The Rice Field, a “Chinese language take-out on the go,” is a blur of Cyberpunk neon and sci-fi-influenced kiosks. Kiosks that are powered by six Raspberry Pi 4s. As noticed by Reddit person Paimonforsale, the kiosk resembles a Nineties sci-fi set, however six Raspberry Pi 4 are hidden in plain sight.
Placing raspberry Pi’s to work and displaying them off from r/raspberry_pi
Positioned on the nook of Morningside Drive and Instances Boulevard in Houston, Texas, The Rice Field is a current addition to the realm. It appears that evidently the homeowners have a love for sci-fi, and the six Raspberry Pis are used to create a digital signage resolution and given a distinguished place within the show. Maybe they’re additionally followers of our favourite single-board laptop?
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Every of the Raspberry Pi’s makes use of only one micro-HDMI output, and searching on the structure of the prop signage, we are able to see six screens. Probably the most distinguished are the three giant screens displaying the menu. Simply above these screens are three extra that appear to be there for set dressing, with sci-fi themed animations.
The Raspberry Pi 4 is protected behind a glass or plexiglass display screen. How theft-proof they’re stays to be seen. Every of the Raspberry Pi is mounted to a pink body. Every body has telltale indicators of 3D printing, with the highest layer exposing the strains of filament. You would simply make these frames with any of the greatest 3D printers, or perhaps a laser cutter. The PIs are powered utilizing their USB C energy provide, however that’s it; no GPIO pins are used, nor are any of the USB ports. This implies the various buttons and switches on the signage are mere set dressing. An actual disgrace, as it could’ve been enjoyable to have some sounds/lights react to person enter.
The code to run the signage is unknown. It could possibly be one thing customized utilizing Raspberry Pi OS and a bit of Python. Almost definitely, it’s one thing like DAKBoard, Screenly, or FullPageOS, which makes use of a Chromium browser in kiosk mode to show an internet web page. Utilizing six Raspberry Pi 4s for six shows appears a bit of “overkill.” The Raspberry Pi 4 launched twin micro HDMI ports, every able to outputting a 4K30 sign. Might these digital signage OS output to each HDMI ports directly? A fast look at every of the options would not point out that it’s potential. However as they’re primarily based on Raspberry Pi OS / Linux, it would not be too troublesome to hack the function into it.
Raspberry Pi have been used for digital signage because the board was launched. The low price and easy accessibility (on the time) made it an apparent alternative for signage makers. Even IKEA makes use of Raspberry Pi in its retailer signage. The Rice Field’s general construct is spectacular and exudes a Blade Runner aesthetic. Heck, we anticipated Rick Deckard to be ordering noodles in a neon rain-soaked world.