An IoT app to seamlessly share video, photos & video chat with your loved ones
"Loop makes a new argument for the connected home display”
“The retro-looking display has a few modern surprises”
“The 9 coolest gadgets from this year’s CES”
The biggest challenge was media uploads. The user should be able to upload any amount of media files to any amount of channels – this consumes an enormous amount of memory and bandwidth.
At the same time, we had to make sure that the app is still responsible while the upload is progressing.
The Loop Display doesn’t have a touchscreen – the user manages it manually with special knobs. So the whole navigation we were developing had to match this device’s characteristic.
We decided to create our own custom architecture dedicated to the Loop Display App.
The main challenges were:
Content from many users
The content uploaded on the Loop Display can be added by different users, even at the same time.
Remote set-up & control
Your Loop Display can be set up and controlled remotely from any phone with the Loop App. Set-up requires a Bluetooth Low Energy connection, while the rest of communication needs Wi-Fi.
Displaying photos & video
On your Loop, you can display photos & videos uploaded by your friends and family, as well as from their social media channels (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram). You can add any amount of the content in real-time!
Manual content management
You choose which content is displayed on the Loop Display. Quickly skip through photos and videos using the Browse dial. Thanks to the Channel knob you can flip through channels like a classic TV.
Notifications
Your Loop always lets you know when someone sends you photos or videos, creates a channel or wants to start a video chat.
Video chatting
You can call your friends and family by starting a video-chat between two Loop Displays or between a Loop Display and a smartphone.
Photo transitions
On your Display you can view photos with the Ken Burns effect (slow panning and zooming).
Screen brightness & dimming
You can adjust the level of screen brightness and enable automatic dimming when the room is dark.
OTA (over the air) updates
The Display's firmware can be updated without a user's involvement.
Remote set-up & control
You can set up your Display using the Bluetooth connection, and communicate with it using Wi-Fi. Both can be done remotely from your phone.
Creating channels
Channels allow you to organize content onto your Loop Display into curated feeds that you can enjoy privately or share with your friends and family.
Inviting other users to channels
When you invite someone to your channel, they can view and add content to that specific channel. You can create different channels and invite different people to each one.
Sending content directly to the display
You can quickly share as many pictures or videos as you want from your smartphone, Instagram, Facebook, and more. It shows up in seconds on the Display.
Video chatting
You can start a video-chat between a Loop Display and a smartphone. All you need is a Wi-Fi connection to get started!
Photo transitions
You can adjust the length of time every photo is displayed and turn on the Ken Burns effect on the Display (it adds movement to photos with slow panning and zooming effects).
Screen brightness & dimming
You can adjust the level of screen brightness and enable automatic dimming when the room is dark.
Sign up & log in
You can log in and sign up using your e-mail, Facebook or Google account.
Content & channels deleting
You can delete content and channels whenever you want.
Data storage
The Backend system stores all content and information about users and channel.
Content update & notifications
Backend ensures that all of the client apps have up-to-date content and it even notifies users if necessary.
Social media integration
Thanks to automatic synchronization with Social Media, a lot of content can be uploaded to many channels at once, without requiring user engagement.
Admin panel
Admin can monitor statistics about uploads.
Software updates
Admin can upload new versions of the Loop App.
Managing public content
Admin can create public channels.
The biggest challenge arose from the fact that the Loop Display doesn’t have a touchscreen and the user manages it manually with special knobs. Consequently, the entire navigation had to be usable solely through these means.
This is why we chose to create our own custom architecture, specifically for Loop Display.
We developed the Display app for Android platform.
Media uploads were one of the biggest challenges. Users need to be able to upload any amount of media files across numerous channels, all while the app remained responsive and uploads progressed smoothly.
We decided to use highly efficient tools like Realm or Texture which covered the database notifications and UI respectively. Additionally, we had to become experts in threading and invent our own Queue of Queues, which is an excellent data structure for this use case.
Optimizing media uploads was one of our main challenges. We developed a client direct upload flow using AWS services like S3, Lambda, and Elastic Transcoder.
Brian Gannon
CEO, California Labs, Inc.
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