Exactly, it was designed to accept bitmap/sprites but also you can do just a palette and an equation, like the following.

Believe me though it is much more colorful and vibrant in person...still trying to figure out how to solve the blown effect out while recording.

gist.github.com/JaronKing/cf...

This allows for unlimited animation possiblities. I communicate with the lantern via a phone app over bluetooth. So there is no need for an internet connection, just your phone and the lantern.

I use a visual engine that interprets a json object on the lantern. The animation itself looks like the following

gist.github.com/JaronKing/a9...

The lantern only interprets the data.