5 ms·

LensLeech: Touch a camera to control your devices

150 points by GistNoesis 3y ago

GistNoesis 3y ago
The video is well worth its long time and is very dense in content. You will likely enjoy it if you are a fan of BreakingTaps, or a maker. Original product, and techniques. Deserves a lot more view than it has.
- volzo 3y ago
  Much appreciated! (Indeed, I am a regular viewer of BreakingTabs and do enjoy it quite a lot myself)
mrandish 3y ago
This technique might yield a highly expressive MIDI or MPE controller. Silicone is already used in performance instruments as pressure and velocity-sensitive drum pads. MIDI Polyphonic Expression instruments can use five or more separate axes of control. Complex motions like bend, twist, nudge, wiggle, etc could be mapped to these axes.
- john-radio 3y ago
  This is a blatant attempt at recruiting the obvious engineering talents of the OP to the cause of building guitar pedals and synthesizers, which I applaud.
generj 3y ago
What an incredible write up. Detailed without being boring or glossing over too much of the technique.
- mrwizrd 3y ago
  I concur, it really is excellent. I wish I knew the total time investment it took to do and document all of this. It must have taken a very long time, not to mention the proofreading!
  - volzo 3y ago
    Most work was done as a part of my day job. It took about half a year. Significant amount of that time is for writing an academic paper. Same content as the blog post, 10x less readers, 10x more time...
- pimlottc 3y ago
  I thought it took way too long to get to the point — why would you want to make a touchable lens? How would you use it? What would it even look like in practice? Background is great but first give me a reason to get excited about the actual device.
  - prox 3y ago
    Maybe like a super versatile trackball? Just guessing here.
  - robotsarecool 3y ago
    Id imagine a flexible skin added to the outside of a robot containing lightpipes or fiberoptics coming back to a camera. This lets you detect collision on the outside of a robot at 30-60fps extremely cheaply. Cheap passive collision detection is missing from robotics and this is a step in the right direction. With multimaterial 3d printing you can make a wide variety of different shells for robotics which can automatically detect failures, collisions, damage and stress for the cost of the plastic and a camera sensor.
  - mhb 3y ago
    6 DOF input device using just a camera and blob of silicone? So <~$1?
    - volzo 3y ago
      Solely the cost the materials is about 2 USD when bought in small quantities, but I am using the least expensive clear silicone. Buying the expensive stuff (Smooth-On's Solaris for example) is about 2x-3x the cost but available in much larger quantities.
      - extraduder_ire 3y ago
        I look forward to someone cloning this, driving down the cost, and putting it on crowsupply/sparkfun or somewhere. (I mean that as praise, not malice.) I assume decent results can be achieved with a super-cheap camera module, if the optics are a good match to the silicone part.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
apienx 3y ago
Awesome write-up and effort for a PoC! The problem it’s solving, however, is not immediately obvious. So here’s the relevant (albeit not-so-convincing) passage: > “but direct, vision-based interaction with soft silicone blobs embedded in a soft robot’s body may be an interesting option.”
- alanbernstein 3y ago
  The action cam application is truly practical. I have one with three unlabeled buttons, and it's quite a pain to do anything directly with the device UI.
- volzo 3y ago
  Thanks! About the problem: classic academic paper issue. Needs to be framed in a way so it might work for a paper. A lot of the original idea is shaved off, does not work, is not straightforward to explain, etc. and in the end it looks a bit like a solution without a problem. Original intention was to present a touch-sensitive lens cap for tangible interaction with (old) non-touchscreen devices. Soft robotics is not my research field, but they might be the ones that could use something similar.
amelius 3y ago
Functionally it seems a bit like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick (where space is not really an issue) Of course the rotation feature is cool.
wkat4242 3y ago
Nice idea in principle but I always try to avoid touching the cam to avoid getting it greasy. Which is the main reason I'm so happy with front fingerprint scanners, on my S8 it happened a lot that I touched the cam which was right beside the scanner. Really cool idea though. Some brands do the same with the fingerprint scanner which react to swipes.
theage 3y ago
now those of us with up-the-nose cams on our laptops can install an oversize thinkpad nipple there.
qz_kb 3y ago
reminds me of GelSight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKoKVA4Vcu0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKoKVA4Vcu0

150 points by GistNoesis 3y ago

The video is well worth its long time and is very dense in content. You will likely enjoy it if you are a fan of BreakingTaps, or a maker. Original product, and techniques. Deserves a lot more view than it has.

volzo 3y ago
Much appreciated! (Indeed, I am a regular viewer of BreakingTabs and do enjoy it quite a lot myself)

mrandish 3y ago

This technique might yield a highly expressive MIDI or MPE controller. Silicone is already used in performance instruments as pressure and velocity-sensitive drum pads. MIDI Polyphonic Expression instruments can use five or more separate axes of control. Complex motions like bend, twist, nudge, wiggle, etc could be mapped to these axes.

john-radio 3y ago
This is a blatant attempt at recruiting the obvious engineering talents of the OP to the cause of building guitar pedals and synthesizers, which I applaud.

generj 3y ago

What an incredible write up. Detailed without being boring or glossing over too much of the technique.

mrwizrd 3y ago
I concur, it really is excellent. I wish I knew the total time investment it took to do and document all of this. It must have taken a very long time, not to mention the proofreading!
- volzo 3y ago
  Most work was done as a part of my day job. It took about half a year. Significant amount of that time is for writing an academic paper. Same content as the blog post, 10x less readers, 10x more time...
pimlottc 3y ago
I thought it took way too long to get to the point — why would you want to make a touchable lens? How would you use it? What would it even look like in practice? Background is great but first give me a reason to get excited about the actual device.
- prox 3y ago
  Maybe like a super versatile trackball? Just guessing here.
- robotsarecool 3y ago
  Id imagine a flexible skin added to the outside of a robot containing lightpipes or fiberoptics coming back to a camera. This lets you detect collision on the outside of a robot at 30-60fps extremely cheaply. Cheap passive collision detection is missing from robotics and this is a step in the right direction. With multimaterial 3d printing you can make a wide variety of different shells for robotics which can automatically detect failures, collisions, damage and stress for the cost of the plastic and a camera sensor.
- mhb 3y ago
  6 DOF input device using just a camera and blob of silicone? So <~$1?
  - volzo 3y ago
    Solely the cost the materials is about 2 USD when bought in small quantities, but I am using the least expensive clear silicone. Buying the expensive stuff (Smooth-On's Solaris for example) is about 2x-3x the cost but available in much larger quantities.
    - extraduder_ire 3y ago
      I look forward to someone cloning this, driving down the cost, and putting it on crowsupply/sparkfun or somewhere. (I mean that as praise, not malice.) I assume decent results can be achieved with a super-cheap camera module, if the optics are a good match to the silicone part.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

apienx 3y ago

Awesome write-up and effort for a PoC! The problem it’s solving, however, is not immediately obvious. So here’s the relevant (albeit not-so-convincing) passage: > “but direct, vision-based interaction with soft silicone blobs embedded in a soft robot’s body may be an interesting option.”

alanbernstein 3y ago
The action cam application is truly practical. I have one with three unlabeled buttons, and it's quite a pain to do anything directly with the device UI.
volzo 3y ago
Thanks! About the problem: classic academic paper issue. Needs to be framed in a way so it might work for a paper. A lot of the original idea is shaved off, does not work, is not straightforward to explain, etc. and in the end it looks a bit like a solution without a problem. Original intention was to present a touch-sensitive lens cap for tangible interaction with (old) non-touchscreen devices. Soft robotics is not my research field, but they might be the ones that could use something similar.

amelius 3y ago

Functionally it seems a bit like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick (where space is not really an issue) Of course the rotation feature is cool.

wkat4242 3y ago

Nice idea in principle but I always try to avoid touching the cam to avoid getting it greasy. Which is the main reason I'm so happy with front fingerprint scanners, on my S8 it happened a lot that I touched the cam which was right beside the scanner. Really cool idea though. Some brands do the same with the fingerprint scanner which react to swipes.

theage 3y ago

now those of us with up-the-nose cams on our laptops can install an oversize thinkpad nipple there.

qz_kb 3y ago

reminds me of GelSight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKoKVA4Vcu0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKoKVA4Vcu0