Turn your TV into a home assistant using Raspberry Pi

Fortunately, there’s a partial solution to the problem – it’s technically feasible to encrypt the HDMI video coming from your Raspberry Pi so the TV can understand it. Once encrypted, portions of the screen can be cherry-picked to come from either the Pi or your existing home entertainment system. I’ve built a system called NeTV2 that can do this. It’s basically a Raspberry Pi HAT that sports an FPGA, wrapped into a custom plastic case and, as of the time of publication, it’s crowdfunding over at hsmag.cc/Hbragk.

Although a programmable video overlay seems like a blindingly obvious widget that should be readily available off the shelf, the manipulation of encrypted data is legally challenging. You can read more about the subtle legal challenges on the Crowd Supply page linked above.

Now, one can technically merge a magic mirror onto any TV screen by just plugging NeTV2 in-line with the main video cable and loading up the application. Combine it with Google AIY to make a voice-activated home assistant, or perhaps just open a small browser window and connect to your baby monitor, or track how long it is until your pizza arrives while you enjoy the game. These are just a few examples of what’s made possible with video overlay, and we’re just starting to scratch the surface of the possibilities. If the legal challenges around processing encrypted video can be resolved, NeTV2 can also power even more exciting applications, utilising AI on video feeds to help with everything from real-time translations to fantasy sports to health and assistive care.