How we could make a Roblox smart home that connects to the real world
Roblox is a game that targets a very specific demographic, kids. While this is especially true today, as seen with “experiences” (this is what they call games) in Roblox like Adopt Me and Jailbreak. But while talking to my friend Lup Yuen Lee, he recently he discovered how it can be used for so much more than just kids games.
Roblox can used to send and retrieve data over the internet via it’s https API. Our initial idea is to connect a temperature monitor to a pine64 pinedio stack (based on the BL602/04 board) and get a visual feedback on a Roblox experience with lighting and particles (fire for hot, ice for cold etc).
This diagram made by Lup Yuen Lee demonstrates how it’ll work.
The real temperature monitor will send data to a virtual object in Roblox. In this case the temperature monitor is hot, it sends the info to the virtual object telling it that the temperature monitor in the real world is hot and visual feedback will be given in-game via particles and objects in-game. Alongside this, the actuator is telling the temperature monitor to cool down the home, which again sends the info to the virtual object causing visual feedback to turn on the air conditioner. flicking a switch for an in-game air conditioner would turn the real world counterpart on.
If the initial test is successful we could work towards making an entire in-game smart home that allows you to control every smart device in your home from inside a Roblox experience with virtual switches and monitors.
Thank you Lup for the photos and diagrams, you’re too awesome! He’s currently working on his own article for this saga so stay tuned, I’ll update this article when it’s out. Meanwhile check out the repo where the exciting developments will commence!
