New York — The 95th Hardware Meetup by Viam, covering Smart Cities and IoT took place recently, and a unique project took shape between a tech enthusiast and a confectionery roboticist: an interactive smart cake that doubles as a camera, inspired by the Viam project’s humorous notion that anything can be considered a camera (even a potato?). Viam is an open-source platform for building and managing smart machines.

Have Your Smart Cake and Picture It, Too

This edible device, powered by a Raspberry Pi, features machine learning capabilities to detect people, light up with NeoPixel LEDs, capture photos, and print event receipts using an Adafruit thermal printer.
 
Smart picture-taking cake.
That picture really takes the cake. Or, vice-versa. Source: hazal mestci’s Instructable.

The project’s hardware foundation includes a Raspberry Pi setup with a microSD card, a Raspberry Pi display, a 24-RGB NeoPixel LED ring for lighting effects, and a USB webcam for capturing images. The cake’s interactive features are programmed using Python 3.8 or newer, with the support of Viam’s Python and TypeScript SDKs for seamless integration of components and modules.

Two crucial modules from the Viam Registry, one for controlling the NeoPixel and another for facial identification, highlight the adaptability of Viam's platform to creative uses. Each module's configuration, detailed in the project, underscores the technical precision required to transform a novelty idea into a functional interactive system.
 
Viam thermal printer receipt
It’s not rice paper — don’t eat the receipt! Source: hazal mestci’s Instructable.
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This blend of confectionery artistry and robotics shows us yet another way to reimagine the potential of everyday objects through the lens of IoT and smart tech.