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The Museum team installing LED strips in the exhibition gallery.

LED-install-5

Can you spot me in this picture?

The exhibition, Journey in Colour, officially opened on 18 June and runs until 30 October. I must admit, my only real disappointment was not being able to attend the opening in person. However, seeing photos of visitors enjoying the final installation has been just as rewarding.

show-1 show-2

I’m immensely grateful to the photographer who captured these moments, and to Dave for inviting me to be part of this incredible collaboration. Although I haven’t met the Bramston Studio or Museum teams in person yet, I’m already looking forward to more creative projects together in the future—whether in China or the UK.

If you’d like to dive into the more technical aspects of this project, be sure to check out my next post:

The Joys of Colour, Technology and Light – Part 2: Technical Challenges and Experiments

The Joys of Colour, Technology and Light - Part 2: Technical Challenges and Experiments

In this post, we dive into the technical side of building the 4-metre-tall LED towers for British artist Dave Bramston. If you're curious about the creative backstory behind this collaboration and how we worked together to create the Coloured Towers during the pandemic for The Bowes Museum in the UK, check out Part 1: Story Behind the Artwork.

When it came to realising this art installation, there were several technical hurdles we needed to overcome at TechxArtisan. The essential hardware we used included Nvidia’s Jetson Nano—a low-power, GPU-backed microcomputer perfect for running AI algorithms—and the ESP32, a widely used microcontroller unit (MCU) that effectively manages communication between the host computer and LED light units using the FastLED library.

Here’s a brief overview of the process: 1. AI algorithms on the Jetson Nano detect the clothes people are wearing via a camera. 2. K-means clustering is used to extract the dominant colour of their clothes. 3. The extracted RGB values are sent to the ESP32, which controls the LED strips attached to the artwork.

How to achieve it technically

The technical process.

Now, let’s break down some of the most interesting technical challenges we encountered.

Detecting Clothes with Nvidia Jetson Nano

The Jetson Nano allowed us to run open-source AI models trained to detect human clothing. The process involves capturing each image frame from a camera, dividing it into a matrix of 10x16 grids, and running a model to identify which grids match our target—clothes, in this case. Although the model is designed to detect a range of objects, including those on the MHP Class list, we specifically used it for clothes detection.

Translating Colours Between Reality and Digital

Human vision perceives colour through reflected light, but machines “see” colours by capturing images and converting them into digital codes. Here’s where the tricky part comes in—cameras don’t always capture colours accurately due to factors like lighting, focus, white balance, and exposure settings. We aimed to bridge this gap and capture colours as close to reality as possible.

colour checker board

Using a colour checker board to align digital colours with reality.

Once the machine detects a colour, we apply k-means clustering to extract the dominant colour from the clothes. These RGB values are then averaged and sent to the LED controller.

LED Colours and the RGB Problem

The LED light strips (ws281x series) we used can mix red, green, and blue (RGB) channels to create a wide range of colours. But there are some limitations: - LED lights struggle to represent greys and blacks if a visitor’s clothes are dark. The LEDs simply reduce overall brightness. - Our ws281x strips tend to skew slightly blue, which meant we had to fine-tune the colour balance in software to get the shades just right.

teammate testing

Testing the stability of the colour detection programme.

There’s also an interesting feedback loop in play: when the machine detects the colour of someone’s clothes, it projects a corresponding LED light colour, which in turn enhances the clothes' original hue. This creates a dynamic, iterative process that makes the interaction more fun, especially with multiple participants wearing different colours.

Powering All Those LED Strips

Lighting up that many LED strips safely and efficiently was no small feat. Each of the four pillars required careful power calculations to ensure the system could handle the load without any issues. Here’s a quick breakdown:

For each pillar: - 24 LED strips × 4 metres per strip = 96 metres of LEDs per pillar - 96 metres × 60 LEDs per metre = 5,760 LEDs - Each strip uses 4 amps at full power (white light) - So, 24 strips × 4 amps = 96 amps required for one pillar - 96 amps × 12V = 1,152W per pillar

This adds up to around 4,600W when all four pillars are powered at full intensity. However, most of the light animations we created consume significantly less power, since we rarely use full white light. Nevertheless, building in some redundancy ensures the system remains safe and stable.

Connecting the power

Carefully connecting the power supply.

For the technically inclined, here's a snippet from our FastLED code: 

const uint8_t kMatrixWidth = 12;
const uint8_t kMatrixHeight = 80;
This allowed us to control 12 x 80 = 960 pixels per pillar.

Final Thoughts

For more in-depth technical insights, check out my post in the FastLED community on Reddit. I’d like to give a shout-out to Quindor and Charles Goodwin for their support and upvotes. Collaborating with Dave Bramston and The Bowes Museum has been an incredibly fulfilling experience, and we’re eager to continue pushing the boundaries of art and technology.

If you’re working on a similar project or are just curious about this type of installation, feel free to reach out—we’re always happy to share our knowledge and learn from others in the community.

Thanks for reading!