A Smartphone-Style UI on an MCU: Brookesia on SCINTIX P4

Espressif's SCINTIX P4 module, powered by the ESP32-P4 MCU, now runs the Brookesia smartphone-style UI, enabling multimedia and edge AI applications on a real-time microcontroller. The tutorial details hardware setup, firmware flashing, and camera/display integration for building HMI systems.

SCINTIX P4 gives you the ability to build multimedia applications powered by a real-time MCU. It's a fast and versatile platform designed for display- and camera-based HMI applications over MIPI-DSI and MIPI-CSI. It's equally well suited to edge AI workloads, sensor-processing applications, and modular embedded systems that need the flexibility of a CM4/CM5 carrier while keeping the deterministic behavior of a microcontroller. What you will learn in this tutorial- Project setup and build process - Firmware flashing - Camera integration - Display integration +-----------+ | SCINTIX | +-----------+ | v +---------------------+ | CM4-to-Pi4-Adapter | ─────────────────┐ +---------------------+ | | | | SUPPLY/RST CABLE CAMERA CABLE | | DISPLAY CABLE | v v v+-----------------------------+ +-----------------------------+| ESP32-P4-Function-EV-Board | | ESP32-P4-Function-EV-Board || CAMERA | | DISPLAY |+-----------------------------+ +-----------------------------+ Hardware Design Connections - Place the SCINTIX P4 board already programmed — see the Firmware section below onto the CM4-to-Pi4 adapter. - Connect the camera and the display using the flat cables. - Connect the supplementary cable from the CM4-to-Pi4 adapter to the display. This cable provides the display power supply and reset signal. | CM4-to-Pi4-Adapter Pin | Display Pin | |--------------------------------------| | 5V | 5V | | GND | GND | | GPIO27 | PWM | | GPIO22 | RST LCD | Project Structure esp brookesia phone/├── main/│ ├── main.cpp entry point — BSP + framework init, app install│ └── lvgl adapter init.c MIPI-DSI panel + GT911 touch → LVGL binding├── components/│ ├── apps/│ │ ├── camera/ MIPI-CSI streaming, AI detection, photo UI│ │ ├── setting/ WiFi, BLE toggle, brightness, SNTP│ │ ├── game 2048/ gesture input, NVS high-score│ │ ├── music player/ SPIFFS file iterator, LVGL music demo│ │ ├── calculator/ LVGL keyboard, expression parser│ │ └── video player/ SD card, MJPEG decoder│ ├── human face detect/ MSRMNP 2-stage face detection esp-dl │ └── pedestrian detect/ Pico single-stage pedestrian detection esp-dl ├── spiffs/ MP3 assets game sounds, music tracks ├── partitions.csv nvs / phy init / factory / storage└── CMakeLists.txt Software setup Windows - Install VS Code https://code.visualstudio.com/ - Install the ESP-IDF extension for VS Code from Espressif . Once the correct extension is installed, you should see these icons and toolbar 1 . - Install ESP-IDF v5.5.4 , as required by the example steps 2.1 to 2.4 . - Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/relocsrl/scintix-p4.git - Open the scintix-p4 folder. - Launch VS Code from the scintix-p4\examples\esp brookesia phone folder. - Select the correct ESP-IDF v5.5.4 3.1 and build 3.2 . - If everything is set up correctly, you should see the expected output in the terminal, with the target set to esp32p4 . - Connect the USB Type-C cable to the SCINTIX P4 board and press Flash 5.1 . If needed, use the UART interface. - Et voilà — the demo is up and running. The display now shows the Brookesia launcher with its smartphone-style interface, fully driven by the ESP32-P4 on the SCINTIX P4 module. From here, you can navigate the UI and explore the built-in apps. Read more javascript:void 0