Control the color of Philips Hue Lamp based on the user status - Friday night undercover project

Yesterday I had the opportunity to put my hands on some lamp from Philips – Hue Lamps. Basically, you have one or more lamps that can be controlled over the network. For each lamp you can control the color, brightness and so on. The communication is done over a simple HTTP API that is well documented. When you will buy one or more lamps you will receive also a small device that needs to be connected to your network. That small device is used to communicate by wireless with your lamps.
I had the idea to write an application which controls the color of the lamp based on user status. For example when you are in a call, the color of the lamp will be red, otherwise green. I integrated the application with Skype, Outlook calendar and Lync.
If you want to play with this application you can download it from here: https://huelampstatus.codeplex.com/
You will need to install Skype API SDK, Lync 2013 API SDK and you need to have Outlook 2013. The application is not finished yet, but is a good starting point. Until now, on my machine worked pretty okay. Because of Skype API SDK don’t forget to build solution for a 86x processor (COM Nightmare).

Demo Video

Hue Lamp Integration
The communication with Hue Lamp is made pretty simple, you only need to make a PUT request.

 public class HueControl
    {
        private const string MessageBody = @"
{{
    ""hue"": {0},
    ""on"": true,
    ""bri"": 200
}}";
        private const int RedCode = 50;
        private const int GreenCode = 26000;

        public void SetColor(Color color)
        {
            if (color != Color.Red
                && color != Color.Green)
            {
                throw new ArgumentException("Color is not supported", "color");
            }
            try
            {
                byte[] messageContent = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(string.Format(MessageBody,
                    color == Color.Red ? RedCode : GreenCode));
                WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(new Uri(
                                        string.Format("http://{0}/api/{1}/lights/{2}/state",
                                        ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["hueIP"],
                                        ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["hueUser"],
                                        ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["hueNumber"])));
                request.Method = "PUT";
                request.Timeout = 10000;
                request.ContentType = "application/json";
                request.ContentLength = messageContent.Length;
                using (Stream stream = request.GetRequestStream())
                {
                    stream.Write(messageContent, 0, messageContent.Length);
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Trace.TraceError(ex.Message);
            }
        }
    }

The time consuming things are integration with Skype, Lync and Outlook calendar.

Skype Integration
For Skype, the hardest thing is to put your hands on the SDK (they don't accept new members anymore). You can use this sample code to put the hands on the SDK: http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/SEHE/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=1871
After this all that you need to do is:

public class SkypeStatusChecker : IStatusChecker
    {
        private Skype _skype;

        public SkypeStatusChecker()
        {
            _skype = new Skype();
            _skype.Client.Start(true, true);
            _skype.Attach(6, true);

            _skype.CallStatus += OnCallStatusChange;
        }

        public ChangeStatus ChangeStatus { get; set; }

        private void OnCallStatusChange(Call pCall, TCallStatus status)
        {
            Trace.TraceInformation("Skype statusType: " + status);
            if (status == TCallStatus.clsInProgress)
            {
                SendNotification(StatusType.Busy);
                return;
            }

            if (status == TCallStatus.clsFinished)
            {
                SendNotification(StatusType.Free);
                return;
            }
        }

        private void SendNotification(StatusType statusType)
        {
            if (ChangeStatus != null)
            {
                ChangeStatus.Invoke(this, new ChangeStatusEventArgs(statusType));
            }
        }
    }

When the user will be involved in a call the status of Skype call is “clsInProgress”. When a call is finished the notification status that you receive from Skype is “clsFinished”. I used this to states to change the lamp color.

Lync Integration
In the Lync case you will need to get your activities and check if the status is “Available” or not.

 public class LyncStatusChecker : IStatusChecker
    {
        private StatusType _oldStatusType = StatusType.Free;
        private object _padLock = new object();

        public LyncStatusChecker()
        {
            Timer timer = new Timer();
            timer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1).TotalMilliseconds;
            timer.Elapsed += OnTimeElapsed;
            timer.Start();
        }

        public ChangeStatus ChangeStatus { get; set; }

        private void OnTimeElapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
                LyncClient client = LyncClient.GetClient();

                List<object> states = (List<object>)client.Self.
                    Contact.GetContactInformation(ContactInformationType.CustomActivity);

                var status = GetStatus(states);

                lock (_padLock)
                {
                    if (status == _oldStatusType)
                    {
                        return;
                    }

                    Trace.TraceInformation("Lync statusType: {0}", status);
                    SendNotification(status);
                    _oldStatusType = status;
                }
            }
            catch (Exception err)
            {
                Trace.TraceError(err.ToString());
            }
        }

        private StatusType GetStatus(List<object> states)
        {
            StatusType statusType = StatusType.Free;
            if (states.Count == 0)
            {
                throw new Exception("States of Lync is 0");
            }
            if (states.FirstOrDefault(x => ((LocaleString) x).Value == "Available") == null)
            {
                statusType = StatusType.Busy;
            }
            return statusType;
        }

        private void SendNotification(StatusType statusType)
        {
            if (ChangeStatus != null)
            {
                ChangeStatus.Invoke(this, new ChangeStatusEventArgs(statusType));
            }
        }
    }

Outlook Integration
As I expected, the Outlook API is a nightmare, is very complicated and is pretty hard to find what you are looking for. The solution that I implemented gets the Outlook calendar and check if the user has a meeting in this moment. I don't like how I get the current user status, but it works.

    public class OutlookStatusChecker : IStatusChecker
    {
        private StatusType _oldStatusType = StatusType.Free;
        private object _padLock = new object();

        public OutlookStatusChecker()
        {
            Timer timer = new Timer();
            timer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1).TotalMilliseconds;
            timer.Elapsed += OnTimeElapsed;
            timer.Start();
        }

        public ChangeStatus ChangeStatus { get; set; }

        private void OnTimeElapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
        {
            CheckStatus();
        }

        private void CheckStatus()
        {
            try
            {
                Application outlookApp = new Application();
                NameSpace nameSpace = outlookApp.GetNamespace("MAPI");

                MAPIFolder calendarFolder = nameSpace.GetDefaultFolder(OlDefaultFolders.olFolderCalendar);
                Items calendarItems = calendarFolder.Items;
                calendarItems.IncludeRecurrences = true;
                calendarItems.Sort("[Start]", Type.Missing);
                DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
                DateTime todayStart = new DateTime(now.Year, now.Month, now.Day, 00, 00, 01);
                DateTime todayEnds = new DateTime(now.Year, now.Month, now.Day, 23, 59, 58);

                Items currentCalendarItems = calendarItems.Restrict(
                            string.Format(@"[Start] < ""{0}"" AND [End] > ""{1}"" AND [Start] >=""{2}"" AND [End] < ""{3}"" ",
                                    now.ToString("g"), now.AddMinutes(1).ToString("g"),
                                    todayStart.ToString("g"), todayEnds.ToString("g")));

                IEnumerator itemsEnumerator = currentCalendarItems.GetEnumerator();
                itemsEnumerator.MoveNext();

                StatusType statusType = itemsEnumerator.Current == null ? StatusType.Free : StatusType.Busy;

                lock (_padLock)
                {
                    if (statusType == _oldStatusType)
                    {
                        return;
                    }

                    Trace.TraceInformation("Outlook statusType: {0}", statusType);
                    SendNotification(statusType);
                    _oldStatusType = statusType;
                }
            }
            catch (Exception err)
            {
                Trace.TraceError(err.ToString());
            }
        }

        private void SendNotification(StatusType statusType)
        {
            if (ChangeStatus != null)
            {
                ChangeStatus.Invoke(this, new ChangeStatusEventArgs(statusType));
            }
        }
    }

Conclusion
 The things that I really liked was the API of Hue Lamps, that is very simple to use and well documented. Great job Philips.