20 ms·

Show HN: Website changes design each time you blink

261 points by monolesan 5y ago

jstanley 5y ago
Cool idea, but it seems to change just after I blink, so it is very easy to spot the changes. I guess my system has too much delay in capturing the images. And if I keep my eyes closed longer, it seems to run through lots of different changes, and then do another change as soon as I open them. You can test this by only closing one eye - it seems to think you're blinking really rapidly. I don't know exactly how it works, but it seems to act something like: "for each frame of video, if we can see an eye that is closed, change something on the page". I think it should change to "if we can see an eye that is closed and there wasn't a closed eye in the previous frame".
- mcherm 5y ago
  I would suggest "if we can see two eyes that are closed and there wasn't a change made within the past 5 seconds".
  - wellthisishn 5y ago
    Why 5 seconds?
user48a 5y ago
On one hand I wanted to try this but then I was not comfortable with giving some website access to my webcam. Maybe I am just old and paranoid... EDIT: I brought the age factor up because I am under the impression that people born after 2000 are so used to getting filmed and photographed everywhere that they don't have such reservations
- the_third_wave 5y ago
  > EDIT: I brought the age factor up because I am under the impression that people born after 2000 are so used to getting filmed and photographed everywhere that they don't have such reservations If my daughters are anything to go by you seem to be right. I'm trying to make sure that at least the home network and devices used on it leak as little personal data as possible - router-based content blocking (ads etc.), DNS proxy which blackholes unwanted domains, search through Searx, Youtube proxied through Invidious, Twitter proxied through Nitter, Reddit proxied through libreddit, Nextcloud for "cloudy" things, Exim4 for mail, Pixelfed for photo sharing, Peertube for video, Airsonic for audio/books, etc - but they really don't seem to care one bit whether they're being tracked and profiled by the world and its dog. They don't seem to realise there is no need to allow those companies to leech them for all their data nor do they seem to realise the potential negatives in allowing the leeches to parasitize them. At least they are not on TikTok (which I block at the router), Facebook (the site, one of them uses Instagram and as such still remains within Zuck's clutches) or Twitter.
  - oefnak 5y ago
    If you ever find out how to explain it to them, let me know.
- JackC 5y ago
  > people born after 2000 are so used to getting filmed and photographed everywhere that they don't have such reservations It's more complicated than not having reservations -- younger people share more online but are also more likely to take steps to protect their privacy: https://www.vox.com/2016/11/2/13390458/young-millennials-oversharing-security-digital-online-privacy https://www.vox.com/2016/11/2/13390458/young-millennials-ove... You can find what you want in the data, but my personal read is everyone does what they have to do. Older people have the option of just opting out without losing access to their community (how much social capital are you losing by not checking out that link?), while younger people have to engage in order to be part of their community, so they get more exposure to what can go wrong and take more risks but also more steps to protect themselves. If you're engaging with people of a different generation I'd strongly encourage taking this approach -- if I assume you're making smart choices about dealing with the social system you're in, rather than doing something dumb, what does that tell me about the situation you're facing and what kind of support you might need?
  - rchaud 5y ago
    That article is from November 2016. The conversations about privacy and personal information have evolved massively since then. Cambridge Analytica, Facebook's $5bn FTC fine, and TikTok's takeover of youth social media were all yet to happen. This quoted bit below says it all: "But when I poke through 10 years of Facebook, I see something else altogether. We’re not an oversharing generation. We’re a generation that’s over sharing — done, finished, kaput, through. … All the chatty candor and hyperactive disclosure of our early years on Facebook now look like just another kind of youthful indulgence." All this means is that this person has 'aged out' of their FB phase. What about the hundreds of millions of younger people still on IG, Snap and TikTok?
- depressedpanda 5y ago
  I'm not exactly young, but I gave the site temporary access without thinking much about it; I know the tech and I'm confident my browser will revoke access as soon as I close the tab. I realize now, that I did not consider what the site might do while it has access. Maybe a video or pictures of me blinking are uploaded to some shady server somewhere now.
  - user48a 5y ago
    That was exactly my concern: Somehow I'm just not comfortable with the thought of them having these pictures of me... kind of silly but still...
    - TchoBeer 5y ago
      What are you afraid of them doing with that?
    - ALittleLight 5y ago
      Security cameras and such record you all the time though out in public. I presume there are many random servers containing video where you are blinking.
  - yreg 5y ago
    I'm happy to send a gif of me blinking to any attacker who wants it.
  - 0xdeadb00f 5y ago
    Same realisation here. This is the only time I have ever granted camera access to a website. And even though this is a legitimate project, I feel as if they can take advantage of that access.
- tvirosi 5y ago
  This is why I let so many cool eye tracking ideas left on the shelf. I can't imagine many people will be ok with using it - even though there's so many cool use cases - simply because they'll be paranoid. Not sure how to start to build all the cool futuristic apps for iris tracking now that it's a solved problem.
- r-k-jo 5y ago
  No worries, it seems like using tensorflow.js and running locally on your browser. https://github.com/tensorflow/tfjs-models/tree/master/face-landmarks-detection https://github.com/tensorflow/tfjs-models/tree/master/face-l... here is as a live demo from google https://storage.googleapis.com/tfjs-models/demos/face-landmarks-detection/index.html https://storage.googleapis.com/tfjs-models/demos/face-landma...
- zepearl 5y ago
  Same here (born in the 70') - I went as far as allowing temporary access by the page, but then concerning the browser itself (Opera on Android in my case) I had only the options to "Allow" or "Deny" access to the camera => I wanted to try this out, but in the end I just couldn't => had to decline :(
  - fouc 5y ago
    It would be nice if the browser had finer-grained controls, i.e. if you could monitor the amount of data the website attempts to send.. possibly even mock the webcam first and send a fake video to see what happens.
Eighth 5y ago
If you like this, I recommend the game 'Before Your Eyes' where the game progresses each time you blink. Beware, it will take your emotions on a hell of a ride.
- giomasce 5y ago
  Nice!
progforlyfe 5y ago
HN hug of death already
- fufite 5y ago
  Not exactly, apparently the website committed suicide to avoid the HN hug of death.
doovd 5y ago
Just keep changing the design on a 0.25s timer and you will satisfy the objective without fancy image processing :p
- dylan604 5y ago
  Who blinks four times a second?
shaneprrlt 5y ago
Try winking at it. Hold one eye open and one eye closed and it will cycle through all the changes.
- Bancakes 5y ago
  Excellent QA
  - shaneprrlt 5y ago
    Ha!
- dgb23 5y ago
  This is hacker news after all!
- twox2 5y ago
  I just posted this, thought it was funny too. It also works if you hold your finger or an object over your eye.
- quickthrower2 5y ago
  That could be used as a new tinder cue
- PebblesRox 5y ago
  It should do a sudden scary image if you wink at it for too long.
stavros 5y ago
I once figured that you don't need light in your house if your eyes are closed, and I hooked up blink detection to my smart bulbs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzcdopwq7ok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzcdopwq7ok It actually worked really well, I couldn't perceive the room being dark at all.
- nathanvanfleet 5y ago
  A very forever-alone project
- adrianN 5y ago
  This is the first application of smart bulbs that makes me want them in my house. Congratulations.
  - uyt 5y ago
    It's fun and all but is it really practical? If you have more than two people in a room, it should turn off only when both are blinking at the same time, which should basically be never?
    - Santosh83 5y ago
      Not to mention it will kill the lifetime of the bulb.
      - kenniskrag 5y ago
        also with LED? I though you reduce the light by letting then blink really fast.
        pmx 5y ago
        Variable brightness with an LED is achieved using pulse width modulation, turning it on and off REALLY fast. So no, this won't have any effect on the life of the LED :)
      - 5y ago
lnyng 5y ago
I almost feel that the camera is blinking with this guy.
somethingsome 5y ago
It's very fun if you blink only with one eye :)
twox2 5y ago
This thing gets pretty confused if you close one eye and have the other eye open :)
DonHopkins 5y ago
This would be useful on https://bikeshed.com https://bikeshed.com , instead of having to manually refresh the page!
ivrrimum 5y ago
Hugged to death
donatj 5y ago
I had to take my glasses off to get it to work, and then I couldn't read it. Boo.
- stronglikedan 5y ago
  Me too, but at least there's a lot of layout and color changes that don't require reading.
- baud147258 5y ago
  thank you for this, I didn't get why it wasn't working in my case
liang409 5y ago
How hard would it be for someone with no technical background to create something like this? What would a list of tools needed look like?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
wldcordeiro 5y ago
The trick didn't work with my glasses on but it's a cool setup.
tinus_hn 5y ago
The site is dead. Hope they didn’t miss the opportunity to reference Doctor Who’s weeping angels
anigbrowl 5y ago
Cool demo but I worry blink detection is going to get seriously abused by everyone from phishers to marketers to torturers. And no, the solution is not as simple as 'turn off your webcam' or 'wear shades'.
amne 5y ago
sooo .. is this website made by the same guy who thought it was fine to take snapshots of people staring at apple computers? if this is him then he's a genius.
eplanit 5y ago
I'm curious and it seems cool, but no I'm no opening up my camera to some random website. As an option, it'd be nice if it offered a simple button to trigger the change instead of using the camera.
mbfg 5y ago
hmmm. i don't get the joke.
simonw 5y ago
It's using https://www.npmjs.com/package/@tensorflow-models/face-landmarks-detection https://www.npmjs.com/package/@tensorflow-models/face-landma... Here's a fun demo of that library that shows a wireframe of your face: https://storage.googleapis.com/tfjs-models/demos/face-landmarks-detection/index.html https://storage.googleapis.com/tfjs-models/demos/face-landma...
purplecats 5y ago
I want to use this or google's module to build an app (ideally node.js) that can track whether im looking at the screen or not and do something about it. the use case is that I only really consume media (movies) etc when I'm eating so I can multitask. However I hate pausing and unpausing while grabbing my spoonfuls vs chewing and watching.
Teknoman117 5y ago
My poor brain...
jchw 5y ago
Interesting. Unfortunately, for some reason, for me it just cycles through all of the changes in quick succession. I guess it does not like my eyes.
nazrulmum10 5y ago
Sometimes it is nice to collect postcards. It’s a nice way to collect artworks and to post them to a postcard gallery. It is important to collect postcards with artworks from different sources. If you collect artworks from different sources, then it can be a gallery of artwork. You can collect postcards with the artwork from online applications. You can collect postcards with different artworks, but you have to choose your artworks from a certain source. This is a different approach. I am trying to collect artwork from different sources, such as different online applications. You can choose artworks from different sources. That’s why you have to take care of your artworks. If you collect artworks from one source, then you have to make the artworks you collect public.
utf_8x 5y ago
Doesn’t work in Firefox on iOS. It asks for camera access and says it’s running but nothing ever happens…
monolesan 5y ago
If you want to know how it works, check out code of this project: https://glitch.com/edit/#!/realless https://glitch.com/edit/#!/realless

261 points by monolesan 5y ago

Cool idea, but it seems to change just after I blink, so it is very easy to spot the changes. I guess my system has too much delay in capturing the images. And if I keep my eyes closed longer, it seems to run through lots of different changes, and then do another change as soon as I open them. You can test this by only closing one eye - it seems to think you're blinking really rapidly. I don't know exactly how it works, but it seems to act something like: "for each frame of video, if we can see an eye that is closed, change something on the page". I think it should change to "if we can see an eye that is closed and there wasn't a closed eye in the previous frame".

mcherm 5y ago
I would suggest "if we can see two eyes that are closed and there wasn't a change made within the past 5 seconds".
- wellthisishn 5y ago
  Why 5 seconds?

user48a 5y ago

On one hand I wanted to try this but then I was not comfortable with giving some website access to my webcam. Maybe I am just old and paranoid... EDIT: I brought the age factor up because I am under the impression that people born after 2000 are so used to getting filmed and photographed everywhere that they don't have such reservations

the_third_wave 5y ago
> EDIT: I brought the age factor up because I am under the impression that people born after 2000 are so used to getting filmed and photographed everywhere that they don't have such reservations If my daughters are anything to go by you seem to be right. I'm trying to make sure that at least the home network and devices used on it leak as little personal data as possible - router-based content blocking (ads etc.), DNS proxy which blackholes unwanted domains, search through Searx, Youtube proxied through Invidious, Twitter proxied through Nitter, Reddit proxied through libreddit, Nextcloud for "cloudy" things, Exim4 for mail, Pixelfed for photo sharing, Peertube for video, Airsonic for audio/books, etc - but they really don't seem to care one bit whether they're being tracked and profiled by the world and its dog. They don't seem to realise there is no need to allow those companies to leech them for all their data nor do they seem to realise the potential negatives in allowing the leeches to parasitize them. At least they are not on TikTok (which I block at the router), Facebook (the site, one of them uses Instagram and as such still remains within Zuck's clutches) or Twitter.
- oefnak 5y ago
  If you ever find out how to explain it to them, let me know.
JackC 5y ago
> people born after 2000 are so used to getting filmed and photographed everywhere that they don't have such reservations It's more complicated than not having reservations -- younger people share more online but are also more likely to take steps to protect their privacy: https://www.vox.com/2016/11/2/13390458/young-millennials-oversharing-security-digital-online-privacy https://www.vox.com/2016/11/2/13390458/young-millennials-ove... You can find what you want in the data, but my personal read is everyone does what they have to do. Older people have the option of just opting out without losing access to their community (how much social capital are you losing by not checking out that link?), while younger people have to engage in order to be part of their community, so they get more exposure to what can go wrong and take more risks but also more steps to protect themselves. If you're engaging with people of a different generation I'd strongly encourage taking this approach -- if I assume you're making smart choices about dealing with the social system you're in, rather than doing something dumb, what does that tell me about the situation you're facing and what kind of support you might need?
- rchaud 5y ago
  That article is from November 2016. The conversations about privacy and personal information have evolved massively since then. Cambridge Analytica, Facebook's $5bn FTC fine, and TikTok's takeover of youth social media were all yet to happen. This quoted bit below says it all: "But when I poke through 10 years of Facebook, I see something else altogether. We’re not an oversharing generation. We’re a generation that’s over sharing — done, finished, kaput, through. … All the chatty candor and hyperactive disclosure of our early years on Facebook now look like just another kind of youthful indulgence." All this means is that this person has 'aged out' of their FB phase. What about the hundreds of millions of younger people still on IG, Snap and TikTok?
depressedpanda 5y ago
I'm not exactly young, but I gave the site temporary access without thinking much about it; I know the tech and I'm confident my browser will revoke access as soon as I close the tab. I realize now, that I did not consider what the site might do while it has access. Maybe a video or pictures of me blinking are uploaded to some shady server somewhere now.
- user48a 5y ago
  That was exactly my concern: Somehow I'm just not comfortable with the thought of them having these pictures of me... kind of silly but still...
  - TchoBeer 5y ago
    What are you afraid of them doing with that?
  - ALittleLight 5y ago
    Security cameras and such record you all the time though out in public. I presume there are many random servers containing video where you are blinking.
- yreg 5y ago
  I'm happy to send a gif of me blinking to any attacker who wants it.
- 0xdeadb00f 5y ago
  Same realisation here. This is the only time I have ever granted camera access to a website. And even though this is a legitimate project, I feel as if they can take advantage of that access.
tvirosi 5y ago
This is why I let so many cool eye tracking ideas left on the shelf. I can't imagine many people will be ok with using it - even though there's so many cool use cases - simply because they'll be paranoid. Not sure how to start to build all the cool futuristic apps for iris tracking now that it's a solved problem.
r-k-jo 5y ago
No worries, it seems like using tensorflow.js and running locally on your browser. https://github.com/tensorflow/tfjs-models/tree/master/face-landmarks-detection https://github.com/tensorflow/tfjs-models/tree/master/face-l... here is as a live demo from google https://storage.googleapis.com/tfjs-models/demos/face-landmarks-detection/index.html https://storage.googleapis.com/tfjs-models/demos/face-landma...
zepearl 5y ago
Same here (born in the 70') - I went as far as allowing temporary access by the page, but then concerning the browser itself (Opera on Android in my case) I had only the options to "Allow" or "Deny" access to the camera => I wanted to try this out, but in the end I just couldn't => had to decline :(
- fouc 5y ago
  It would be nice if the browser had finer-grained controls, i.e. if you could monitor the amount of data the website attempts to send.. possibly even mock the webcam first and send a fake video to see what happens.

Eighth 5y ago

If you like this, I recommend the game 'Before Your Eyes' where the game progresses each time you blink. Beware, it will take your emotions on a hell of a ride.

giomasce 5y ago
Nice!

progforlyfe 5y ago

HN hug of death already

fufite 5y ago
Not exactly, apparently the website committed suicide to avoid the HN hug of death.

doovd 5y ago

Just keep changing the design on a 0.25s timer and you will satisfy the objective without fancy image processing :p

dylan604 5y ago
Who blinks four times a second?

shaneprrlt 5y ago

Try winking at it. Hold one eye open and one eye closed and it will cycle through all the changes.

Bancakes 5y ago
Excellent QA
- shaneprrlt 5y ago
  Ha!
dgb23 5y ago
This is hacker news after all!
twox2 5y ago
I just posted this, thought it was funny too. It also works if you hold your finger or an object over your eye.
quickthrower2 5y ago
That could be used as a new tinder cue
PebblesRox 5y ago
It should do a sudden scary image if you wink at it for too long.

stavros 5y ago

I once figured that you don't need light in your house if your eyes are closed, and I hooked up blink detection to my smart bulbs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzcdopwq7ok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzcdopwq7ok It actually worked really well, I couldn't perceive the room being dark at all.

nathanvanfleet 5y ago
A very forever-alone project
adrianN 5y ago
This is the first application of smart bulbs that makes me want them in my house. Congratulations.
- uyt 5y ago
  It's fun and all but is it really practical? If you have more than two people in a room, it should turn off only when both are blinking at the same time, which should basically be never?
  - Santosh83 5y ago
    Not to mention it will kill the lifetime of the bulb.
    - kenniskrag 5y ago
      also with LED? I though you reduce the light by letting then blink really fast.
      - pmx 5y ago
        Variable brightness with an LED is achieved using pulse width modulation, turning it on and off REALLY fast. So no, this won't have any effect on the life of the LED :)
    - 5y ago

lnyng 5y ago

I almost feel that the camera is blinking with this guy.

somethingsome 5y ago

It's very fun if you blink only with one eye :)

twox2 5y ago

This thing gets pretty confused if you close one eye and have the other eye open :)

DonHopkins 5y ago

This would be useful on https://bikeshed.com https://bikeshed.com , instead of having to manually refresh the page!

ivrrimum 5y ago

Hugged to death

donatj 5y ago

I had to take my glasses off to get it to work, and then I couldn't read it. Boo.

stronglikedan 5y ago
Me too, but at least there's a lot of layout and color changes that don't require reading.
baud147258 5y ago
thank you for this, I didn't get why it wasn't working in my case

liang409 5y ago

How hard would it be for someone with no technical background to create something like this? What would a list of tools needed look like?

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

wldcordeiro 5y ago

The trick didn't work with my glasses on but it's a cool setup.

tinus_hn 5y ago

The site is dead. Hope they didn’t miss the opportunity to reference Doctor Who’s weeping angels

anigbrowl 5y ago

Cool demo but I worry blink detection is going to get seriously abused by everyone from phishers to marketers to torturers. And no, the solution is not as simple as 'turn off your webcam' or 'wear shades'.

amne 5y ago

sooo .. is this website made by the same guy who thought it was fine to take snapshots of people staring at apple computers? if this is him then he's a genius.

eplanit 5y ago

I'm curious and it seems cool, but no I'm no opening up my camera to some random website. As an option, it'd be nice if it offered a simple button to trigger the change instead of using the camera.

mbfg 5y ago

hmmm. i don't get the joke.

simonw 5y ago

It's using https://www.npmjs.com/package/@tensorflow-models/face-landmarks-detection https://www.npmjs.com/package/@tensorflow-models/face-landma... Here's a fun demo of that library that shows a wireframe of your face: https://storage.googleapis.com/tfjs-models/demos/face-landmarks-detection/index.html https://storage.googleapis.com/tfjs-models/demos/face-landma...

purplecats 5y ago

I want to use this or google's module to build an app (ideally node.js) that can track whether im looking at the screen or not and do something about it. the use case is that I only really consume media (movies) etc when I'm eating so I can multitask. However I hate pausing and unpausing while grabbing my spoonfuls vs chewing and watching.

Teknoman117 5y ago

My poor brain...

jchw 5y ago

Interesting. Unfortunately, for some reason, for me it just cycles through all of the changes in quick succession. I guess it does not like my eyes.

nazrulmum10 5y ago

Sometimes it is nice to collect postcards. It’s a nice way to collect artworks and to post them to a postcard gallery. It is important to collect postcards with artworks from different sources. If you collect artworks from different sources, then it can be a gallery of artwork. You can collect postcards with the artwork from online applications. You can collect postcards with different artworks, but you have to choose your artworks from a certain source. This is a different approach. I am trying to collect artwork from different sources, such as different online applications. You can choose artworks from different sources. That’s why you have to take care of your artworks. If you collect artworks from one source, then you have to make the artworks you collect public.

utf_8x 5y ago

Doesn’t work in Firefox on iOS. It asks for camera access and says it’s running but nothing ever happens…

monolesan 5y ago

If you want to know how it works, check out code of this project: https://glitch.com/edit/#!/realless https://glitch.com/edit/#!/realless