Spatial Smoothing

[RosdasHH]

Feature request

What problem does this feature solve?

Currently, HyperHDR only applies temporal smoothing (over time) for LED color updates.
This leads to abrupt color changes between neighboring LEDs.
Spatial smoothing would create a kind of gradient between adjacent LEDs, resulting in smoother transitions and a more natural Ambilight effect.

What does the proposed API look like?

Add an option in the LED settings called "Spatial Smoothing" with an adjustable slider (0–100%) to control the amount of blur between neighboring LEDs.
The smoothing should be applied after the color capture but before sending the data to LEDs, and it should work together with existing temporal smoothing.

How should this be implemented in your opinion?

Implement a simple weighted average or Gaussian blur between adjacent LED colors.
For example, each LED could take a fraction of its own color and a fraction of its neighbors, similar to a 1D convolution.
This should be efficient enough to run in real-time without dropping FPS.

Are you willing to work on this yourself?

No, I am requesting this feature as a user.

[awawa-dev]

I think that in smoothin we should not rely on the geometry of the LEDs at all (and this concerns the issue of what we consider to be a "neighbor"), because a continuous LED strip is just one of the cases: you could just as well have a setup with Hue lamps placed somewhere in the space.

[RosdasHH]

Spatial smoothing isn’t really needed for single Hue lamps, since each one just shows a single color and there are no hard transitions. For LED strips, hard transitions can appear between LEDs based on the image, especially with diffused strips or strips placed too close to the wall. I think my point was more in the direction of the existing overlapping feature, basically to prevent two neighboring LEDs from showing completely different colors. I just realized that this can already be achieved by using a high overlap value. Currently, the HyperHDR preview looks a bit distorted when a high overlap is used, which is why I didn’t realize the feature is already integrated. My idea was probably exactly the overlapping feature, but in a way where the overlap isn’t shown in the LED preview; instead, there could be a slider under smoothing to enable “spatial smoothing” and define the overlap intensity to achieve the same effect.

[awawa-dev]

Honestly, I don't see it. For now, I have four new smoothing algorithms to work with that need testing: #1261. Maybe work with the AI ​​to adjust one of them to your needs and see if anything worthwhile comes out?

[RosdasHH]

Yeah, no problem. Like I already said, the feature is already implemented via the overlap factor. It’s a bit hidden, but works perfectly fine. I will still test your new algorithms.