Skip to main content

Control the color of Philips Hue Lamp based on the user status - Friday night undercover project

Yesterday I had the opportunity to put my hands on some lamp from Philips – Hue Lamps. Basically, you have one or more lamps that can be controlled over the network. For each lamp you can control the color, brightness and so on. The communication is done over a simple HTTP API that is well documented. When you will buy one or more lamps you will receive also a small device that needs to be connected to your network. That small device is used to communicate by wireless with your lamps.
I had the idea to write an application which controls the color of the lamp based on user status. For example when you are in a call, the color of the lamp will be red, otherwise green. I integrated the application with Skype, Outlook calendar and Lync.
If you want to play with this application you can download it from here: https://huelampstatus.codeplex.com/
You will need to install Skype API SDK, Lync 2013 API SDK and you need to have Outlook 2013. The application is not finished yet, but is a good starting point. Until now, on my machine worked pretty okay. Because of Skype API SDK don’t forget to build solution for a 86x processor (COM Nightmare).

Demo Video


Hue Lamp Integration
The communication with Hue Lamp is made pretty simple, you only need to make a PUT request.
 public class HueControl
    {
        private const string MessageBody = @"
{{
    ""hue"": {0},
    ""on"": true,
    ""bri"": 200
}}";
        private const int RedCode = 50;
        private const int GreenCode = 26000;

        public void SetColor(Color color)
        {
            if (color != Color.Red
                && color != Color.Green)
            {
                throw new ArgumentException("Color is not supported", "color");
            }
            try
            {
                byte[] messageContent = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(string.Format(MessageBody,
                    color == Color.Red ? RedCode : GreenCode));
                WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(new Uri(
                                        string.Format("http://{0}/api/{1}/lights/{2}/state",
                                        ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["hueIP"],
                                        ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["hueUser"],
                                        ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["hueNumber"])));
                request.Method = "PUT";
                request.Timeout = 10000;
                request.ContentType = "application/json";
                request.ContentLength = messageContent.Length;
                using (Stream stream = request.GetRequestStream())
                {
                    stream.Write(messageContent, 0, messageContent.Length);
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Trace.TraceError(ex.Message);
            }
        }
    }
The time consuming things are integration with Skype, Lync and Outlook calendar.

Skype Integration
For Skype, the hardest thing is to put your hands on the SDK (they don't accept new members anymore). You can use this sample code to put the hands on the SDK: http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/SEHE/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=1871
After this all that you need to do is:
public class SkypeStatusChecker : IStatusChecker
    {
        private Skype _skype;

        public SkypeStatusChecker()
        {
            _skype = new Skype();
            _skype.Client.Start(true, true);
            _skype.Attach(6, true);

            _skype.CallStatus += OnCallStatusChange;
        }

        public ChangeStatus ChangeStatus { get; set; }

        private void OnCallStatusChange(Call pCall, TCallStatus status)
        {
            Trace.TraceInformation("Skype statusType: " + status);
            if (status == TCallStatus.clsInProgress)
            {
                SendNotification(StatusType.Busy);
                return;
            }

            if (status == TCallStatus.clsFinished)
            {
                SendNotification(StatusType.Free);
                return;
            }
        }

        private void SendNotification(StatusType statusType)
        {
            if (ChangeStatus != null)
            {
                ChangeStatus.Invoke(this, new ChangeStatusEventArgs(statusType));
            }
        }
    }
When the user will be involved in a call the status of Skype call is “clsInProgress”. When a call is finished the notification status that you receive from Skype is “clsFinished”. I used this to states to change the lamp color.

Lync Integration
In the Lync case you will need to get your activities and check if the status is “Available” or not.
 public class LyncStatusChecker : IStatusChecker
    {
        private StatusType _oldStatusType = StatusType.Free;
        private object _padLock = new object();

        public LyncStatusChecker()
        {
            Timer timer = new Timer();
            timer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1).TotalMilliseconds;
            timer.Elapsed += OnTimeElapsed;
            timer.Start();
        }

        public ChangeStatus ChangeStatus { get; set; }

        private void OnTimeElapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
                LyncClient client = LyncClient.GetClient();

                List<object> states = (List<object>)client.Self.
                    Contact.GetContactInformation(ContactInformationType.CustomActivity);

                var status = GetStatus(states);

                lock (_padLock)
                {
                    if (status == _oldStatusType)
                    {
                        return;
                    }

                    Trace.TraceInformation("Lync statusType: {0}", status);
                    SendNotification(status);
                    _oldStatusType = status;
                }
            }
            catch (Exception err)
            {
                Trace.TraceError(err.ToString());
            }
        }

        private StatusType GetStatus(List<object> states)
        {
            StatusType statusType = StatusType.Free;
            if (states.Count == 0)
            {
                throw new Exception("States of Lync is 0");
            }
            if (states.FirstOrDefault(x => ((LocaleString) x).Value == "Available") == null)
            {
                statusType = StatusType.Busy;
            }
            return statusType;
        }

        private void SendNotification(StatusType statusType)
        {
            if (ChangeStatus != null)
            {
                ChangeStatus.Invoke(this, new ChangeStatusEventArgs(statusType));
            }
        }
    }


Outlook Integration
As I expected, the Outlook API is a nightmare, is very complicated and is pretty hard to find what you are looking for. The solution that I implemented gets the Outlook calendar and check if the user has a meeting in this moment. I don't like how I get the current user status, but it works.
    public class OutlookStatusChecker : IStatusChecker
    {
        private StatusType _oldStatusType = StatusType.Free;
        private object _padLock = new object();

        public OutlookStatusChecker()
        {
            Timer timer = new Timer();
            timer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1).TotalMilliseconds;
            timer.Elapsed += OnTimeElapsed;
            timer.Start();
        }

        public ChangeStatus ChangeStatus { get; set; }

        private void OnTimeElapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
        {
            CheckStatus();
        }

        private void CheckStatus()
        {
            try
            {
                Application outlookApp = new Application();
                NameSpace nameSpace = outlookApp.GetNamespace("MAPI");

                MAPIFolder calendarFolder = nameSpace.GetDefaultFolder(OlDefaultFolders.olFolderCalendar);
                Items calendarItems = calendarFolder.Items;
                calendarItems.IncludeRecurrences = true;
                calendarItems.Sort("[Start]", Type.Missing);
                DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
                DateTime todayStart = new DateTime(now.Year, now.Month, now.Day, 00, 00, 01);
                DateTime todayEnds = new DateTime(now.Year, now.Month, now.Day, 23, 59, 58);

                Items currentCalendarItems = calendarItems.Restrict(
                            string.Format(@"[Start] < ""{0}"" AND [End] > ""{1}"" AND [Start] >=""{2}"" AND [End] < ""{3}"" ",
                                    now.ToString("g"), now.AddMinutes(1).ToString("g"),
                                    todayStart.ToString("g"), todayEnds.ToString("g")));

                IEnumerator itemsEnumerator = currentCalendarItems.GetEnumerator();
                itemsEnumerator.MoveNext();

                StatusType statusType = itemsEnumerator.Current == null ? StatusType.Free : StatusType.Busy;

                lock (_padLock)
                {
                    if (statusType == _oldStatusType)
                    {
                        return;
                    }

                    Trace.TraceInformation("Outlook statusType: {0}", statusType);
                    SendNotification(statusType);
                    _oldStatusType = statusType;
                }
            }
            catch (Exception err)
            {
                Trace.TraceError(err.ToString());
            }
        }

        private void SendNotification(StatusType statusType)
        {
            if (ChangeStatus != null)
            {
                ChangeStatus.Invoke(this, new ChangeStatusEventArgs(statusType));
            }
        }
    }

Conclusion
 The things that I really liked was the API of Hue Lamps, that is very simple to use and well documented. Great job Philips.  

Comments

  1. Looks cool :-) Can you choose which user's status to show?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In this moment is not supported. But is pretty simple to extend and add features like this.

      Delete
  2. Did you run the code in debug and release mode? I had no issues in debug mode, but the release mode won't work. It loses references with Lync. Any advice?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It may be related to Lync component. What version of Lync are you using?

      Delete
  3. 2013. I fixed that issue and now it is able to run in release mode. Now, I'm just working on being able to run it on another computer without c# software. The .exe file in the bin/release only works on my computer (with Visual Studio software.) This is really neat by the way! I love the way it works with the Hues. I wonder if something similar could be done with Lifx, not sure about the Lifx API though since it is still a startup.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. any updates on this or LIFX control? I'd love to be able to set LIFX colors automatically by Skype status, and get other informative updates by light color/intensity. Thx!

      Delete
    2. No, there are no updated. I don't have anymore this lamps. But feel free to improve the existing sample.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Windows Docker Containers can make WIN32 API calls, use COM and ASP.NET WebForms

After the last post , I received two interesting questions related to Docker and Windows. People were interested if we do Win32 API calls from a Docker container and if there is support for COM. WIN32 Support To test calls to WIN32 API, let’s try to populate SYSTEM_INFO class. [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)] public struct SYSTEM_INFO { public uint dwOemId; public uint dwPageSize; public uint lpMinimumApplicationAddress; public uint lpMaximumApplicationAddress; public uint dwActiveProcessorMask; public uint dwNumberOfProcessors; public uint dwProcessorType; public uint dwAllocationGranularity; public uint dwProcessorLevel; public uint dwProcessorRevision; } ... [DllImport("kernel32")] static extern void GetSystemInfo(ref SYSTEM_INFO pSI); ... SYSTEM_INFO pSI = new SYSTEM_INFO(

Azure AD and AWS Cognito side-by-side

In the last few weeks, I was involved in multiple opportunities on Microsoft Azure and Amazon, where we had to analyse AWS Cognito, Azure AD and other solutions that are available on the market. I decided to consolidate in one post all features and differences that I identified for both of them that we should need to take into account. Take into account that Azure AD is an identity and access management services well integrated with Microsoft stack. In comparison, AWS Cognito is just a user sign-up, sign-in and access control and nothing more. The focus is not on the main features, is more on small things that can make a difference when you want to decide where we want to store and manage our users.  This information might be useful in the future when we need to decide where we want to keep and manage our users.  Feature Azure AD (B2C, B2C) AWS Cognito Access token lifetime Default 1h – the value is configurable 1h – cannot be modified

What to do when you hit the throughput limits of Azure Storage (Blobs)

In this post we will talk about how we can detect when we hit a throughput limit of Azure Storage and what we can do in that moment. Context If we take a look on Scalability Targets of Azure Storage ( https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/storage-scalability-targets/ ) we will observe that the limits are prety high. But, based on our business logic we can end up at this limits. If you create a system that is hitted by a high number of device, you can hit easily the total number of requests rate that can be done on a Storage Account. This limits on Azure is 20.000 IOPS (entities or messages per second) where (and this is very important) the size of the request is 1KB. Normally, if you make a load tests where 20.000 clients will hit different blobs storages from the same Azure Storage Account, this limits can be reached. How we can detect this problem? From client, we can detect that this limits was reached based on the HTTP error code that is returned by HTTP