Show HN: Overhead – the planes overhead, painted on an e-ink frame

Overhead is a set of four widgets for Tesserae, a self-hosted system for displaying information on e-paper panels. It shows aircraft flying near a chosen location, using public ADS-B feeds or a user’s own receiver. For each aircraft, it can retrieve a photograph of that specific airframe, identify details such as type, operator, route and wingspan, and generate a stylized painting that preserves its livery and markings. The images are saved on the user’s server, so recurring aircraft need not be painted again. Users can choose among twenty preset art styles, customize a style or prompt, or display photographs without AI-generated artwork.

The widgets present aircraft as a tightly packed arrangement, a side-on livery chart, a framed single-plane plate, or a full-page scene; a photo mode shows real aircraft images instead. Captions include information such as callsign, type and altitude, and the layouts are designed to avoid obscuring the aircraft. Painting costs about four cents per aircraft and style, with background removal adding roughly two cents; daily spending limits let users control costs. The project requires Tesserae 0.463 or later, and AI painting requires a fal.ai key. It also includes an interface for reviewing, repainting or deleting saved artwork. Photographs and flight data come from external aviation services, with photographers credited; the code is primarily AGPL-licensed.