Minecraft controls this LED matrix

A common question asked by new makers is "what is the difference between a microcontroller development board and a single board computer?" Or, in more common terms, "what's the difference between an Arduino and a Raspberry Pi?" There are many technical differences, but people really ask why you would use one over the other. The answer, in most cases, is that you use an Arduino to handle low-level control of sensors, motors, etc., and you use a Raspberry Pi for computational CPU-intensive tasks. If, however, you need both, then MrDemonFrog's Minecraft Controlled LED Matrix illustrates how to do it.

The MrDemonFrog project is simple. The hardware consists of an Arduino Uno board and four LEDs: red, blue, green, and amber. These LEDs light up based on what the player is looking at inside Minecraft. MrDemonFrog has built a special map to demonstrate this. It has four huge walls in these primary colors. If the player looks at the red wall, the red LED lights up. It is the same for the other colors.

This project is interesting because it shows how users can combine the power of a computer (including a Raspberry Pi) with Arduino's ability to interface with hardware components. MrDemonFrog uses a Python and OpenCV script to detect the color in front of the Minecraft player. Once it has determined the color, it sends a command to the Arduino through the serial communication port. Instead of the Arduino making decisions on its own, as you've probably experienced in beginner tutorials, it offloads that decision making to the computer and simply acts as an interface for low-level hardware ( the LEDs).