Project Template
Team Name
Stream Hoppers
Timeline
Fall 2020 – Spring 2021
Students
- Kevin Chawla
- Seth Jaksik
- Alex Isaula
- Justin Erdmann
- Dominic Kotzer
Sponsor
Dr. Shawn Gieser
Abstract
In the recent boom of livestreaming entertainment, a live streamer’s success is dependent on their ability to entertain their viewers. To aid the live streamer in this endeavor, we have developed the Stream Hopper. The Stream Hopper is a customizable IOT Hub Device that enhances both the livestream viewer’s experience and the streamer’s interaction with their viewers by allowing viewers to trigger various devices in the streamer’s room. The IOT Hub can be customized to trigger devices on Twitch events per the streamer’s preference. The IOT Hub has three different device-type capabilities: USB, GPIO, and Wi-Fi connections. The Stream Hopper will provide “in-real-life” notifications for streamers based on stream events.
Background
Although several services exist that allow for Twitch events to be triggered by actions that occur during the stream, there is an apparent lack of support for similar automation of physical devices, such as turning on or off lights, changing the color or pattern of lights, and various other dynamic effects in the area around the streamer. Some streams use these sort of hardware setups, but whenever the appropriate action occurs in stream, they must divert their attention off the game and manually change the device configuration as requested. This product will reduce the need for streamers to micromanage these hardware components on their stream and allow them to focus on the quality of their livestream performance.
Project Requirements
- Must be compatible with Twitch.tv
- Have events triggered by Channel Points
- Have events triggered by Subs
- Have events triggered by Bits
- Have a hub to manage and link all IOT/plugged in devices
- Have a private network that can manage all IOT devices
- Have a user interface on Hub to manage devices and triggers
- Have a user interface on web to manage devices and triggers
- Triggers can be USB, Internet (through private network), GPIO
- Trigger for Smart Bulbs
System Overview
Our device will be a universal hub where multiple IOT devices can connect and interface with the Twitch website and activate on various Twitch events. First, an event will happen on the user’s Twitch channel, such as a follow, donation or subscription, and through the API, a message will be sent to the Raspberry Pi. Based on the message from Twitch, an event will be triggered through the General Purpose Input/Output pins on the Pi or via the internet to an IOT device. The user will be able to customize these devices through a Graphical User Interface and they will be able to add or delete their own unique electronic devices. In addition to customizing the devices, the user will be able to decide what events will trigger their devices.
Results
During experimentation, there were a few design choices that were changed. We decided to use SQLITE instead of MySQL for our database utility as SQLITE is a much more lightweight solution which was critical for use on the Pi. Additionally, we decided to utilize a relay board as a convenient interface for the GPIO pins. This board provides the user with a much simpler way to connect GPIO devices and it provides a much more elegant software solution as the relay board has an API that we will utilize. Finally, the customer wanted to use a large, LED message board as a device on the Stream Hopper, however this message board was difficult to program through code and the budget did not allow for such a device, so it had to be removed from the project. Other than these highlighted changes, the project has gone smoothly, and the team is pleased with the result.
Future Work
Future compatibility with Facebook Live and YouTube Live Streaming is necessary as to allow content creators to have multiple streaming platforms to utilize the Stream Hopper. Facebook Live and YouTube Live Streaming are popular streaming platforms that have a variety of interactions content creators can use to interact with their viewer, in the future the Stream Hopper will support Donation Triggers. In the future the Stream Hopper will also be able to trigger events during certain game activity actions.
