Hidden Interface Rendering System (HIRS)
"Ambient computing should disappear when not needed."
HIRS is a computational rendering engine designed to reveal high-contrast interfaces through everyday materials like wood, fabric, and plastic. By using passive-matrix OLEDs (PMOLEDs) and intelligent optical compensation algorithms, we turn solid surfaces into invisible-by-default displays.
The system successfully fights optical physics to render legible content through solid materials.
Fig 1: The pipeline compensating for Wood Veneer diffusion. (1) The pre-distorted signal sent to the OLED, (2) The physical emission, (3) The final legibility through the material.
Most "smart home" interfaces involve gluing a black glass rectangle onto a nice piece of furniture. We reject that.
- Hidden by Default: The interface is completely invisible until triggered.
- Material-Aware: The rendering engine knows it is shining through wood, so it boosts brightness and sharpens edges (inverse diffusion) to ensure legibility.
- Low Cost: Optimized for cheap, low-duty-cycle PMOLED hardware, not expensive transparent screens.
- Python 3.8+
- Dependencies:
numpy,scipy,matplotlib,opencv-python
pip install numpy scipy matplotlib opencv-pythonVisualize the complete optical transport pipeline:
python3 simulation/simulator.pyThis will run the engine with a default Wood Veneer material model and produce the visualization shown above.
The project is organized into research-grade modules:
| Module | Description |
|---|---|
display/ |
Hardware Abstraction: Models PMOLED constraints (perfect blacks, limited brightness). |
materials/ |
Optical Database: Physics models for Wood, Fabric, Paper, etc. Simulates diffusion & attenuation. |
parallel_engine/ |
The Core: Application of Inverse Diffusion (unsharp masking) and Brightness Amplification. |
rendering/ |
UI Toolkit: Primitives (HighContrastRect, DotGrid) designed to survive blur. |
interfaces/ |
Logic: efficient state machines for the hidden/reveal lifecycle. |
👉 Read the Technical Guide for detailed architecture and extension instructions.
- Parallel Brightness Amplification: Spatially spreads light energy to fight material attenuation.
- Inverse Diffusion: Pre-sharpens content based on the specific material's
sigma(blur factor). - State Management: "Fade-in/Fade-out" logic ensuring the interface feels discovered, not toggled.
This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.
Created by Pranav Dwivedi for the Ambient Computing Research Group.