Wyze Cam Morse Code Receiver

"Hey, go out on your balcony for a minute"

When I moved into my new apartment, I noticed I could see my friend's building from my balcony, so I gave him a call.

@wyze Dibs on calling these guys first when the apocalypse happens ✋ #capturedonwyzecam #morsecode #smart #wyze ♬ Aesthetic - Tollan Kim

With my strongest zoom lens, we discovered we could see each other a full kilometer away. It got me thinking; could we use a technology to send messages to each other that we could build ourselves?

Using Morse Code

I needed a technology that was as antequated as it would be fun to work with - enter morse code.

If you're not familiar, it's a series of dots and dashes that is used to represent the English alphabet and digits.

 .. ... / - .... .. ... / .-. -.-- -.. . .-. ..--..
 -. --- / - .... .. ... / .. ... / .--. .- - .-. .. -.-. -.-

We can represent these dashes and dots as flashes of light; each occupying 3 or 1 units of time respectively.

Building the project

Using a DJ light set up on my balcony and custom code, I created a web interface that allows a text input, and flashes the light in the translated morse.

Using the Wyze V3 camera and its RTSP interface, I then built an image processing pipeline to capture the flashing light from my balcony, on a friend's balcony, approximately 1km away.

Determining if the light was either currently on or off, and using identical time units as the transmitter, messages can be decoded.

A Project For Wyze

The deliverables of this project were a series of short-form videos, designed to showcase creative uses of the Wyze camera.

.-.. . .- ..-. ... / ... ..- -.-. -.- / --. --- / .... .- -... ...

I also flashed "leafs suck, go habs" in morse across the city to my friend.