Sentiment Cam: Physical AI Output

Concept This device acts as the physical actuator for a larger computer vision system. It serves as the "emotional indicator" for an external Python script running facial sentiment analysis. It demonstrates how microcontrollers can serve as edge devices for powerful AI models running on a host computer.

The Tech Stack

• Hardware: Green LED (Positive), Red LED (Negative).
• Logic: Serial Communication Protocol, Conditional State Machine.
• Objective: Visually reflect the sentiment (Happy/Sad) detected by a camera in real-time.

How it Works The Arduino acts as a passive listener, waiting for commands from the "brain" (Python script).

1. The Protocol: It listens to the Serial port for specific single-byte characters.
2. Interpretation:
   • Receiving 'V' triggers the Green LED (Valid/Positive).
   • Receiving 'R' triggers the Red LED (Rejected/Negative).
3. The Loop: It continuously polls the buffer, ensuring near-instantaneous reaction to the video feed analysis.

AI Context 🤖 AI helped define the lightweight serial protocol to ensure low latency between the heavy image processing (Python) and the immediate hardware response (Arduino), effectively bridging the software-hardware gap.

Status ✅ Operational | Hardware is ready and listening for the Python host.