node-red-contrib-mcu-draw-face

A simple node for drawing a face on an MCU screen.

Table of Contents

1. About
2. What is Node-RED MCU?
3. What is Stack-chan?
4. Installation
5. Usage
6. Commands to change expressions
7. Details of face properties
8. Examples
9. Contributing
10. License

About

This node is used to display a simple face like Stack-chan on the MCU device. You can use this node with Node-RED MCU Edition.

What is Node-RED MCU?

Node-RED MCU Edition is a Node-RED runtime that runs on resource-constrained microcontrollers (MCUs) released by Mr. Peter Hoddie. Node-RED MCU product page is here: https://github.com/phoddie/node-red-mcu

What is Stack-chan?

Stack-chan is a super cute, palm-sized communication robot developed and released by Shishikawa-san.
Stack-chan product page is here: https://github.com/meganetaaan/stack-chan

Installation

To install this node, run the following command in your Node-RED user directory (typically ~/.node-red):

npm install git+https://github.com/mshioji/node-red-contrib-mcu-draw-face

Or, if it is already registered in npm, you can also install it with the following command:

npm install @mshioji/node-red-contrib-mcu-draw-face

Please restart Node-RED after installation.

Usage

To change the face display specifications:

Edit the face object properties on the property window of this node to change the default face. Or, obtain the face object output by sending a message to the node then change the properties like eye and mouth within the face object and input them into the node by storing them in msg.payload. You can also send only the properties that need to be changed instead of the entire face object. Please note face properties should be in msg.payload.face.

Commands to change expressions

You can change expressions by sending the face object each time, but some expressions have dedicated commands.
Send the following strings in msg.payload.cmd to change the expression:
Please note the command property should be in msg.payload.cmd.

• "blink": Blinks the eyes
• "wink": Winks
• "smile": Smiles
• "frown": Frowns
• "talk": Randomly updates the mouth shape to simulate talking
• "talk_stop": Stops the "talk" action
• "default": Resets the face display specifications to default

Details of face properties

You can change the face by editing the face object JSON in the property window.
Following specifications are common to the case that sending the face object of msg.payload.face to the input terminal.

Eye Properties

• pupillary_distance: Set the distance between the eyes.
• vPos: Vertical position from the top of the screen.

Each eye (left and right) has individual properties:

• enable: true or false to display or not display the item.
• x, y: Shift the position.
• w, h: Width and height.
• rotation: Rotation of the item, set in degrees.
• arcStart: Start position of the arc, set in degrees.
• arcStop: Stop position of the arc, set in degrees.
• lineWidth: Width of the line.
• drawMode: Set "fill" or "stroke".

Mouth Properties

• vPos: Vertical position from the top of the screen.
• enable: true or false to display or not display the item.
• shape: "line" or "oval".
• x, y: Shift the position.
• w, h: Width and height.
• lineWidth: Width of the line.
• curveStrength: Positive number for a smile, negative number for a disgruntled face.
• rotation: Rotation of the item, set in degrees.
• arcStart: Start position of the arc, set in degrees.
• arcStop: Stop position of the arc, set in degrees.
• drawMode: Set "fill" or "stroke".

Examples

There is an example flow to get you started.
Please refer to the "examples" folder.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! If you have any ideas, suggestions, or bug reports, please open an issue or submit a pull request on GitHub.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache-2.0 License - see the LICENSE file for details.