Mac app · Ambient lighting
Backglow
Mac app that reads the edges of the screen in real time and lights an LED strip behind the monitor to match.
The question
How does a DIY LED strip project become a Mac app that you download, set up once and then simply leave running?
Implementation
The app captures the screen with ScreenCaptureKit and averages the edge colors in linear light in a Metal shader. Letterbox detection, smoothing and anti-flicker follow the techniques of HyperHDR. Colors are sent over USB to an ESP32 or ESP8266 driving a WS2812B strip; LED layout and color calibration are stored on the controller.
My contribution
Independent project, now in its third version: app in Swift and SwiftUI, firmware for ESP32 and ESP8266, bilingual website with a setup guide. The app runs entirely on the Mac, with no network connections or telemetry.