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Show HN: A weird thing that detects your pulse from the browser video
- amagasaki 8mo agoCould be interesting, but allowing the webcam crashes my browser.Repeatedly macOS 15.7.1 (24G231) Brave 1.87.186 (Official Build) (arm64) Chromium: 145.0.7632.45
- serious_angel 8mo agoIn the minified source code, we may see, it uses: ``` try { const l=await navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia({audio:!1,video:{facingMode:"user"}}); /* ... */ } catch { this.showError("Could not access webcam. Please check permissions.") } ``` There are alternatives to verify mediaDevices support as https://addpipe.com/getusermedia-examples/ https://addpipe.com/getusermedia-examples/
- echoangle 8mo agoBut even a missing check shouldn’t be able to crash the browser.
- jeroenhd 8mo agoFirefox throws a "this tab is slowing down your browser" warning, but it doesn't crash. Chromium works for me, though.
- gumboshoes 8mo agoWorked for me on Android. Love the simplicity.
- hluska 8mo agoI would prefer some kind of privacy statement or even some kind of explanation about what is going on before I just randomly turn my webcam on. This might be great and I’m proud of you for launching but I don’t do things like that. Heck, videos can make a person’s heart race - I had my first attack at 39 and that’s a hell of a lot of risk.
- serious_angel 8mo agoI haven't dug deeper due to time availability, but for the same sake of privacy, I've found: 1. `/api/event` endpoint mentioned in the `/stats/script.js` file; 2. There's `/parties/lobby/main/telemetry` in a minified JavaScript chunk asset; 3. There's VitalLens mentioned, and there's an error string in the same asset: "A valid API key or proxy URL is required to use VitalLens. If you signed up recently, please try again in a minute to allow your API key to become active. Otherwise, head to https://www.rouast.com/api https://www.rouast.com/api to get a free API key."
- hluska 8mo agoThis is really kind of you - I appreciate this. Thank you for taking that time!
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- functionmouse 8mo agoI feel like the primary use case for such a technology is manipulating and profiling people over video chat, maybe even autonomously. Hiring managers, HR, landlords, and police are obvious customers. The response I anticipate will be "But this will help doctors over telehealth and stuff!" - Please see https://calebhearth.com/dont-get-distracted https://calebhearth.com/dont-get-distracted
- metalcrow 8mo agoCan you explain how https://calebhearth.com/dont-get-distracted https://calebhearth.com/dont-get-distracted applies to the potential response you described? I don't get it.
- croes 8mo agoThey will weaponize it.
- godelski 8mo ago[flagged]
- collingreen 8mo agoThis feels overly patronizing
- godelski 8mo agoProbably because I repeated "don't get distracted". But if you read the article then I think it'll take on a different context, as I'm mimicking the author, including their short paragraph style.
- user2722 8mo agoI get really annoyed at those articles which advocate the developer to sacrifice themselves towards a better future. Companies externalize costs. I refuse to be the one, as an individual, with the burden of fixing society ills to my own detriment. Tell me to get into politics, join an association, whatever. Now, as an individual, lose money for morals? No thank you. I may, and probably will, do it -- but don't expect I do it. I have no business, in a society with less and less public services, to harm myself and my family for refusing to do well paying jobs. I will externalise those costs as much as possible. I will bring awareness. I will write letters. But don't ask me to leave a well paying job -- that's someone else job to fix.
- twodave 8mo agoIt’s not very accurate. Maybe because of the camera fidelity. It was about 10bpm lower than actual for me. Seems to operate off of subtle motions caused by pulse. It was even worse at detecting breathing.
- brynnbee 8mo agoIt showed my BPM at nearly half of what it really was
- SCdF 8mo agoYeah, I couldn't be bothered getting my accurate chest strap out, but my watch (which is generally very close to the strap) was anywhere from 10-20 off what it was reporting. This is sitting down, 30min after a run.
- regularfry 8mo agoIt failed to detect me at all.
- ninalanyon 8mo agoSame here.
- abakker 8mo agoIt registered in the low 40s for me, while my watch was saying 72-75. I guess YMMV
- jmusall 8mo agoMay be related: Explanation of motion and color amplification in video by Steve Mould https://youtube.com/watch?v=rEoc0YoALt0 https://youtube.com/watch?v=rEoc0YoALt0 He even shows pulse detection (around 8:30).
- trothamel 8mo agoThere's a version of this built into the Google Fit application for Android.
- sxp 8mo agoHow does it work? Is it https://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/evm/ https://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/evm/? I see the FAQ about VitalLens, but I couldn't find technical details. It's super cool. Thanks for sharing. I want to build a biofeedback app for meditation and this looks like a good platform to use.
- serious_angel 8mo agoPlease consider checking out comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47293662 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47293662
- whilenot-dev 8mo agoWhat do you mean? Eulerian-Video-Magnification could be (and probably is) the underlying algorithm in the VitalLens API.
- sxp 8mo agoI found more details at https://www.rouast.com/blog/articles/vitallens-take-a-vital-selfie/ https://www.rouast.com/blog/articles/vitallens-take-a-vital-... and https://arxiv.org/pdf/2312.06892 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2312.06892. It's still vague beyond saying they trained an AI: "VitalLens is trained on the PROSIT and Vital Videos Africa dataset...The time-synchronized sensor array used for PROSIT consists of a video camera, electrocardiogram (ECG), pulse oximetry, blood pressure monitor, and an ambient light sensor. "
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- smusamashah 8mo agoI made my own heart rate app (using gemini at first and then Claude for lots of further edits). https://xosh.org/heart-rate/ https://xosh.org/heart-rate/ https://github.com/SMUsamaShah/heart-rate https://github.com/SMUsamaShah/heart-rate it's all offline. UI needs more work but me and my wife are the only users therefore it doesn't matter that much. At one point I added the same EVM based heart rate detection but that requires sitting very still. I use it on my phone mainly therefore the common finger method is easiest one to use.
- exikyut 8mo agoThis is interesting (and the UI looks very nice), but it's defaulting to my Mate 20 Pro's front-facing camera FWIW.
- Levelupcarrent 8mo ago[dead]
- _Microft 8mo agoYou as reader might also be interested in this: https://hbenbel.github.io/blog/evm/ https://hbenbel.github.io/blog/evm/
- thePhytochemist 8mo agoLove the attempt, but after giving it a good image and letting it run for a while it's totally off. I measure my heartbeat at 100 bpm and it's reading around 50. I see some cool looking UI stuff but the actual measurement isn't accurate.