

Show HN: HandsFread - Hands Free Page Scroller Bookmarklet - yobriefcase
http://handsfread.herokuapp.com/

======
jawns
I've been looking for hands-free (and preferably silent) ways to control my
laptop for the same reason as the OP: When I'm holding our sleeping baby, I
don't want to risk disturbing him by typing/mousing or by issuing voice
commands.

This, as the OP says, is a pretty basic approach -- but it's a start. It's
probably best used for longer passages, where the amount of text in the
viewport is pretty consistent.

What I'm really looking forward to is when eye-tracking apps get good enough
and cheap enough that a browser will automatically scroll based on your eye
movements. Add in a couple of other commands -- maybe wink to click, cross
your eyes to switch tabs -- and you could do some decent browsing.

Then you'd just need a lip-reading app so you can mouth words and have them
converted to text!

~~~
yobriefcase
Let see how we could improve this. Browser Extension/Plugin with a site
whitelist. When you browse to the site and there is significant content below
the fold you get a tiny popup informing you that scrolling will start in X
seconds unless you hit cancel (or perhaps just move the mouse).

All you would have to do is browse to the site (I imagine, ReadItLater,
Readability etc. to be typical sites people would use this extension with).

Just a though.

------
yobriefcase
Very basic evening project I threw together. Currently not supported in many
mobile browsers but desktop ones appear to work as expected (no promises).

Came into existence because I feed my son at around 3AM and scrolling all the
time is a bit of a pain. So I just set this up and let it scroll for me.

Written in Play 2 (Scala) but it's mostly static HTML and JavaScript so thats
largely irrelevant.

~~~
radagaisus
Constant scrolling feels awful. It if would just jump ahead every few seconds
or so it will be less painful.

~~~
yobriefcase
OK there are 2 values you can adjust - the interval (how many ms before it
attempts to scroll again) and the increment (how many px's it will jump). You
can adjust to your taste if you prefer something else.

I was worried about scrolling on different browsers looking a bit rough - it's
something i'll need to tackle soon.

------
mva
Can't you make a button which you drag / drop on the bookmarks bar in stead of
all the steps you've written?

~~~
yobriefcase
OK the bookmarklet is being pushed as we speak should be available in a minute
or so. Thanks for the feedback.

------
danoprey
What's the advantage over using the middle mouse button?

~~~
yobriefcase
Good point. I haven't used a mouse with a middle button or a mouse come to
think of it) in a long time. Difference? None. Another option for the
mouseless people, like me, is always good right?

