

Flutter (YC W12): The Startup That Wants To Put The World’s Webcams To Good Use - diggan
http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/26/flutter-app-webcam-y-combinator/

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gyardley
_Say you’re sitting at your laptop, listening to music while responding to
emails, writing code, or reading blogs. Then your phone rings, and the typical
scramble ensues: You minimize your browser, maximize your music app, and
search frantically for the pause button or volume control — all, hopefully,
before you miss the call. Sound familiar?_

Wait, am I really the only guy who just hits the mute button?

Cool technology, but that's a strange use case.

~~~
georgieporgie
I don't have a mute button. Actually, my laptop has one, but I'm usually on an
external monitor with the laptop lid closed, so I couldn't get to it anyway.

There's always the speaker menu that I can pop up and select mute, but it's
unnatural enough that my brain goes into panic mode when it needs to shut off
the sound quickly. I'd probably just slap the power switch on my external amp.

So, this strikes me as a much, much more natural user interface than what I
assume _most_ people have on their existing system.

~~~
rohitnair
I have a similar setup (external monitor with the Macbook lid closed) But in
my case (and possibly for other Macbook users with the same setup), closing
the lid makes the webcam inaccessible as well.

~~~
georgieporgie
Ha, that's a rather obvious thought that didn't even occur to me. I have a
Logitech webcam on my external monitor, too, though, so it wouldn't be a
problem. :-)

Maybe if I primarily used a laptop directly, I'd have a different opinion, but
having played with alternative input devices (e.g. Bluetooth remote control),
I really like having a unified method of muting all my media, and in a
familiar form factor. Since holding my hand up seems very natural and familiar
to me, I imagine that I'd like this hand-recognition system.

~~~
mehuln
Hi Guys, we just hated using our keyboards and mouse to control music.
Especially, when it's in the background or when we're few feet away. We're
just in alpha and launched one gesture - we hope to add many more soon. Thanks
for your kind comments and feedback!

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freshhawk
"as evidenced by the 11,000 people who downloaded Flutter in the first 11 days
it was available, and the 400,000 gestures the app logged from those users ...
"

Anyone have it installed? It would be cool to get a review of how tolerant the
gesture recognition is.

edit: from watching the whole embedded video it's an interesting kind of
"gesture" they look for based on the signature of your hand rather than the
movement. Really interesting.

Also: Can you opt out of having data generated from a webcam pointed at you at
all times uploaded to some dudes server?

Now that we're swinging back to local/native apps are we (the people who make
the apps) really going to give up the data we get from the web model? Or are
we going to normalize spyware completely to keep our dashboards full of
metrics?

Boy, if people got pissed over the pickpocketing of contact details by an app
they installed on their phone imagine how fun the rhetoric will be when
someone starts "data mining to increase user engagement and product
penetration" with webcam data.

~~~
mehuln
Great points and feedback for us. The app works locally on you machine, so no
video data is leaving your laptop. Nothing to opt-out when we're not
collecting anything.

It is only available for Mac right now. We will have that info on our site as
soon as we can. Thanks!

~~~
freshhawk
That's great. Also what I assumed at first, the gesture count triggered some
alarm bells I guess.

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ookblah
I think it looks pretty cool, but I feel like outside of maybe some of the
webcam games and at home applications they demo'd ...it might suffer from the
"social awkwardness" (I don't know a better word) that comes w/ new stuff like
this.

Siri was about my limit. I wouldn't be caught using these gestures in a public
place, kind of like trying to take photos with your ipad.

~~~
mehuln
We hope that at some point gestures become small enough that you don't have to
feel socially awkward. At some point, in future, we will interact with
machines just like we do it with other humans - through voice, touch,
vision... we hope to enable vision, and if it is natural then it is not
socially awkward. We love your feedback. thanks!

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MrEnigma
Skype/iChat video automatically mute my music.

The big thing for me will be trying to get past the webcam light being on all
the time, and could something be recording?

They should really come up with filters that obfuscate people to some extent,
but still pick up motion, then this would feel better...

~~~
webjprgm
Yup, I agree. Also it would add extra CPU usage at all times. Of course, you
could make it like Siri in that you have to press some key to turn it on. That
solves all 3 problems, though I wonder if the webcam activates fast enough for
the intended immediately-stop-the-music use.

~~~
mehuln
Great point. CPU usage was a concern for us, that is why we spent months
optimizing it. It right now uses on average ~5% of your CPU. (20-30% when you
do a gesture, 2-3% otherwise). Please try the app if you have Mac and send us
more feedback, we would love to hear from you!

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webjprgm
That's basically Kinect for Windows, but using your built-in webcam, right?
And targeting gesture controls for apps, vs. games.

I can't find system requirements on their web page, but the demo video shows
it running on a Mac.

~~~
mehuln
Yes, again, it is for Mac, and we are sorry it's not more obvious. We will add
system requirements page as soon as possible.

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linker3000
Why not an app tied to the mic that recognises your ringtone and mutes
everything? That means I reach for my phone rather than have to make any
gestures first.

~~~
webjprgm
Another practical use of the technology in Shazam! Just gotta make it fast
enough, which you probably could considering you just check it against one
song vs. every song.

