TV launcher replaced with a live 3D apartment

A custom TV home screen, written with Claude Code, that replaces ads with a live 3D model of the owner's apartment. Lights and a ceiling fan in the model switch in real time.

Can I build this?Beginner · AI 5/5 · $0

Difficulty: Beginner
AI-buildability: 5/5
Time: A weekend
Cost: $0

Tools

adbAndroid debug bridgetext editor

Starter prompt

Based on "TV launcher replaced with a live 3D apartment" on Afterware: https://afterware.xyz/p/tv-launcher-replaced-with-a-live-3d-apartment

Help me build a custom launcher for an Android TV set. Connect over adb on the local network, list and remove the preinstalled ad apps, and set a new home activity. The home screen should show a 3D scene of a room built with three.js, with a few light and fan entities from Home Assistant that change in the scene when their state changes.

Estimates based on the original write-up. How AI-buildability is scored. The maker built this with AI tools: more vibe-coded builds. Building with an AI assistant? Connect it to Afterware (free MCP server).

Story

The project started as a fix for a TV's built-in ads. The post describes an AI coding tool being given a TV's model number, locating the set on the home Wi-Fi, removing 25 bundled Xiaomi packages, and writing a new launcher in its place.

The launcher on the author's own TV shows a live 3D model of their apartment rather than a menu of promotions. Lights and a ceiling fan are wired into the model and change state in the 3D view as the real devices switch. The live TV feed plays inside the model's screen.

The source is a short social post with a few screenshots and a video. It does not list hardware, a device model, or a repository, so the details of the wiring and the code are not known beyond what is described.