Is it technically possible to use the tablet's camera to wake the DE1 up?

Yes, it is entirely possible and actually quite easy from a programming perspective. Software can be implemented to utilize the tablet's camera for motion detection, waking the machine up and prompting it to warm up as soon as someone passes by. However, the team decided against building it out as a default feature because they found the idea of a camera constantly tracking motion in the room to be a bit "creepy".

Are there safety or regulatory limits to waking the machine up automatically?

Yes, safety regulations place specific limitations on automated operations. Under UL compliance rules, the software is strictly prohibited from turning on burning water remotely or automatically. However, the tablet is allowed to control every other aspect of the system, meaning waking the electronics up and initiating the baseline warming phase is fully legal and safe.

What other camera features did the team experiment with or consider?

The team explored several other creative camera ideas:

Shot Photography: Because the front-facing camera sits at an angle, it could theoretically capture photos of your espresso shots as you brew them. (Though they joked that cloud storage might be better spent on things other than thousands of latte art pictures).

Barcode Scanning: They successfully tested a working library that reads product barcodes. Users could hold up a coffee bag's barcode to the camera, allowing the machine to look up the bean profile in a database and automatically log it into the shot's metadata.

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