We wanted to build something cool for the new lobby at Google NY: something that was big, could display a lot of different stuff, and (most importantly) was really fun to play with. A giant screen would have been pretty easy, but touching a screen just isn’t that much fun. So we went with something a little different: nearly six thousand light-up arcade buttons acting as interactive pixels, controlled by a web page. Then we had a thought: Wouldn’t it be even more fun if all developers, coders, and makers could build their own displays running demo apps they created for it?

AnyPixel.js is an open-source software and hardware library, making it possible to use the web to create big, unusual, interactive displays. Anyone can fork the code and the schematics to create their own display at any scale or level of expertise. You could use it to build an interactive display using light switches, lightboxes, or balloons - all kinds of things.

A permanent installation measuring 10’ high by 30’ wide and featuring 5,880 arcade buttons is delighting visitors to the public lobby of Google NY at 111 8th Avenue. Each button holds a single LED pixel with full 8-bit color. The buttons are built into 7x7 panels daisy chained together and controlled with Google Chrome. Each interactive experience on the display is a simple CSS canvas and JavaScript webpage. To keep it fresh, the installation can be updated with new content via a web based CMS.

8,400 daily impressions

11,500 daily button presses

It’s important to remember that the installation lives in the lobby of an office building: spaces that are typically stiff, secure, and generic. AnyPixel is the opposite - it invites interaction, is vibrant, and is in constant motion. We’ve been very pleased to see visitors delight when they press one of the buttons. No matter if they’re 7 or 70, the smiles are the same.

We’ve been equally excited by the enthusiastic response from the developer community with great feedback, curious questions, and information requests. Recently, a group out of London, inspired by AnyPixel, built their own framework for displaying visuals to an LED. We count that as a big win.