Overview

A Costume That Runs a Show.

Each module is a bright screen that can show images, GIFs and video, text, colors, and built-in animated effects (on its own, or as one panel in a bigger performance spread across the whole costume). Shapes vary: round screens, rectangular panels, bars, and LED matrices are all designed to mix in the same show. Snap several onto an outfit and they behave like a single, synchronized light show you drive from an app.

One firmware image runs two roles: a Conductor (the brain: the master clock and the app's bridge to everything) and any number of Display modules that auto-discover the conductor and play their part on cue. Which role a unit plays is just a setting.

The Core Idea

The Cues Fly, the Video Stays

This is the one decision everything else hangs on. The modules talk over ESP-NOW, a tiny peer-to-peer radio protocol that's fast and connectionless. But it can only carry about 250 bytes per message. That's nowhere near enough to stream video to a dozen screens at once. So the system splits cleanly in two:

Big Media: Local

Heavy Pixels Stay Home

Every module keeps its own images and video on its own flash storage. The big data stays put during the show, so the costume keeps performing even if your phone dies mid-event.

Live Cues: ESP-NOW

Only Tiny Cues Fly

Over the air go only small packets: a shared clock, cue triggers, and live color / text / brightness. Because every module locks to the same clock, effects ripple across the whole costume in millisecond lockstep.

So the phone works as a director. Ahead of time it resizes each clip to the exact screen it's going to, uploads it to that module, and lays out a timeline. At showtime it just fires synchronized cues, or hands the whole show to the costume and walks away.

What It Can Do

Working Today

Everything below is running on real hardware today.

Effects

A Built-In VFX Pack

Generated on the module itself: solid, gradient, plasma, fire, sparkle, rain, breathe, strobe, and radar-sweep. All computed from the shared clock, so every screen runs them in step. Plus static and scrolling-marquee text.

Media

Your Own Art, Auto-Fit

Import images or video in the app and it turns them into panel-native frames sized to each exact screen, then uploads them. Playback runs from each module's flash.

Timeline

A Show That Runs Itself

A multi-track editor (one lane per zone) lets you drag and resize blocks. The timeline then compiles to an on-device show: the conductor stores it, runs it on the synced clock, and autoplays it on boot. The phone can be gone.

The App

One Connection, Any Browser

The control app is a single web page each module serves over its own Wi-Fi: live look controls and a live panel preview, straight from the browser. Connect to the conductor once and you reach the whole costume, with zone targeting to address groups of modules.

Hardware & Status

One Firmware, Many Panels

Hardware

Built for Any Panel Shape

The lead module is a LilyGo 1.75″ round AMOLED (466×466, ESP32-S3, 8 MB PSRAM), the same board proven out in Planetaria. The line is designed to grow to other panels (rectangular AMOLEDs, bars, LED matrices and strips) behind the same firmware and protocol: each unit reports its exact geometry so media is sized to match.

In Development

Honest status

The foundation is built and running on real hardware: the node firmware, the wireless cue link over ESP-NOW, media upload, the browser control app, the conductor that ties them together, and the timeline that compiles to an on-device show. Multi-panel drivers are partway (several of the planned panels are driving). Reactive modes (sound / motion / gesture), whole-costume pixel mapping, and over-the-air updates are next.