Raspberry Pi Powered Video Calls on a TV, for the At-Risk, Elderly, or Less Technical

Virtually Maker Faire 2020

May 22nd-23rd

The Balena Video Calling project is designed to make it extremely easy for family members, loved ones, at-risk and others dealing with isolation to participate in video calling that many of us take for granted, without the same technical barriers that again many of us in Tech don't think twice about. The concept for the project is that you can take a Raspberry Pi and USB webcam, place it in a loved one's home, connect it to a TV, and have it join video calls, all via one simple configuration variable: a Jitsi URL. The "more technical" user simply updates the device and adds the URL to it, which then triggers the device, located in the "less technical" user's home, to join the video call. Thus, an elderly user, at-risk individual, or someone without any other hardware such as a tablet, laptop, etc, can still participate in video calls with friends and family.

We'll walk through the build, so that our audience can duplicate the steps and setup their own devices.

Our documentation can also help, located here: https://www.balena.io/blog/put-friends-and-loved-ones-on-the-big-screen-with-this-instant-video-call-project/